Keep students building every single week
Run weekly AI coding challenges that reinforce curriculum, build peer review habits, and prepare students for the AI-fluent developer market. Free for instructors. Students join with just a link.
Why it works
Keep students building every week
Weekly challenges build the habit of shipping
Students who build something every week graduate with a portfolio of real work, not just tutorials they followed along with. A recurring contest is the accountability structure most learners need.
Peer review teaches what lectures can't
When a student reads five different solutions to the same brief, they learn more about design decisions than from any instructor explanation. Seeing how peers approached the same problem is irreplaceable.
Students practice with the tools they'll actually use
Every entry-level job posting in 2025 expects AI fluency. A bootcamp that teaches students to code with Claude is preparing them for the actual market, not the market from five years ago.
How it works
How AI coding challenges work in bootcamps
Instructor creates a topic-based contest
Write a brief tied to the week's curriculum: 'Build a CSS grid layout', 'Create a login form with validation', 'Design a REST API for a blog'. Set 30–60 minutes and share the link with the cohort.
Students code with an AI assistant
Every student gets Claude in a browser editor. No install, no setup. They work through the challenge at their own pace and auto-submit when time runs out.
Cohort reviews submissions and votes
All submissions go public to the class. Students review each other's code and approaches, vote for the best solution, and join a debrief on what made the winners strong.
Learn through peer review
The most powerful learning moment isn't when a student finishes their own submission. It's when they read ten other approaches to the same problem. Seeing how a classmate solved the brief differently, more elegantly, or with a completely different stack, changes how they think about code. That's the debrief no lecture can replicate.
Platform features
Everything instructors need
Curriculum-aligned briefs
Write briefs tied to what students are learning that week: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, APIs, React, anything.
Claude AI built in
Every student gets hands-on practice with the AI assistant they'll use in their first job.
Transparent submission review
All entries visible after the contest: code, AI prompts, and live preview. Perfect for class debrief.
Cohort-sized contests
Works for 10-student cohorts or 200-person bootcamp programs, no seat limits.
Anonymous peer voting
Students vote for the best solution without knowing whose it is. Fair, educational, engaging.
Ready in under 2 minutes
Instructors create and launch a contest faster than setting up a Zoom poll.
Real example
Weekly classroom workflow
Week 7: APIs & Data Fetching, Thursday afternoon session
Week 7 challenge opens
Brief: 'Build a weather dashboard using a public API'. 24 students join via the class link.
Students build with Claude
Everyone codes in the browser. Claude helps debug, explains concepts, and suggests approaches. Auto-submit at 3:45.
Anonymous peer voting
All 24 submissions visible. Students vote for their favourite, they can't see whose is whose.
Class debrief
Instructor walks through the top 3 submissions. Students discuss what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently.
Benefits
Benefits for students
Students graduate with a portfolio of real projects they actually shipped
AI fluency becomes a core skill developed throughout the program
Peer learning surfaces diverse approaches to the same problem
Engagement stays high: students look forward to the weekly challenge
Instructors can review all submissions to identify struggling students early
Voting creates a safe, structured way to give and receive peer feedback
Who it's for
Who should use it?
Bootcamp Instructors
Looking for a weekly hands-on activity that reinforces the week's curriculum without extra prep.
Bootcamp Operators
Who need a measurable engagement metric and a way to demonstrate outcomes to prospective students.
Self-taught Learners
Who want external accountability and a community to build alongside.
CS Educators
Running project-based learning tracks and looking for a low-overhead weekly format.
FAQs
Common questions
Do students need to pay to join a bootcamp contest?
No. Students join via the invite link for free. The instructor creates and manages the contest; students just click the link and start coding.
What skill level do students need to participate?
Any level. The briefs are set by the instructor, so you control the complexity. A week-2 HTML/CSS brief is as valid as a week-16 React challenge. Claude helps beginners through the harder parts.
Can instructors see all submissions after the contest?
Yes. Every submission is stored: code, AI conversation history, and a live preview. Instructors can review every entry to identify common mistakes or highlight strong approaches in the debrief.
How many students can join one contest?
There are no seat limits. Whether you have 10 students or 300, everyone can join the same contest and submit independently.
Can we restrict the contest to our cohort only?
Yes. Share the invite link only with your students. Anyone without the link won't be able to find or join the contest.
Can we run a contest without AI assistance to test baseline skills?
The AI assistant is built into the editor and available by default. For a baseline assessment, you can instruct students not to use it, though the contest environment doesn't enforce this restriction.
Also worth exploring
Start a bootcamp contest
Create your first challenge, share the link with your cohort, and run a class debrief after. Free to start. Students join with just a link.