Per Borgen

Dev Atrophy Test - Has AI made you smoothbrained? Test yo' self!

Are you still a dev lord or just chatGPT's lil" biyatch? Well the Dev Atrophy Test aims to uncover who out there still has the raw dog coding skills buried deep inside their AI-laced cerebral cortex.

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Daniel B
Maker
πŸ“Œ

Hi PH! We're a group of renegade devs who still remember the "good ol' days" of tearing our hair out for hours to eventually discover a missing closing bracket at 4am. We've been through the trenches of debugging without AI, scouring the interwebs, going on side quests, black holes, and building sh*tty things from scratch without a chatbot grabbing our nether regions. But get this straight - we're not anti-AI. We're anti-AI-dependency. There's a difference between using AI as a tool and using it as a replacement to think and struggle. We believe humanity should understand coding fundamentals so as they can still get sh*t done in a cave with no WIFI.

Csaba Kissi

@dnlbtlr Great work, Daniel! I think we'll need more tests like this one. I see many Vibe coders who lack even the fundamental coding skills.

Daniel B

@csaba_kissi Thanks Csaba! When you're finally sick of typing "fix the issue" and burning through tokens , it's time to take back control and brush up on those skillz haha.

Csaba Kissi

@dnlbtlr Thanksfully I have 25+ years of experience. So I still remember something.

Daniel B

@csaba_kissi show off! haha 😜

Marita Malvinsdatter Stenersen

Looks like I’ve got some skills to brush up on this summer πŸ˜„ 🧠

Per Borgen

At Scrimba, we're getting a front-row seat to the skill atrophy happening among developers. Time and again, I hear from students who dove too deep into vibe coding, only to realize they can no longer build things without Cursor by their side.

I'm not at all against vibe coding. It's empowering, fun, and productive. But muscles that aren't used eventually rot. And if you want to become a professional developer, you need a solid technical understanding of the tools you rely on.


That makes being a coding student or junior dev especially tough today. You have to strike a tricky balance: use AI just enough to move forward, but not so much that you forget how to think. Because one day, you’ll get lost in your own codebase and realize you’ve forgotten the fundamentals.

Mukta Das

It was fun taking the test. Also it looks like I have to reunite with the sweet old vanilla(CSS) πŸ˜†

Daniel B

@mukta_das that sweet sweet taste 🍦

Abdul Rafay

"The Dev Atrophy Test is a brilliantly crafted, brutally honest, and hilariously savage way to measure whether your raw coding skills have survived the AI revolution, forcing you to confront the reality of your developer instincts without the safety net of tools like ChatGPT β€” all wrapped in a bold, meme-rich experience that keeps you entertained while delivering a much-needed wake-up call for modern devs."

Daniel B

@abdul_rafay25 haha if it smells like ChatGPT...

Ian Sampaio

Great launch! A reminder for us to flex our 🧠 and watch out for the negative effects of apps and now AI in our lives. My poor brain is already atrophied for friends & family phone number and street names around my home 😳

Daniel B

@ianvanpaio haha πŸ’― i cant even go anywhere now without firing up gmaps, now fast forward 5 years and imagine what it does do you coding brain!

Lakshya Singh

Haha! I love description. Congrats on the launch @tom_chant1 @frode_jensen @roku_blac

Daniel B

@tom_chant1  @frode_jensen  @roku_blac  @lakshya_singh We tried to strike the balance with the right level of "attitude" to get ya'll motivated haha, thanks Lakshya and hope you enjoy the Test. πŸ’₯

Abdellah Alaoui

Very nice. I need to actually learn Css Grid syntax though. It's about time ... https://scrimba.com/fullstack-path-c0fullstack/~0kc

Nader Ikladious

Wow looks very cool, I think I have couple of people in mind that would appreciate it when I recommend this to them 😊
Congratulations on the launch πŸ‘πŸš€

Daniel B

@naderikladious Thanks Nader, we've seen this being shared around as a "dare" to other devs haha

Nader Ikladious

@dnlbtlr hahaha Ah I see

MikaΓ«l SΓ©vigny

I like this initiative a lot. I'm not against AI or vibe conding per se, but hand-coding programs and learning new syntax is as important as ever (if not more so) and quizzing yourself regularly is a great way to stay sharp.

Daniel B

@mikael_sevigny Thanks MikaΓ«l! Did you get on the leaderboard? (we recently pushed that new feature🫒 )

MikaΓ«l SΓ©vigny

@dnlbtlr Oh nice! It'll give it a shot when my baby's taking a nap 😜

Daniel B

What score did you get...? drop it in the comments or better still post your Certificate 😜

Pulkit Garg

I love how Scrimba lets me pause and code directly in the lesson it’s way more engaging than traditional video tutorials. Does the new Instant Feedback feature adapt to different coding styles, or is it based on a fixed set of solutions?

Zanele Mokoena

Scrimba’s launch is a game-changer for dev education! Merging the IDE with video is a brilliant move . it closes the gap between passive learning and real practice. Instead of switching tabs or just watching someone code, learners interact directly with the content. This feels like the natural next step in online coding education hands-on, immersive, and super intuitive. Big win for devs of all levels!

Sonatan Paul

Wow, I love The Dev Atrophy Test! Perfect for passing boring time.

Daniel B

@sonatanpaul That's the spirit!

Bakar
Apart from doing a good job at what's its supposed to do, it defo highlights the skill atrophy issue that is soon gonna be(if not already has) gone widespread in the industry
Daniel B

@bakar_khan thanks! that was the intention besides the exercises, to get folks thinking and discussing how to best work with AI tools πŸ‘―

Omar Swailam

love the concept, definitely a fun way to see if you've still got it.

Daniel B

@omar_swailam Thanks Omar, any features you'd like to see added just lust us know in our forum here https://www.producthunt.com/p/scrimba/think-your-dev-brain-s-still-got-it-take-our-new-test-to-find-out

Saad Khan

As a Software Engineer, this was exactly what I needed. It's easy to get comfortable with AI helping out, but this platform forces you to strengthen your core problem-solving muscles. It's a great reminder that true skill comes from understanding the fundamentals, not just finding quick solutions. I'd recommend this to any dev who wants to ensure their foundations are solid.

Daniel B

@saad_khan79 Thanks Saad, it's all about the reps πŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺ to keep lean and mean 😎

Ali Moosa

Great Launch!!! Tried the Dev Atrophy Test by Scimba.. surprr insightful!! Great way to check if your coding fundamentals are still sharp without relying on AI. Loved the feedback format. πŸ‘πŸ”₯

Daniel B

@ali_moosa Cheers Ali, and we just added a new feature to celebrate wins more – Leaderboards! πŸ₯‡πŸ₯ˆπŸ₯‰

Teerawat Wuttiwat

Difficult but fun.

Daniel B

@twuttiwat this is "the way" πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘

Ayush Thakur

It’s great to have a platform that offers so many features all in one place!