Codecrafters
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 8 coding practice platforms by recommenders
Guided challenges that break down building things like Git or Redis from scratch, in your own editor. Some challenges are paid, and projects run on your machine.
Guided challenges that break down building things like Git or Redis from scratch, in your own editor. Some challenges are paid, and projects run on your machine.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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 real engineering skills and confidence
“Codecrafter has helped me learn new skills and gain confidence as a developer.”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Pausing New Challenges – Codecrafters” “so that their engineers ramp up their design and architecture skills”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Pausing New Challenges – Codecrafters” “I definitely became a better engineer with the help of CodeCrafters.”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Pausing New Challenges – Codecrafters” Teaches learning over memorizing solutions
“a better version of leetcode that actually incentivizes users to learn and not just cram solutions”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Pausing New Challenges – Codecrafters” “It doesn't spoon feed you what to do, but breaks it down into manageable chunks.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?” Hard to replace if it disappears
“If something closer to it exits I wouldnt have made it”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Learn by rebuilding Redis, Git, a database from scratch” “Platforms like Codecrafters will be badly missed.”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Pausing New Challenges – Codecrafters”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Many challenges require paid membership
“Codecrafters is fun if you have the time to do their (paid) challenges.”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “460k Stars on a GitHub Repo” “Not sure why this ad (access needs paid membership) is the top comment”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Crafting Interpreters”
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 |
| CodecraftersThis page | 14 | 3 | 82% | 4 | — | Approved |
| AlgoDrill | 13 | 12 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The build your own Claude Code track on Codecrafters is free while in beta.”
“If something closer to it exits I wouldnt have made it”
“Being able to just use your own text editor instead of a janky web based one”
“But can you run it on their platform? NO, you need to run it on your own machine which takes a bit of work.”
“Platforms like Codecrafters will be badly missed.”
“I definitely became a better engineer with the help of CodeCrafters.”
“Codecrafter has helped me learn new skills and gain confidence as a developer.”
“AI is far more effective and cheaper at creating educational content”
“a better version of leetcode that actually incentivizes users to learn and not just cram solutions”
“so that their engineers ramp up their design and architecture skills”
“CodeCrafters has an amazing "Build your own Git" tutorial too.”
“Codecrafters is fun if you have the time to do their (paid) challenges.”
“Not sure why this ad (access needs paid membership) is the top comment”
“It doesn't spoon feed you what to do, but breaks it down into manageable chunks.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.