But if a SODA rejection is the worst thing happening in your life right now, perhaps your life is actually going quite well.

Join us in Vancouver this January and be part of the SODA party! We’re excited to bring you an amazing program.

Cheers!

In the picture (taken at 6:30 AM my time, and Friday afternoon for Kasper), we’re just happy to have completed this process. We understand that today may not be a happy day for everyone. Rejections never feel good.

The process was extremely competitive. Even some papers with 2x Accept and 1x Weak Accept reviews were rejected after discussion. Over 60% of papers with 1x Accept and 2x Weak Accepts were rejected. Under different circumstances, many 3x Week Accept papers could have made it into the program.

Kasper and I had countless Zoom meetings, endless WhatsApp chats, and phone calls (making us both a bit more addicted to our phones), from early mornings to late nights—navigating the 9-hour time difference between us. None of the decisions were taken lightly.

This was a huge undertaking, and we cannot thank the Program Committee members enough for their incredible work in reviewing and discussing papers over the past three months. Of course, the reviewing process relied heavily on many subreviewers, and we are grateful for their contributions.

This year, we received 809 submissions—an increase of over 25% from last year. We accepted 244 papers, up from 192 last year. We're glad we were able to convince the steering committee to maintain approximately the same acceptance rate despite the increase in submissions.

The journey began when Kasper visited UCSD in April 2025. We spent the better part of that time understanding the features of the HotCRP server (and even managed to co-author a paper). The process continued over the following five months.