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Completing an Assignment

Once an assignment has been released by your instructor, you’ll see it in the Assignments tab. A link to your GitHub repository for the assignment appears at the top of the assignment page. This repository is private, and only you and the course staff can see it. Your instructor may have provided starter code in that repository. Use this repository to complete the assignment.

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Viewing Submission Results

You’ll see a list of all the submissions you’ve made for the assignment. The flag icon indicates your active submission, which is the one that will eventually be graded. The Total Score column shows:

• Pending: Before grading is complete or released (may display a partial score based on autograder results)
• Actual score: Once your instructor has graded and released your results (e.g., “85/100”)

This lets you see your final grade as soon as it’s available, rather than waiting to check the gradebook separately. Every time you push changes to your repository, Pawtograder automatically runs your autograder. The submission page may show a preview of the grading rubric (if enabled by your instructor) and a summary of the autograder results.

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Viewing Submission Files

The Files tab shows the files that your instructor configured for the submission. You can view plaintext and markdown files directly in the browser, and download other file types. These pages also have a link to the specific GitHub commit that was used to create the submission, and a link to download that complete repository as a zip file. The file viewer uses efficient signed URLs for previewing images and binary files, ensuring smooth performance even when viewing multiple large files.

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File Previews

Pawtograder provides rich previews for different file types in your submission:

• Code files: Syntax-highlighted source code with line numbers and line-by-line commenting (.java, .py, .js, .cpp, configuration files like .json, .yaml, .xml, plain .txt, etc.)
• Markdown files (.md, .markdown): Rendered with full formatting including Mermaid diagrams, images (supporting relative paths to other submission files), tables, task lists, syntax-highlighted code blocks, and internal links. You can toggle between preview and source view.
• Images (.png, .jpg, .gif, etc.): Displayed inline at full resolution
• PDFs: Previewed directly in the browser
• Other binary files: Available for download with file size and type information displayed

You can submit binary files up to 15 MB per file, including images, PDFs, and other document types.

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Assignment Leaderboard

If your instructor has enabled the leaderboard feature for an assignment, you can view your ranking compared to other students. The leaderboard:

• Shows your ranking compared to other students in the course based on autograder results
• Updates automatically as new submissions are graded
• Can be configured by your instructor to be visible or hidden
• Is designed to be unobtrusive and only appears when enabled for specific assignments

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Error Pins

When your submission encounters an error during autograding, Pawtograder may display “Error Pins”: suggested discussion board posts that are relevant to your specific error. This feature helps you:

• Find solutions faster: See if other students encountered the same error and found solutions
• Access instructor guidance: View posts where instructors explained how to fix common errors
• Reduce wait times: Get help without needing to join the office hours queue
• Learn from peers: Understand different approaches to solving the same problem

Error pins appear automatically when the system detects that your error matches discussion posts that instructors have pinned or marked as relevant. Click on any suggested post to read the full discussion and potential solutions.

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Viewing Artifacts

Some assignments may include artifacts—generated outputs from your code such as reports, visualizations, or analysis results. If your submission includes artifacts and your instructor has configured them, you’ll see an Artifacts tab where you can view generated outputs. Pawtograder supports previewing several artifact formats:

• Plaintext files: Displayed with proper formatting
• Markdown files: Rendered with formatting and syntax highlighting
• HTML sites: Interactive preview of generated websites (from ZIP archives)

When grading your submission, instructors can reference specific artifacts in rubric checks. These artifact references appear as clickable links in the rubric sidebar, making it easy to navigate to the relevant output.