From 0 to 20 Beta Users

Rotonda — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:23:48 +0000

At launch, I wasn’t sure if anyone would even bother signing up. Fast forward a couple months, and we’re at ~20 active beta users.

Not huge numbers, but every single user has been super valuable — giving me feedback, pointing out bugs, and suggesting features I hadn’t even thought about.

What I’ve Been Building

Fixed a bunch of rough edges from launch
Added dark mode (because of course 😂)
Tweaked challenges based on user feedback so they’re more fun & less intimidating

Lessons Learned

Talking to users > guessing what users want.
Almost every feature since July came directly from conversations with early users.
Small updates beat big “perfect” releases.
Shipping quickly (even if it’s rough) gets me feedback way faster.
Community is everything.
Posting here and on Reddit has brought in the most engaged users. Ads = 0. Word of mouth = 💯.

What’s Next

More coding challenges (aiming for a steady weekly release)
A simple progress-tracking system
Maybe… multiplayer practice? (still exploring this idea)

Thanks

If you were one of the early readers or testers from my July post, thank you — your feedback genuinely shaped daftcode.io into what it is today.

If you haven’t tried it yet and want to practice some coding in a lightweight way, you can check it out here: draftcode. Still beta, still scrappy, but improving every week.

My plan is to keep sharing updates here as the project grows. If you have feedback, ideas, or just want to follow along, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

I built DraftCode.io — A modern, open LeetCode-style platform for coding challenges

Rotonda — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 08:39:29 +0000

Hey devs!

I recently launched DraftCode.io, a platform like LeetCode — but open, modern, and developer-friendly.

Built for learning, interviewing, and building coding skills, DraftCode lets you solve challenges, submit code, and get real-time feedback across multiple languages.

Features

Code editor powered by Monaco (VS Code)
Test case evaluation & scoring (custom or public problems)
Docker sandbox for safe code execution
AI-based problem generation (coming soon)
User submissions with history and leaderboard

Tech Stack

Frontend: React + Tailwind + TanStack Table
Backend: Flask (Python) + PostgreSQL
Execution: Judge0 API (via Docker)
Auth: Firebase Auth
Infra: Vercel (frontend), Railway/EC2 (backend)

Why I built it

LeetCode is great, but:

Closed platform with limited community control
No easy way to create your own challenges or build learning paths
Difficult to customize or integrate into personal sites/tools

So I made DraftCode — a modular platform for running and solving code problems, perfect for:

Interview prep
CS clubs/bootcamps
Internal dev challenges

Try it out

draftcode

I'd love feedback!

Would you use this as an alternative to LeetCode?
What features would make it better for your workflow?
Interested in an AI tutor for step-by-step solutions?

Let me know what you think!

DEV Community: Rotonda