Why Skip Lists Are the Wrong Default for Matchmaking Queues: A Fenwick Tree Case Study

About this episode

This episode discusses why a Fenwick tree is a superior data structure for matchmaking queues compared to skip lists, highlighting performance and memory efficiency.

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/why-skip-lists-are-the-wrong-default-for-matchmaking-queues-a-fenwick-tree-case-study . Why a Fenwick tree beats a skip-list sorted set for matchmaking queues: ~35x faster queries, 3x less memory, reproducible Go benchmarks, and the caveats. Check more stories related to gaming at: https://hackernoon.com/c/gaming . You can also check exclusive content about #game-development , #fenwick-tree , #skip-lists , #matchmacking-algorithm , #game-server-architecture , #online-game-matchmaking , #game-matchmaking-algorithm , #hackernoon-top-story , and more. This story was written by: @ivan-fekete . Learn more about this writer by checking @ivan-fekete's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com . Matchmaking queues need three things from their core data structure: range-count queries as the skill window widens, global rank lookups for leaderboards, and constant add/remove updates. The usual default is a skip-list-backed sorted set, the kind Redis ships and OpenMatch used, but benchmarked on the same host, it runs about 35x slower on rank queries and 38x slower on range counts than a Fenwick…

Topics covered

• matchmaking queues
• Fenwick tree
• skip lists
• game development
• algorithm performance

Keywords

• Fenwick tree
• skip lists
• matchmaking algorithm
• game server architecture
• online game matchmaking

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HackerNoon, Redis, OpenMatch

More episodes of Gaming Tech Brief By HackerNoon

• Generating Procedural Marble Dice Textures With Simplex Noise and Domain Warping · June 3, 2026 · 6 min
• GT7 Daily Races: Some of My Unpopular Opinions · May 23, 2026 · 4 min
• 1Stop Translations Makes a Strong Entry into the Video Games Industry · May 22, 2026 · 6 min
• How to Understand the World Through Shaders · May 5, 2026 · 3 min
• Resident Evil’s Creepiest Trick Is Hiding In Plain Sight · May 2, 2026 · 8 min
• AV Access Introduces iDock B23: An Elite 8K Triple-Monitor KVM Docking Station Built for Gaming · May 1, 2026 · 6 min