A computer science thinking game
Design algorithms and data structures from first principles. Your AI gives you the problem and tests your ideas. Then you discover how they compare with established approaches.
Explore correctness, complexity, and tradeoffs. Code optional.
Start your first round
Copy the prompt, paste it into a new AI conversation, and let the game begin.
Works with an AI that can read the linked files.
No web access? Use the downloaded-file instructions.
Start with the problem and fixed rules. Define what your design stores and how it behaves.
Test tricky cases with your GM. Revise, ask for a hint, or follow a different idea.
End the round when you’re ready. Compare approaches and save what you learned.
Work through a problem before seeing an established solution. At the reveal, connect what you tried to computer science concepts you can explore next.
Question assumptions, find edge cases, and weigh time against memory. Practice explaining why a design works, where it breaks, and when you’d choose it.
Follow a hunch, take a wrong turn, and challenge yourself with a good puzzle. There’s a particular satisfaction in reaching an idea on your own.
Independently discovering a known idea is a win, too.
The original playtest, with fixed replay rules.
A thousand floors. Requests arriving in any order. How would you keep track of where the elevator needs to go next?
Your job is to invent a way to organize those requests. The GM will give you the complete rules before you begin.
Read the spoiler-free challengeThe goal isn’t to guess a known algorithm.
It’s to invent before you know the answer.
The rules live in plain Markdown files. Play in your own AI tool, keep your history, and bring it along next time.
More official challenges, weekly independent attempts, and a place to share solutions after the reveal. No weekly event or submission service is live yet.
You can begin with plain language and a willingness to experiment. Code is optional. Ask your GM to explain unfamiliar terms without giving away the solution.
That’s welcome. A solution that meets the stated requirements counts. The GM must not add rules just to force you toward a particular answer.
Yes. Say “Pause without revealing anything,” then save the progress summary and challenge version. Bring them back when you want to continue.
Keep a private HISTORY.md and give it to your GM next time. It tracks the ideas you’ve already encountered. Only one challenge is available so far, so a fresh next round may need to wait.
In a separate GM packet that your AI reads. Avoid opening files named gm.md or expanding their previews during play. They’re publicly accessible; the separation is there to prevent accidental spoilers.
Independent invention is worth celebrating. A claim of novelty takes more: a precise description, correctness and performance analysis, and prior-art review after the round.