What's the meaning of the Ranking Progress bar?

[SaxTenor]

There is a Ranking progress bar at the top of our progress tab page.

In my case, I can see I am at 89% towards Sphere. What is the meaning of that 89%?

Considering the number of members in the Sphere ranking is capped at 100 and the members that have been active on PE during the last 4 weeks (more than 50 members before me in the Icosahedron ranking and about 90 members in the Sphere ranking), I can't imagine the day I'll reach the Sphere ranking

[mdean]

I've been wondering the same thing. I've solved about 37% of the problems and I've apparently made about 15% progress towards sphere. So maybe in a few decades, I'll have a shot.

[henrig]

I suspect it means for @SaxTenor that you are on the 89th percentile of the 800 Icosahedrons. You are roughly the (100%-89%)*800 = 88th position (which is you actual position when I look at the individual ranking of Icosahedrons). Similarly mdean is around position (100%-37%)*800 = 504th position. There is only one person with a 37% Icosahedrons score that has been active recently and that is position 506.

[euler]

Ranks represent your position among all solvers in Project Euler's history and progress is not necessarily continuous. Although progress might be quicker to start, as you overtake members who stopped solving problems or are making slower progress than you, eventually you will find your place among those solvers. As long as there are members who have solved more problems than you or are able to tackle problems you currently cannot solve, they will remain ahead. Finding any place among the ranks is an incredible achievement. It means that in Project Euler's (almost) 25 year history with over 1 million members, you have found yourself at the very least in the top 44100 members of all time.

[grok123]

There is a Ranking progress bar at the top of our progress tab page.

In my case, I can see I am at 89% towards Sphere. What is the meaning of that 89%?

Considering the number of members in the Sphere ranking is capped at 100 and the members that have been active on PE during the last 4 weeks (more than 50 members before me in the Icosahedron ranking and about 90 members in the Sphere ranking), I can't imagine the day I'll reach the Sphere ranking

The 89% has been explained very well by the other responders. I am responding about your query about making it to Sphere rank.

This is where some items on the statistics page become useful. As of this writing I see that SaxTenor is ranked at 88 on this page: https://projecteuler.net/member_rank=Icosahedron

Since the Spheres are the top 100 solvers, we examine this page: https://projecteuler.net/problems_solved

...and find the spot on the list where "Solved at least" is 99. Today, that number is 858. If you reach 858 solves before all 87 icosahedron members ranked above you on the list do, then you will be a Sphere.

Of course, by the time you reach 858 solves, many others will have also increased their solve counts as well, so 858 is a moving target. And there is also the possibility of members currently ranked below you can overtake your position, in which case you will see your icosahedron rank drop.

These numbers can change from day to day, so if anyone is reading this post at a later date, you may find the that these specific numbers differ.