July 11, 2026
Git built, tea spilled
Show HN: Learn by rebuilding Redis, Git, a database from scratch
A free coding school drops big promises, and the comments instantly turn into chaos
TLDR: A new free site promises to teach coding by making people rebuild famous tools from scratch instead of copying tutorials. Commenters loved the concept but immediately questioned whether it’s original, complained about sign-up errors, and sparked a mini-drama over possible artificial intelligence-assisted copying.
A shiny new "learn by building it yourself" coding site rolled onto Hacker News with a bold pitch: stop copy-pasting tutorials, start actually making things like Redis, Git, and even a database from scratch. Founder acley framed it like a rebellion against fake learning, saying most beginner lessons let people coast without understanding anything. The sales pitch is undeniably juicy: 80+ courses, free forever, no credit card, and lessons that make you solve the problem instead of just parroting code.
But the real show was in the comments, where the crowd went from curious to suspicious to lightly feral in record time. One of the first replies basically asked, "Wait, isn't this just Codecrafters?" That's the classic internet challenge: not "is it good?" but "have I seen this before?" Then came the brutal mood swing from people trying to sign up, only to get smacked with "rate limit exceeded" errors. Nothing kills a launch-day victory lap faster than users reporting the front door is jammed.
And then, of course, the spiciest accusation arrived: was some of this material lifted from existing books and washed through artificial intelligence? That raised the temperature fast. Even the typo-filled critique — "good initiative" paired with "a dafor of things are throwing errors" — had the chaotic energy of a live beta roast. In other words: people like the idea, but the comments are demanding proof this is the real thing, not a remix with server issues.
Key Points
- •The platform is centered on learning by rebuilding software systems from scratch through a choose, write, and run workflow.
- •It advertises more than 80 build-from-scratch courses across 9 languages.
- •Lessons are organized into Fundamentals, Intermediate, and Advanced tracks.
- •The article includes a code example implementing Redis-style SET and GET handlers.
- •The platform states it is free forever and does not require a credit card.