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The autograder comes with a user guide at http://ananke.cs.rice.edu/user_guide and FAQ at http://ananke.cs.rice.edu/faq, both of which are short but useful reading before jumping into using the autograder. Much of the information below is repeated on those pages.
The autograder is intended to facilitate rapid feedback on labs and assignments. Rather than completing an assignment and then waiting weeks to receive a grade and comments from the teaching staff, the autograder allows you to test your homework submission repeatedly (as many times as you like) in the same environment and on the same tests as the teaching staff will. It is our intention that prior to submission you should know exactly the grade you will receive on the programming portion of each assignment.
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