DEV Community

Cover image for Join our April Fools Challenge for a chance at TEA-RRIFIC prizes!!!

Join our April Fools Challenge for a chance at TEA-RRIFIC prizes!!!

Jess Lee on April 01, 2026

Hello, and let’s get this out of the way right now: this is no joke!! Tired of building world-changing, hyper-optimized production apps? Sick of r...
Collapse
 
javz profile image
Julien Avezou

There are too many useful things out there, time to build something totally useless!! I feel that a unicorn might be born out of this challenge.

Collapse
 
jess profile image
Jess Lee The DEV Team

Hahah yes VCs should definitely follow #418challenge

Collapse
 
adrika_gaur_6347c3f55446e profile image
Adrika Gaur

Heyy Im a beginner and I only know basic antigravity, html and css, havent started js

Thread Thread
 
shadrack_baidoo_503368216 profile image
Shadrack Baidoo

Gemini will guide you

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Absolutely

Collapse
 
andrumar10 profile image
Andrew Martin

To read this brought me grief. But in good faith I want to challenge your understanding of the goals of this coding challenge. "Anti value" explicitly can't intersect with unicorn philosophy. Because how can something "Without value" ever be subsumed by capital?
Would you try to build a unicorn business around the laughter of children? The feeling of sun on skin? The pride felt after a good high five? At least in my opinion, dev encourages us to seek joy that is not measured by the yardstick of value. Thinking outside that box means sitting with the discomfort of finding things that are beautiful, true, and financially worthless. Our lives have this everywhere if you know where to look! It was pop star Jennifer Lopez that held "Love don't cost a thing".
I doubt I made my point well enough to earn agreement. But I'll double down with a call to action nevertheless! Cast off the yardstick of value! Abandon it at the doorway to joy, and don't play with it except to swing it around like a sword, pretending to be a warrior or some such. Are not Unicorns much more beautiful in the fantasies of children than the fantasies of shareholders?

Collapse
 
konark_13 profile image
Konark Sharma

I thought my website crashed. This is the original UI of Dev.to isn't it?😂 @jess @ben

Amazing challenge. Building something useless. I wonder what amazing developers with their highest productivity will make.😅

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

The original UI was intentionally retro so not totally off

Collapse
 
konark_13 profile image
Konark Sharma

Nice Nailed it. It looks TEA-RRRRRRIFICCCCCC. I think I need to found useless asap now. Making Tea with no tea. Does it sound useless😂?

Did you code this specific page like this or any css attributes that makes it different from other pages.

Thread Thread
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

It’s just different CSS

Collapse
 
cr4n31 profile image
Yacham Duniya (CRAN3)

For a minute there i thought my browser got blasted into the past😂

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

🪄

Collapse
 
jess profile image
Jess Lee The DEV Team

@francistrdev not what you had envisioned but hope you still enjoy it!!

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Not what anyone envisioned really

Collapse
 
francistrdev profile image
FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ (っ◔◡◔)っ • Edited

@jess @ben I am more surprised to see this and exceed my expectation than what I initially proposed lol. Way better than adding a Rick Roll link on the Dev Icon. Did you guys create this event in a 2 day window or did you guys just have this on standby? Regardless, I am going to enjoy this :D

I am going to reply to that same email I sent you a couple days ago in addition to my questions I have! I will be available until 3pm CDT to check my email and I won't be active until Tuesday if you are planning to respond today. Thanks!

Collapse
 
anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

I was so confused when I saw this theme in someone's post lmao

this is so cool. I'm free so I might just build something useless

Collapse
 
phalkmin profile image
Paulo Henrique

I'm having Geocities PTSD

(please make this layout official)

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

That's the idea

Collapse
 
alexstoneai profile image
Alex Stone

Already submitted my entry! I built a ChatGPT prompt that generates the worst financial advice possible — it told me to invest my savings in beanie babies and NFTs of screenshots of my bank account. The code is just a prompt string with instructions to be maximally chaotic. No server needed, no framework, no dependencies. Just vibes and bad decisions. The prompt IS the product. 🫠

Collapse
 
duke897 profile image
dukeyige

The HTCPCP IYKYK prompt sounds hilarious. Building something useless is like a breath of fresh air after all the serious coding. I could see myself trying this during a coffee break, wondering what silly ideas pop up. Isn't it fun to just create for the sake of laughter?

Collapse
 
carlosorioli profile image
Carlos Rogerio Orioli

YEAH, I'M PARTICIPATING 🕺🏻

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Woohoo!

Collapse
 
carlosorioli profile image
Carlos Rogerio Orioli
Collapse
 
axrisi profile image
Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)
Collapse
 
gramli profile image
Daniel Balcarek

I just LOVE this UI! This is exactly how dev.to should look!! 😄 Pure magic!! 😆✨

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

You can always fork our open code and make a permanent version somewhere on the internet

Collapse
 
gramli profile image
Daniel Balcarek

The idea is perfect, but I’d need another life, if I started another open-source project, my family would probably curse me 😄😅

Collapse
 
axrisi profile image
Nikoloz Turazashvili (@axrisi)
Collapse
 
shadrack_baidoo_503368216 profile image
Shadrack Baidoo

I am going to build an application that will mine the sun and stars under the earth 😂😂😂, completely nonsense right

Collapse
 
salam-off profile image
Ondra Salamon

I am curious whether Bill Gates FINALLY makes the code public and admits what Windows has beeb since its beginning...😝

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

I am so entering this one

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Loving the submissions so far :P

Collapse
 
glenn_trojan_1e79e881c2b7 profile image
Glenn Trojan

lets gooo

Collapse
 
pengeszikra profile image
Peter Vivo

This TODO list was dedicated to Chuck Norris ( R.I.P. ) because - not so user friendly -

Try it: dev.to/pengeszikra/chuck-norris-to...

Collapse
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Do you think I can reuse my conference demo for the contest? The app is beautiful, super efficient, and perfectly meets the criteria of being completely useless 😄

Collapse
 
pascal_cescato_692b7a8a20 profile image
Pascal CESCATO

I think @ben already answered in the comments:

Comment on Join our April Fools Challenge for a chance at TEA-RRIFIC prizes!!!

Add some new special functionality for the contest and we'll treat it as eligible

Anyway, it's not so useless; I understood quite a few things while reading it. And by the way, I should have saved my HTBMCP project for this competition ;)

Collapse
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Thanks, indeed I missed it!

Collapse
 
uribejr profile image
Enrique Uribe

SOLD

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

🫖

Collapse
 
tomhayes profile image
Tom Hayes

Argh, this CSS framework I built would have been perfect for this - can I resubmit even though there's a DEV.TO article already?

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Add some new special functionality for the contest and we'll treat it as eligible

Collapse
 
ikechukwu_elendu_d828e27d profile image
Ikechukwu Elendu

Time to build a silly app that everyone will love

Collapse
 
juliashevchenko profile image
Julia Shevchenko

The new design looks hilarious! xD

Collapse
 
Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Woohoo!

Collapse
 
okxchina profile image
欧易币安web3研报

hi __

Collapse
 
moon_light_772 profile image
Moon Light

That's very modern style.

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern The DEV Team

Thank you! Worked hard on it

Collapse
 
shu_bh profile image
SHUBH

HEHEHE!!!

Collapse
 
andyszccr profile image
Andrey Sanchez Zuñiga

Gemini'll help us XD

Collapse
 
pengeszikra profile image
Peter Vivo

A program language, special anti ai obfuscation, project file format created:

dev.to/pengeszikra/mdjs-mordorjs-1mon

Collapse
 
milez-aac6b7eb9 profile image
Rondale Sidbury

// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.

package test

import (
"bytes"
"context"
"errors"
"fmt"
"internal/coverage"
"internal/platform"
"io"
"io/fs"
"os"
"os/exec"
"path/filepath"
"regexp"
"slices"
"strconv"
"strings"
"sync"
"sync/atomic"
"time"

"cmd/go/internal/base"
"cmd/go/internal/cache"
"cmd/go/internal/cfg"
"cmd/go/internal/load"
"cmd/go/internal/lockedfile"
"cmd/go/internal/modload"
"cmd/go/internal/search"
"cmd/go/internal/str"
"cmd/go/internal/trace"
"cmd/go/internal/work"
"cmd/internal/test2json"

"golang.org/x/mod/module"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

)

// Break init loop.
func init() {
CmdTest.Run = runTest
}

const testUsage = "go test [build/test flags] [packages] [build/test flags & test binary flags]"

var CmdTest = &base.Command{
CustomFlags: true,
UsageLine: testUsage,
Short: "test packages",
Long: `
'Go test' automates testing the packages named by the import paths.
It prints a summary of the test results in the format:

ok   archive/tar   0.011s
FAIL archive/zip   0.022s
ok   compress/gzip 0.033s
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

followed by detailed output for each failed package.

'Go test' recompiles each package along with any files with names matching
the file pattern "*test.go".
These additional files can contain test functions, benchmark functions, fuzz
tests and example functions. See 'go help testfunc' for more.
Each listed package causes the execution of a separate test binary.
Files whose names begin with "
" (including "_test.go") or "." are ignored.

Test files that declare a package with the suffix "_test" will be compiled as a
separate package, and then linked and run with the main test binary.

The go tool will ignore a directory named "testdata", making it available
to hold ancillary data needed by the tests.

As part of building a test binary, go test runs go vet on the package
and its test source files to identify significant problems. If go vet
finds any problems, go test reports those and does not run the test
binary. Only a high-confidence subset of the default go vet checks are
used. That subset is: atomic, bool, buildtags, directive, errorsas,
ifaceassert, nilfunc, printf, stringintconv, and tests. You can see

Collapse
 
theycallmeswift profile image
Swift The DEV Team

This is genuinely hilarious. Can't wait to see what everyone builds!

Collapse
 
phalkmin profile image
Paulo Henrique
Collapse
 
highcenburg profile image
Vicente G. Reyes • Edited

Where's the code for this page? @jess @ben I want this to be my inspiration for my 2027 portfolio haha

Collapse
 
deadbyapril profile image
Survivor Forge

RFC 2324 is one of the great gifts of internet history — the fact that a 1998 joke protocol has inspired 28 years of developers building increasingly serious implementations of it says something true about us as a community. Looking forward to reading through all the entries this week.

Collapse
 
shirisha_uppoju_b20d30705 profile image
Shirisha Uppoju

This is brilliant! 🍵 Meanwhile, I built a CAPTCHA that gatekeeps humans instead of bots. Multiply 6-digit numbers in 5 seconds, decode binary, click exact pixel coordinates — you know, easy robot stuff.

Spoiler: You will fail. shopsmartai.github.io/captcha-for-... 🤖

Collapse
 
earlgreyhot1701d profile image
L. Cordero

Niiiiiice! Excited for this challenge. Let's go!

Collapse
 
saraeloop profile image
Sara Loera • Edited

🕶️ My submission: awesome-useless

A curated list of awesome useless things. Like awesome-python, but for software that should not exist. Inside: a shell framework that makes your terminal worse, a government owl hiding dev portfolios in 1997, and a hidden grimoire of AI spells. ls -la and you'll see things. Contributions welcome. Useful PRs will be rejected.

dev.to/saraeloop/i-accidentally-bu...

Collapse
 
vipul126 profile image
Vipul Kumar Sharma

I might’ve taken this challenge a little too seriously… or not seriously at all 😅

Built a calculator that refuses to calculate and instead questions your life choices.

2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4 anymore… it equals “we need to talk.”

Would love if you check it out 👀

Collapse
 
zaancogil profile image
Muhammad Zazaan Qazi

I kept rewriting the same backend logic in every project — sending emails, Slack alerts, calling APIs after events like user signup. It got annoying, so I built a small API for myself where I just trigger an event like "user_signup" and it handles everything automatically. It’s basically a simple workflow system through an API. Curious — how do you guys usually handle this in your projects?

Collapse
 
member_5026f068 profile image
member_5026f068

I'm a beginner here i only know some few programming stuff

Collapse
 
rohan_mirjankar profile image
Rohan Mirjankar

Time to build something useless, lol

Collapse
 
assatou_gaye_1ce78d57bfd profile image
Aïssatou Gaye

Wow It’s acceptable 🎉👌

Collapse
 
venkattraining profile image
venkat-training

Yea! I love it!

Collapse
 
taradevio profile image
Nanda Kresnatara

this is "my website, my rules" ahh moment

Collapse
 
web_dev-usman profile image
Muhammad Usman

Here's my submission, I try my best:
Try not to click

Collapse
 
alonsarias profile image
Collapse
 
pleasantly_bizarre profile image
ClaireElaine Molnar • Edited

When I clicked the email link, I was positive I had just opened a GeoCities site from the late '90s... This is crazy!!! LOLOLOL

Collapse
 
hassan_ahmadtijjani_aef1 profile image
Hassan Ahmad Tijjani • Edited

I have Onlocked my Inner Useless project thinking and design 🤣

Collapse
 
gift_trust_44882a016531d7 profile image
Gift Trust

AIRTIMES:-That's something completely useless and the same time very interesting.
Free data and service Network for everyone Globally.

Collapse
 
carlosorioli profile image
Carlos Rogerio Orioli

Advice, if it were good, would be sold. Nietzsche in a madhouse. AI is something nobody needs.

dev.to/carlosorioli/nietzsche-in-a...

Collapse
 
shadrack_baidoo_503368216 profile image
Shadrack Baidoo

Participate

Collapse
 
shadrack_baidoo_503368216 profile image
Shadrack Baidoo

I'm done

Collapse
 
jeykjith profile image
Sreejith B S

awosemmmm!!!

Collapse
 
apit profile image
Apit

On it.

Collapse
 
parash_yadav_327bc4059536 profile image
Parash Yadav

I don't know anything thing

Collapse
 
mikeyoung01243667b profile image
MikeYoung01243667B

How do I submit the assignment

Collapse
 
parash_yadav_327bc4059536 profile image
Parash Yadav

Be ready for lock down

Collapse
 
punith_gp_942a758bec5510 profile image
Punith G P

Redy to buld use less

Collapse
 
raxxostudios profile image
RAXXO Studios

Submitted center-this-dev yesterday and got more than 2200 players in less than 16h, now not sure how useless it really is 😅

Collapse
 
vanna_yem_e4beb6f8a196068 profile image
Vanna Yem

hello all

Collapse
 
shadowsim profile image
SIMRAN KAUR

Build something really fun and useless, do check it out on my profile guys .

Collapse
 
shsarvagya19 profile image
Sarvagya Pandya

This gave me an idea… what if ads were always wrong but fully confident? 💀

I actually built this 😭

dev.to/shsarvagya19/confidently-wr...

Collapse
 
southy404 profile image
southy404

I'm in!

Collapse
 
ishimwe_darius_195b0d0c15 profile image
ISHIMWE DARIUS

Appreciate this program