Gist Shows the *Proposed* implementation of how TopCoder assigns placement in a room.

updateCoderPlacement O(n*log2(n))

x = [];
n = 35000;

for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
  x.push({
    userName: Math.random(),
    totalPoints: Math.random() * 100000,
  })
}

time = new Date().getTime();

updateCoderPlacement = function (coders) {
  // sort on descending order by totalPoints
  coders.sort(function(a, b){
    // I don't think this is needed anymore: a.userName == b.userName
    if (a.totalPoints > b.totalPoints)
      return -1;
    if (a.totalPoints < b.totalPoints)
      return 1;
    return 0;
  });
  var roomPlace = 1; // coder's placement on the room.
  var lastScore = -1; // to "freeze" roomPlace if the score is the same.
  // assign the placement to each coder
  coders.forEach(function(coder, index){
    if (coder.totalPoints != lastScore) {
      roomPlace = index + 1;
      lastScore = coder.totalPoints;
    }
    coder.roomPlace = roomPlace;
  });
  /* we can revert to the original order here if that's required. */
};

updateCoderPlacement(x);

console.log('Total Time in updateCoderPlacement:', (new Date().getTime() - time) / 1000, 'seconds.');
// Total Time in updateCoderPlacement: 0.025 seconds.