Module 02: Exercises & Practice

How Exercises Work

Exercises live in YAML files under content/exercises/. Each file is named moduleN-variants.yaml and contains warmups and challenges with multiple variants per exercise.

When a user opens a module page, the engine loads the corresponding variant file and renders the exercises below the lesson content.

The Variant System

Each exercise has multiple variants — different problems that test the same concept. The engine picks one variant at random each time, so repeated practice always feels fresh.

id: warmup_1
concept: Variables
variants:
  - id: v1
    title: Declare an integer
    description: "..."
  - id: v2
    title: Declare a string
    description: "..."
  - id: v3
    title: Declare a boolean
    description: "..."

The user sees one variant at a time. They can shuffle to get a different one, or rate their confidence after attempting it.

Self-Rating & SRS

After each exercise, users rate themselves:

Rating	Meaning	SRS Effect
Got it	Solved without help	Interval increases
Struggled	Solved with difficulty	Interval stays short
Had to peek	Needed the solution	Interval resets

These ratings feed into the spaced repetition system (SRS), which schedules exercises for review at optimal intervals.

Exercise YAML Structure

Here's the full structure of a variant file:

conceptLinks:
  Concept Name: "#lesson-anchor"
sharedContent: {}
variants:
  warmups:
    - id: warmup_1
      concept: Concept Name
      variants:
        - id: v1
          title: Exercise Title
          description: What to do (HTML allowed).
          hints:
            - Hint 1
            - Hint 2
          solution: The solution code
          annotations:
            - type: tip
              label: Label
              text: Explanation.
  challenges: []

Tip: The description, hints, and annotations fields support HTML, so you can use <code>, <strong>, etc.

Daily Practice

The Daily Practice page pulls exercises from across all modules and builds focused sessions. It has four modes:

Review — exercises due for SRS review
Weakest — exercises the user struggles with most
Mixed — combination of due and weak items
Discover — random unseen exercises to learn new material

Exercises

Jump to section:

Warmups Challenges

Progress through each section in order, or jump to where you need practice.

Practice individual concepts you just learned.

Challenges

Combine concepts and learn patterns. Each challenge has multiple variants at different difficulties.

Module 2 Summary

Exercises are YAML files with warmups and challenges
Each exercise has multiple variants for repeated practice
Users self-rate after each exercise (got it / struggled / had to peek)
Ratings feed an SRS algorithm for optimal review scheduling
Daily Practice builds cross-module sessions from SRS data