The latest articles on DEV Community by Farhaan Khan (@potatobuiltthis). https://dev.to/potatobuiltthis https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4068838%2Ff7576d19-7410-40d1-8fce-37bf525e6699.png https://dev.to/potatobuiltthis en Farhaan Khan Sat, 08 Aug 2026 19:16:10 +0000 https://dev.to/potatobuiltthis/i-built-an-ai-coding-tutor-that-refuses-to-give-you-the-answer-5681 https://dev.to/potatobuiltthis/i-built-an-ai-coding-tutor-that-refuses-to-give-you-the-answer-5681 <p>I had a problem with AI coding assistants.</p> <p>They were <strong>too helpful</strong>.</p> <p>Ask for a hint on a coding problem, and five seconds later you have the approach, the optimized solution, and half the reason you opened the problem in the first place.</p> <p>I wanted something that would help me think without doing the thinking for me.</p> <p>So I built <strong>Think Before Code</strong>.</p> <p>The idea is simple: instead of racing to the answer, the AI asks what you’ve tried, challenges your reasoning, and gives the smallest useful hint.</p> <p>Basically, less answer machine.</p> <p>More:</p> <p><strong>“Okay, but why?”</strong></p> <p>I’m still building it and figuring out what actually makes AI useful for learning.</p> <p>If you’re curious:</p> <p>👉 <a href="https://github.com/Far-200/think-before-code" rel="noopener noreferrer">Think Before Code on GitHub</a></p> <p>More thoughts on the design later. For now, I just wanted to put the idea out there. 🦆</p> ai programming opensource learning