AlgoDrill
Ranked 5 of 8 coding practice platforms by recommenders
Recommended for turning known algorithm patterns into fast recall through written step-by-step drills. Common caveat: the checker demands exact variable names and structure.
Recommended for turning known algorithm patterns into fast recall through written step-by-step drills. Common caveat: the checker demands exact variable names and structure.
25 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Builds fast recall of known patterns
“AlgoDrill is built around taking patterns people already understand and turning them into something their hands can write quickly under pressure.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “training pattern recognition and understanding at the same time”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” Explains reasoning behind each pattern
“Each step in the drills is tied to a first principles explanation, so the focus is on the reasoning behind the pattern, not trivia.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “training pattern recognition and understanding at the same time”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” Useful add-on to other practice
“it was a nice add on top of my leetcode and codewars drills”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “clean and useful for algorithm practice”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Requires exact variable names and structure
“The drill style approach seems helpful, but needing the variable names to exactly match threw me off.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “please fix the variable names issue mentioned by other people here”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “drilling the two sum problem requires the user name the hashmap prev_map, but I feel memorizing this sort of stuff detracts from the lesson.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” - Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns”
- Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns”
- Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns”
Python only, no TypeScript or JavaScript
“The thing I really don't like is the lack of TypeScript or at least JavaScript”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “after registering I see that it's only Python at the moment”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” Aggressive false urgency and sales tactics
“it feels like clickbait and like a scammy ad to manipulate me into purchasing”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “I understand that it's a sales tactic, but it's lying to your users worth it?”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “Please stop with the false urgency and borderline lying to people”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” Rote memorization over understanding
“drilling the two sum problem requires the user name the hashmap prev_map, but I feel memorizing this sort of stuff detracts from the lesson.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “Requiring such rote memorization is a hard pass for me”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns” “found it kind of strange to do line by line recall”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns”
Other coding practice platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other coding practice platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeetCode | 50 | 63 | 44% | 11 | — | — |
| Project Euler | 45 | 6 | 88% | 5 | 12 yrs9 owners | Approved |
| Advent of Code | 31 | 5 | 86% | 6 | 4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Codecrafters | 14 | 3 | 82% | 4 | — | Approved |
| AlgoDrillThis page | 13 | 12 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
25 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“please fix the variable names issue mentioned by other people here”
“I understand that it's a sales tactic, but it's lying to your users worth it?”
“I got hooked without realizing that I'm not super familiar with any of the languages”
“one has to write the answer in EXACTLY the same format, down to each variable name it seems?”
“the checker is still too literal about names and structure”
“drilling the two sum problem requires the user name the hashmap prev_map, but I feel memorizing this sort of stuff detracts from the lesson.”
“Requiring such rote memorization is a hard pass for me”
“But I think neither LeetCode or AlgoDrill are needed for this.”
“you're breaking down all these questions into actual smaller steps and having the user write those out instead”
“The drill style approach seems helpful, but needing the variable names to exactly match threw me off.”
“clean and useful for algorithm practice”
“insisting that I sign up with Google (and only Google) was an unfortunate blocker”
“The check is definitely rough around the edges though.”
“the expectation that I use the same variable names and exact same code structure”
“found it kind of strange to do line by line recall”
“This is a good product, the mechanism for me was an excel sheet.”
“it was a nice add on top of my leetcode and codewars drills”
“Nice work, this is a pretty cool project.”
“Please stop with the false urgency and borderline lying to people”
“after registering I see that it's only Python at the moment”
“it feels like clickbait and like a scammy ad to manipulate me into purchasing”
“AlgoDrill is built around taking patterns people already understand and turning them into something their hands can write quickly under pressure.”
“The thing I really don't like is the lack of TypeScript or at least JavaScript”
“training pattern recognition and understanding at the same time”
“Each step in the drills is tied to a first principles explanation, so the focus is on the reasoning behind the pattern, not trivia.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.