Questions about Solve, codes and rounds

Sortround places as many people as it can in their first choice, then their second, inside room sizes and your locks, using the rule on the How it works page. Equal cases are settled by the event's lottery number. In order, it looks for the most people placed, then the fewest people moved from a place they were told, then the most first choices, then second choices and so on, then the fewest people in a session they did not rank.

No. The time someone ranked does not change their chances: Solve looks at everyone at once, and if giving one person their second choice lets another keep their only choice, it does that. Early and late rankings count the same while choices are open.

Each event gets a random number, shown as 8 characters on the Solve tab. It puts the people in one fixed order that is used only to settle equal cases: the person earlier in it is served first. The same rankings and the same number always give the same placements. New lottery picks a new number and changes nothing else.

Yes. On the Solve tab, place the person by hand and tick Lock. A locked place is kept by every solve and takes one of the session's seats before anyone else is placed.

Solve stops and says which session, for example "Robotics has 31 fixed places and capacity 30". Raise the capacity or remove a lock, then solve again. People you have published count as fixed too, unless you allow moves.

Add them, or let them join by the link in adult mode, and they rank like everyone else. Solve again: seats that are still free go to them by the same rule, and nobody already told is moved. If there is no free seat they show as No place yet, for you to place by hand.

Not by default: once you publish a round, a re-solve keeps every published place. If you tick Allow moves, Solve may move people already told, as few as it can, and lists them; you then publish again to tell them. Placing someone by hand never publishes it by itself.

The event sets how many choices people must rank, from 1 up to the number asked. If that one session is full, the person is placed in a session they did not rank when you leave that switched on, or listed as No place yet when you switch it off. The fairness view counts them as Unranked or No place.

Yes, with more than one round. Give it the same title in each round. Rounds are solved in order, and nobody is placed in a workshop they already hold in an earlier round, so each person meets it once.

No. They open the event link, enter the 8 character code from their slip (or, in adult mode with self-join on, join with their name and get a code shown once), and rank. They never sign in and are never emailed. After you publish, the same link and code show them their own place, and nobody else's.

An event, its sessions, names, rankings and placements are kept until 180 days after its last solve, or 180 days after it was made if it was never solved. Then it moves to Deleted with a notice on your events page, and is removed for good 7 days later unless you restore it. You can delete an event, or your whole account, at any time.

Yes. On the People tab, paste one name a line, or CSV with a name and a group column. Each person gets a code, shown once, and you can download the code slips right away. Lost codes are replaced one at a time, or all at once with new slips.

A passkey is the organiser's sign in, made by a phone or computer instead of a password. The device keeps a private key behind a fingerprint, face or screen lock; the site keeps only the public half. You can add up to 10 passkeys, and a recovery code shown once at sign up adds a new one if you lose every device.

A code works only together with the event link it was made for. Codes are 8 characters, the server keeps only a scrambled form of them, and an address that tries 10 codes that do not match waits an hour. A person's page ends when they press Finished, closes with the browser, and ends after 30 minutes without use, so the next person on a shared device starts at the code box. In adult events, someone on their own phone can tick Keep me signed in on this device.

The server could not answer just then, usually because a shared daily allowance ran out. Nothing was changed. On the people's page, a list waiting to send is kept in that browser tab where it can be, and sent when you try again.

Yes. When your browser offers to install the site, an Install entry appears in the menu. On an iPhone or iPad, open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Pages you have opened work offline; Solve and saving need a connection.

Sortround is not affiliated with any event platform, school, conference or camp.