Records
The longest anyone has held.
The longest holds ever on Don't Close the Tab, and what it takes to last 24 hours on a phone that might ring at any moment.
Computers
| Position | Name | Time held | Calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2nd Provisional | 00:01:35 | 0 |
Phones
| Position | Name | Time held | Calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duke Provisional | 00:07:02 | 1 |
Extended Line
| Position | Name | Time held | Calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2nd Provisional | 00:01:48 | 1 |
What it takes
A call comes every three minutes on average, which is about 20 an hour, 160 over an eight-hour day and 480 over the full 24. Missing any one of them ends the run. That's what makes long holds hard, even though no single call is.
Suppose you reliably answer 99 calls in every 100. You'd feel you were doing very well, and you'd have about a one in five chance of lasting eight hours, and under a 1% chance of reaching 24. Answer 999 in every 1,000 and those chances rise to about 85% and 62%.
So the top of this board isn't about reactions. The answer windows are generous by the standards of a reaction test. It's about never once being in the wrong place, on the wrong app, with the volume down.
Why a time can tie
Nobody can hold for longer than 24 hours, so a perfect score is possible, and ties go to whoever finished first. Times in the all-time top 10 are marked provisional until they've been reviewed.