# Unbearably slow testing times for Zig challenges since upgrade to Zig 0.17

**URL:** <https://forum.codecrafters.io/t/unbearably-slow-testing-times-for-zig-challenges-since-upgrade-to-zig-0-17/16345>\
**Category:** Platform\
**Created:** [October 27, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://forum.codecrafters.io/t/unbearably-slow-testing-times-for-zig-challenges-since-upgrade-to-zig-0-17/16345 "2026-10-27T00:14:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zaidbahssali](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/forum.codecrafters.io/zaidbahssali/32/28042_2.png) [@zaidbahssali](https://forum.codecrafters.io/u/zaidbahssali)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://forum.codecrafters.io/t/unbearably-slow-testing-times-for-zig-challenges-since-upgrade-to-zig-0-17/16345/1 "2026-10-27T00:14:08Z")

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Since the recent upgrade to Zig 0.17, all executions of the `codecrafters test` and `codecrafters submit` commands are consistently taking \> 1 minute to complete, even with no changes to the code-base between executions.

I’ve been enjoying this platform so far. However, this long of a wait between tests makes development velocity unbearably slow and it’s sapping my enthusiasm to continue the challenges I’ve already started with Zig.

With that said, my primary reason for this post is to ask the following questions:

1. Are other Zig users are facing the same issue? (My own testing indicates that the wait time is being spent waiting for a response from the CodeCrafter’s server.)
2. To ask whether the CodeCrafters’ core team is aware of this problem?
3. Am I able to contribute to a fix in any way and, if so, how?

My suspicion is that, following this update’s [changes to the Zig Build System’s architecture](https://ziglang.org/download/0.17.0/release-notes.html#Separate-the-Maker-Process-from-the-Configurer-Process), the build system’s `maker` process isn’t being cached effectively and is instead compiled anew on each invocation of the testing environment.

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**Author:** ![yeswanth](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/forum.codecrafters.io/yeswanth/32/27558_2.png) [@yeswanth](https://forum.codecrafters.io/u/yeswanth)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://forum.codecrafters.io/t/unbearably-slow-testing-times-for-zig-challenges-since-upgrade-to-zig-0-17/16345/3 "2026-10-28T13:17:13Z")

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Thanks for reporting this @zaidbahssali . Expect a fix in the next couple of days.

This is a complex fix which requires some changes to our test-runners, and our backend, as we will have to cache the zig build while building our container image.

Will rely on you to provide feedback once the fix is in place.