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Show HN: Dev atrophy test – Can you still code without AI?
Hey HN,
I'm Per from Scrimba (YC S20), the code-learning platform.
There's been a lot of talk lately about whether AI tools are causing skill atrophy amongst developers. We get a front-row seat to this, and we see more and more students struggle with basic concepts, and building apps on their own. This is almost always a consequence of relying too much on ChatGPT and vibe coding tools.
So we built a small side project:
https://devatrophy.com https://devatrophy.com
It's a test of your core web dev knowledge — no handholding, no back rubs, no AI autocomplete. Just you, your brain, and 10 questions. There are three levels (Noobie, Le Chad, Hardcore), and the questions cover HTML, CSS, JavaScript, databases, and Node.
You’ll get a score at the end, plus a downloadable certificate for bragging rights (or public shaming).
Would love for you to try it and tell us what you think. And would be curious to hear if you're feeling any signs of "dev atrophy" yourself, or in your team?
PS: Ironically we decided to produce it by vibe coding on V0. Oh the irony.
- raxxorraxor 1y ago[flagged]
- amelius 1y ago> no handholding I still feel more like the LLMs are the ones who need the handholding.
- downboots 1y agolumberjack test - can you down a tree without chainsaw?
- rijoja 1y agodev atrophy test - can you still code without ever reading a manual
- hailpixel 1y agoAlways love a fun quiz, but some of the example answers are just incorrect. Eg: `document.example('example')` to select a HTML button element. Others are to rigid to allow the true breadth of correct answers. Ya'll might want to switch from V0 to claude code.
- laserpistus 1y agoIt worked on my machine! seems v0 changed how it makes examples when it shouldnt.
- dakiol 1y agoI don’t see in which context coding without aid is helpful: - at work, nobody cares. They only want shipped features. - at home, I only care about having fun (and that doesn’t necessarily mean to not use tools like ides, llms, autocomplete, etc)
- frizlab 1y agoI sometimes code light swift scripts in vim without autocomplete. Not saying everybody should, but it’s fun to me, and convenient.
- rijoja 1y agoit's helpful for them, because it means they can get a lot of VC money by putting some ugly 4chan meme pictures on a website in order to get attention
- laserpistus 1y agoJust made for fun, we are self funded.
- rijoja 1y agobeing good at software design isn't about memorizing the specific details of a single language or subjects languages are subject to change hire people who are good at finding information not someone who is good at blindly memorizing details of a specific instance of a language or system someone who memorized every single detail of COBOL will be a worse coder than someone who spent time thinking about abstract thinking and problem solving you'll want to double check everything anyway this shows of a fundamental lack of insight into what it means to be a good developer it's like someone who thinks they are smarter than everyone else because they spent thousands on hours on playing chess this student who has memorized the full specification of HTML, CSS and Javascript will be useless if you ask them a question about lets say Erlang, and is easily replaced by a book
- rijoja 1y ago> This is almost always a consequence of relying too much on ChatGPT and vibe coding tools. How do you know it's not because they are to put it bluntly stupid or lazy?
- bmn__ 1y agoHave you even dogfooded your quiz once before publishing to the Web? > JS methods to select an element > YOUR ANSWER > getMethod: "getQuerySelectorAll" > EXAMPLE CORRECT ANSWER > const button = document.example('example'); TypeError: document.example is not a function ---- > Create an HTML form with an input field and submit button: > YOUR ANSWER > <input type="submit">Submit</input> > EXAMPLE CORRECT ANSWER > <button type="submit">Submit</button> Not incorrect answer assessed as incorrect.
- queenkjuul 1y agoNot sure what you expected, they built it with AI lol
- Stoo 1y agoYour button answer is wrong though because the input tag can't have content. The version using input should be <input type="submit" value="Submit" />.
- Stoo 1y agoHaving said that, I did just get marked down for having filter(num => num % 2 === 0) when the correct answer shouild (apparently) be filter(x => x % 2 === 0) so it's not great.
- laserpistus 1y agoClassic vibe issue of it regressing how the examples are generated. Will check it.
- Tistel 1y agoI am not worried about personal atrophy. I am worried about young people who never learn the fundamentals and blindly believe everything the llm say.
- rijoja 1y agocomputer science is not social science if your code doesn't work it doesn't work you can't bullshit a computer for people that are doing social science it's an issue but they where way past the point of no return already so it doesn't really matter
- queenkjuul 1y agoCode can absolutely "kinda work" or "mostly work"
- rijoja 1y agoaha and if it mostly works there are parts that doesn't work right?
- grues-dinner 1y ago> if your code doesn't work it doesn't work Code can definitely only sort of work: only works on the happy path, only works on the computer it was developed on, only works for some versions of some dependencies, only works when single threaded, only works when the network is fast enough, only works for a single user at a time etc etc etc.
- rijoja 1y agoyes so then you have a combination of code that works and code that doesn't work and the code that doesn't work doesn't work
- deepdarkforest 1y ago>if your code doesn't work it doesn't work you can't bullshit a computer this is wrong. I would argue the difference between a junior dev/intern and a senior engineer is that while both can write code that works, the juniors find local maximas, like solutions that work, but can't scale, or wont be very easy to integrate/add features on top/maintain etc. This happens in maths, biology, in all science fields. Experience is partly the ability to take decisions between options that both work. This is why coding assistants are amazing at executing things you are clear on what you want to do, but can't help (yet) on big picture tweaks
- pif 1y agoTypical of the dark side of HN, thinking that web programming represents software development, instead of being just one kind of information systems, which are a subset of software applications.
- evadne 1y agosome of the tests and standard answers are strange such as the one with debounced function not considering whether there should only be 1 arg / the dev could use the arguments keyword and call, the filter numbers question insisting on === instead of == etc etc.
- lofaszvanitt 1y agoSomeone spending too much time in wonderland. Code already ate through your common sense. Next.
- justcommenter 1y ago"Questions cover HTML, CSS, JavaScript, databases, and Node." Ah yes, as if Web development = All coding
- laserpistus 1y agoYou are right, it should just focus on React really.
- yifanl 1y agoSo as someone who's not written Javascript in a decade, this on the face of it seems wrong to me: Your example correct answer to "Write a function that returns the sum of two parameters" is function myFunction(example) { example } Is the atrophy coming from inside the house?
- laserpistus 1y agoThe vibe giveth, the vibe taketh. This worked but ai wants to rewrite whole files all of the time so it broke. Our designer fixed the issue now.
- DanAtC 1y ago[flagged]