Welcome to Jiki!
Welcome to Jiki! We're really excited to have you here.
What is Jiki?
Jiki is an interactive platform designed to help you learn to code. It's built around a simple idea: you learn to code by coding, not by watching videos, taking quizzes, or solving simple exercises.
From day one, you'll be building real projects - games, animations, and tools - writing dozens, then hundreds (maybe even thousands) of lines of code. There's a character called Jiki who runs your code, showing you exactly what's happening as your programs execute. This makes the invisible visible, helping you understand how code actually works.
We teach through either JavaScript or Python (same syllabus - you choose the language), but we've customised the experience to remove the confusing parts that trip beginners up. As you progress, more features unlock.
In an AI era where Claude and ChatGPT can write code for you, Jiki focuses on the two things that still really matter: understanding the fundamentals of how code works (so you can actually read and reason about what your AI is doing), and learning how to build - how websites work under the hood, how to design databases, how to architect software.
Who is Jiki for?
Jiki is designed for total beginners - people who've never written a line of code before, or who've tried learning but got stuck.
You might be:
- Completely new to coding and want a structured way to start
- Stuck in "tutorial hell" - you've watched loads of videos but can't actually build anything
- Someone who tried other courses but found them too fast, too slow, or too theoretical
- An intermediate programmer who wants to solidify your fundamentals (about 50% of our students!)
If you've ever felt like coding courses teach you syntax but don't teach you to actually think like a programmer, Jiki is for you.
Why did we create Jiki?
We believe learning to code is valuable for almost everyone. Most learn-to-code resources don't get to the heart of what programming actually is: fun problem solving. They give you videos to watch and quizzes to take, but they don't get you making things. So we built Jiki to change that.
Want the full story? Read our blog post: The Backstory of Jiki.
This is bigger than me!
Jiki wouldn't exist without the support of so many people.
- Aron and Nicole: Thank you for all your hard work building this with me. It's been quite a journey and I couldn't have done it without you.
- Our Bootcamp students: Thank you for being our guinea pigs! Your feedback, patience, and enthusiasm helped shape Jiki into what it is today.
- The Exercism community: To everyone who has donated to Exercism, contributed code, maintained tracks, or mentored students over the years - thank you. Your support made it possible for us to take on this new challenge.
- Bootcamp Mentors: A final shout out to people who helped shaped the bootcamp through mentoring. You have no idea how much support I felt from you during those 6 months and how much you've helped me in my thinking with this.
Give it a try
I'd love you to try Jiki and see what you think.
If you're relatively new to coding (or a total beginner), then I hope you'll really enjoy learning from this. I'd love to know where you get stuck or frustrated - that feedback is invaluable for making it better.
If you're an existing developer, I should be upfront: this isn't designed for you. It'll probably feel quite basic and slow. But trust me, for newbies it feels fast and intense! I'd still love you to have a play and give me feedback. Your experienced eyes will no doubt spot things that beginners wouldn't think to mention. And if you know someone who's been thinking about learning to code, I'd really appreciate you sharing Jiki with them. That word-of-mouth support means everything!
If you believe in what we're doing and want to support the mission financially, then I'd be immensely grateful for your support. You can donate here if you're an Exercism members, or use this Stripe donation page. Building something like this takes a huge amount of time and resources, and every bit of support helps us keep going.
Thanks for reading 😊