cs50 pset5 speller check function too slow

Question

When I run my speller program, everything compiles fine and the results are accurate, but the check function seems to be way too slow (takes ~7seconds) compared to staff's version(~0.2 seconds) and so my program did not qualify for the Big Board. All other functions run as fast as the staff's. If anyone notices anything that is causing this delay, I would love to hear your thoughts. thank you!

Here are my results vs. the staff solution's :

Mine:

WORDS IN DICTIONARY:  143091
WORDS IN TEXT:        17756
TIME IN load:         0.02
TIME IN check:        7.00
TIME IN size:         0.00
TIME IN unload:       0.00
TIME IN TOTAL:        7.02

Staff's:

WORDS IN DICTIONARY:  143091
WORDS IN TEXT:        17756
TIME IN load:         0.02
TIME IN check:        0.01
TIME IN size:         0.00
TIME IN unload:       0.01
TIME IN TOTAL:        0.05

And here is my check function:

bool check(const char *word)
{
    //hash word to obtain index for that word
    int index = hash(word);

    //access linked list at the index in the hash table and
    //traverse linked list, looking for the word
    node *cursor = table[index];
    while (cursor != NULL)
    {
        if (strcasecmp(word, cursor->word) == 0)
        {
            return true;
        }

        cursor = cursor->next;
    }
    return false;
}

Answer 1

I used the same check function on aca.txt which was a big file, and the large dictionary, my implementation got 0.52 seconds. The reason was that I worked on my hash function mostly, assuming a is 1, aa should be 27 (1*26+1), think of it as a base 16 for all letters, this hashing creates smaller linked lists therefore less iterations for each of em.

Answer 2

I'm going to suggest that you go to this web site and look at the times posted by "competitors". ;-)

https://speller.cs50.net/cs50/problems/2020/x/challenges/speller

At 7 seconds, that's a pretty good run time. You're now asking everyone to give you hints on how to set record speeds and place higher on the challenge board!!!! I'm not sure that's a fair thing to do! :-D

Now, if it's taking 7 seconds for the small file as input, that's another story.

Anyways, that's my thought on it. Good luck improving your speed!!!! ;-)

[EDIT] But I will give you these hints. Increased performance usually comes from tuning load and hash, as well as check, not just check.