diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index e23bbf8f..9ac2d6d7 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -60,12 +60,12 @@
 - ~~json::parse must be wrapped in try catch~~
 - ~~Collection Manager collections map should store plain collection name~~
 - ~~init_collection of Collection manager should probably take seq_id as param~~
-- node score should be int32, no longer uint16 like in document struct 
+- ~~node score should be int32, no longer uint16 like in document struct~~ 
+- Typo in prefix search
 - Proper logging
 - https support
 - Validate before string to int conversion in the http api layer
 - When field of "id" but not string, what happens?
-- Typo in prefix search
 - test for num_documents
 - test for string filter comparison: title < "foo"
 - test for token ranking on float field
diff --git a/include/art.h b/include/art.h
index f807cf44..fe82890b 100644
--- a/include/art.h
+++ b/include/art.h
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ typedef struct {
     uint8_t num_children;
     uint8_t partial_len;
     unsigned char partial[MAX_PREFIX_LEN];
-    uint32_t max_score;
+    int32_t max_score;
     uint32_t max_token_count;
 } art_node;
 
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ typedef struct {
  * `offsets` refer to the index locations where a token appeared in the document
  */
 typedef struct {
-    uint16_t score;
+    int32_t score;
     uint32_t id;
     uint32_t offsets_len;
     uint32_t* offsets;
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ typedef struct {
  */
 typedef struct {
     art_values* values;
-    uint32_t max_score;
+    int32_t max_score;
     uint32_t key_len;
     unsigned char key[];
 } art_leaf;
diff --git a/src/art.cpp b/src/art.cpp
index c675ecd9..515e60ee 100644
--- a/src/art.cpp
+++ b/src/art.cpp
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ bool compare_art_node_frequency(const art_node *a, const art_node *b) {
 }
 
 bool compare_art_node_score(const art_node* a, const art_node* b) {
-    uint32_t a_value = 0, b_value = 0;
+    int32_t a_value = 0, b_value = 0;
 
     if(IS_LEAF(a)) {
         art_leaf* al = (art_leaf *) LEAF_RAW(a);
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ static void add_child4(art_node4 *n, art_node **ref, unsigned char c, void *chil
         memmove(n->children+idx+1, n->children+idx,
                 (n->n.num_children - idx)*sizeof(void*));
 
-        uint16_t child_max_score = IS_LEAF(child) ? ((art_leaf *) LEAF_RAW(child))->max_score : ((art_node *) child)->max_score;
+        int32_t child_max_score = IS_LEAF(child) ? ((art_leaf *) LEAF_RAW(child))->max_score : ((art_node *) child)->max_score;
         uint32_t child_token_count = IS_LEAF(child) ? ((art_leaf *) LEAF_RAW(child))->values->ids.getLength() : ((art_node *) child)->max_token_count;
 
         n->n.max_score = MAX(n->n.max_score, child_max_score);
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@ static void* recursive_insert(art_node *n, art_node **ref, const unsigned char *
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    n->max_score = (uint16_t) MAX(n->max_score, (const uint16_t &) document->score);
+    n->max_score = MAX(n->max_score, document->score);
     n->max_token_count = MAX(n->max_token_count, num_hits);
 
     // Check if given node has a prefix
diff --git a/test/art_test.cpp b/test/art_test.cpp
index b62b065c..ebb6629a 100644
--- a/test/art_test.cpp
+++ b/test/art_test.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 art_document get_document(uint32_t id) {
     art_document document;
-    document.score = (uint16_t) id;
+    document.score = id;
     document.id = id;
     document.offsets = new uint32_t[1]{0};
     document.offsets_len = 1;