In 2003, I had just completed a series of introductory programming modules as part of my Bachelor's in Computer Science. After spending the previous two years learning to code in Visual Basic, I was now learning a new programming language from scratch. I remember feeling lost, trying to figure out where I was, poring over boring textbooks and desperately trying to stay awake.
After three years of hard work, I left college with an honors degree and a world of possibilities open to me. I was grateful for the experience, but it left me wondering if there could have been a better way to learn.
Twenty years later, I began to think that maybe now was a good time to learn how to use AI-generated tools. But this time, instead of relying on a textbook, I opened the app store in search of a tool to guide me. Hoping for a better learning experience, I came across Sololearn.
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This is part of a regular series showcasing apps we can't live without – read the whole article here.
I downloaded the app and enrolled in an AI course filled with the same sense of excitement and opportunity I felt when I was younger. Having written about AI for a while, I breeze through the first few lessons, but it soon became so difficult that it made my brain spin.
Beyond the excellent guided questions, I was impressed by the AI interface integrated directly into the app, which provides real-time feedback during lessons, transforming the learning experience from purely theoretical to an engaging, hands-on one.
As we all know, learning is never linear or entirely fun. It can be a sheer struggle and thoughts of giving up can cross your mind. Sololearn helps you out at those times by providing a “streak” feature that tracks your ability to get consecutive correct answers and records your longest streak. While these statistics and features are in many ways fairly arbitrary and meaningless, they do provide just enough extra motivation to get you through the learning hurdles.
Even just using green and orange to communicate a correct answer or streak can provide enough dopamine to move on to the next question or lesson.
Sololearn goes far beyond simple lessons to offer a set of engaging and surprisingly fun games. I tried out the “Bug Hunter” game, where you earn points by finding bugs in code. Rather than simple multiple choice questions, you enter your answers into the app's AI machine, which then determines whether or not you've found the bug correctly. This forces you to think about your answers, making the experience more than just a guessing game.
Besides playing games on the app, you can also challenge opponents within the Sololearn community. I love any kind of competition, so these learning challenges help motivate me. After choosing your desired programming language, you choose who you want to play with. You don't have to know them, but they provide you with a list of potential opponents. The only thing I wish these challenges could improve is the ability to chat directly with your opponents, which would add to the competitive spirit. Without this, the games can get a bit boring and feel like you're just playing against the computer.
The Sololearn community is not just about playing games. You can also create code within the Code Playground and post it in the community comments. This is a great tool for debugging errors and getting help and feedback on your work. This part of the app does not take AI prompt learning into account, which is a shame, but hopefully it will be added in future versions.
Even though I haven't used the Sololearn app for almost three years, I can't help but think that an app like this would have been useful when I was studying at university. It would have been a great additional learning tool to use when I got bored with textbooks. The danger is that students won't make the effort to learn all the basic theory, but for those who can do both, it can be really rewarding.
Download the Sololearn app for free iOS or Android
