You've probably just spotted a challenge and are wondering what it is.
Challenges are harder, meatier exercises that push you further than the regular ones. Where most exercises focus on practising a specific concept or technique, challenges ask you to stretch a bit more and really put your skills to the test.
Think of exercises as building each skill up, and challenges as pushing those skills harder. They're designed to stretch you and give you a proper challenge that feels satisfying to work through.
Challenges are exclusively for Premium members
How do they unlock?
Challenges unlock gradually as you progress through the course. As you learn new concepts and complete exercises, more challenges become available to you. The idea is that each challenge becomes available once you've probably got enough knowledge to have a good crack at it.
You can use any concepts you've learned up to that point to solve a challenge. There's no restriction on which techniques you use — if you've learned it, it's fair game.
They don't block your progress
Challenges aren't part of the primary flow, so they don't block your progression through the course. They sit alongside the main path rather than on it. If you're not in the mood for a challenge, or you're finding one tricky, you can just carry on with the regular exercises and come back to it whenever you like.
You're never going to get stuck because of a challenge. They're there as enrichment, not as gates.
Why bother with them?
Challenges are where you really get to test your understanding. It's one thing to work through an exercise where you're guided towards the solution, but it's quite another to tackle something harder that pushes you to apply what you know.
They're great for:
- Building confidence — completing a challenge feels like a proper achievement
- Deepening understanding — you'll often find that working on a challenge helps you understand earlier concepts better
- Having fun — they're genuinely enjoyable, and it's satisfying to crack a tricky one
Some tips
- Don't stress about them. They're meant to be challenging, and it's completely fine if you don't get them straight away.
- Use what you know. You don't need any secret techniques — everything you've learned so far is enough.
- Come back to them. If you get stuck, go and learn some more through the regular exercises, then come back and have another go. You'll probably find it easier the second time around.
- Revisit completed challenges. Even after you've finished one, you can always come back and try to improve your solution as you learn new things.
Challenges are there to push you, help you grow, and — hopefully — be quite a lot of fun. Enjoy them!