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:

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

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