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Course Library · Lesson 5 of 6
Digital · Guided lesson

Measure repeated timings with honest units

About 29 minutes · 7 reading + 22 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A before/after optimization record for a supplied local page, with resource-size accounting, reserved image dimensions, fewer blocking resources and repeatable browser measurements.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • Deliver an inventory and measurement table separating bytes, requests, timing, and content checks.
  • Produce a delivered-image byte comparison and a preserved-content visual check.
  • Verify aspect-ratio reservation and responsive fit, with an appropriate vector/raster source explanation.
  • Produce a before/after CSS request-count and preserved-style comparison.
  • Retain five actual samples, a correctly calculated median, and an explicit timed-block boundary.
  • Deliver a measured, preserve-content before/after packet with performed and unavailable checks separated.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The implementation or declared simulation follows the supplied contract and retains inspectable original inputs.
  • Normal, boundary and rejected cases are recorded with expected versus observed results.
  • The changed case has a correct explanation and does not rely on hidden state.
  • The project includes source, outputs, instructions and honest tool, privacy and verification limits.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Serve the supplied folder locally with python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1. Compare before.html and after.html. Both show the same original yellow-circle reference graphic and text; only resource packaging and image reservation change.

The idea

performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

Follow along

Measure repeated timings with honest units — original worked practice

performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

Serve the supplied folder locally with python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1. Compare before.html and after.html. Both show the same original yellow-circle reference graphic and text; only resource packaging and image reservation change.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Activate Measure sorting separately and inspect five samples and the displayed median.

    You should see: The page explicitly labels CPU sorting in milliseconds.

    performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Read timing.js: the timer surrounds numeric sorting of 10000 supplied deterministic values.

    You should see: The measured block is defined and repeatable.

    performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

  3. 3. Step 3

    Write the five samples in ascending order and choose the third as the median.

    You should see: The center of five ordered samples is identified.

    performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Repeat on the same page without claiming the smaller SVG caused a different CPU sort result.

    You should see: A timed-code record with the measurement boundary explained.

    performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation.

Now change one thing

Five sorted samples are 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 milliseconds. What is their median?

Your work

What to finish

Retain five actual samples, a correctly calculated median, and an explicit timed-block boundary.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Relabeling a CPU sort timer as whole-page loading or selecting only the fastest sample.

How can I tell I understand it?

Demonstrate the rule: performance.now measures elapsed milliseconds around the chosen code block. These sort timings are not page-load metrics, and repeated samples expose run-to-run variation. Use the supplied variant to distinguish a changed result from a broken implementation.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1What does the supplied performance.now interval time?
2Samples sorted as 2, 3, 5, 8, 12 ms have which median?
3Why retain multiple timing samples?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
5
Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

developer.mozilla.org — Performance
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

developer.mozilla.org — now
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

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