This startup wants to become the Duolingo to learn coding

Indian Express

2 days ago

'Our way of learning is somewhat inefficient. It takes a lot of practice to get good, and it is really hard to stay motivated—especially when building projects without much guidance.' Paul Kuruvilla, Chief Technology Officer at Codecrafters, describes what inspired him to create a learning platform that helps software engineers become better developers even as the world is rapidly moving toward automation.
At the moment, developers have to set the entire curriculum for themselves, do all the practice, and manage everything on their own. 'A lot of that could have been easier if there were a platform that provided a clear roadmap and helped you track your progress.'
Started by Kuruvilla and Sarup Banskota in 2022, Codecrafters doesn't follow the traditional route of teaching coding through videos or live sessions. Instead, the platform's philosophy is to have developers take on challenging projects and master a programming language, with the goal of deepening their knowledge and gaining hands-on experience early in their careers.
'We want to create the Duolingo equivalent for software engineering—an app that offers a unified experience, keeps you motivated, and connects you with a community of learners so you can see how you stack up against others.' So the idea is to make learning more efficient by applying the same principles Duolingo uses: the best way to learn is by doing.
'Unlike platforms like Coursera, where you might watch a two-hour video and then do a short project, our approach starts with building projects right from the beginning,' Kuruvilla tells indianexpress.com over a video call from Cupertino, California. 'As soon as you start, you are working within the context of a project. All your learning, supplemental resources, and progress happen through completing meaningful tasks. We choose fairly large, real-world projects to anchor the experience.'
Kuruvilla, who is from Kerala and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology in Ropar, spent a few years in India and worked as an Engineering Manager at Sequoia-backed Shuttl in Gurugram. Meanwhile, Banskota, who is from Assam, previously served as Head of Growth & Marketing at Vercel, a $3.25 billion devtools startup. The duo first met at an IIT prep school in Chennai, and years later went on to co-found Codecrafters. Both are self-taught coders, with Kuruvilla transitioning from mechanical engineering to computer science.
A computer scientist is someone who studies how computers can be used to solve a wide range of problems, often drawing on applied mathematics. But learning to program is hard, and it's difficult to know where to start. Even more challenging to figure out what to do after you have learned the basics.
As programming languages continue to evolve, what someone learned in school may already be outdated — especially for those aspiring to build a career in tech. This has led many developers, particularly those without computer science degrees, to take the path of self-teaching and learn coding on their own.
In fact, the trend of self-taught programmers has been on the rise in recent years. As more of this talent enters the job market, companies have adapted their recruiting strategies. This shift has also contributed to the rise of online platforms that help developers — even those still early in their careers, such as engineering students — learn coding effectively.
That's where Codecrafters comes into the picture. 'I would say the [platform] is more aligned with software engineering. There's a bit more to it than just programming — software engineering also involves things like breaking down a large task into smaller, parts, ensuring proper testing, and building high-quality software.'
The basic idea behind Codecrafters is to offer 'Build Your Own X' projects — such as a BitTorrent client, Git, Redis, Docker, a shell, a text editor, and more. A developer can take courses on Codecrafters lasting from three weeks to several months. The platform offers 10 courses spread across 250 exercises.
'So from a beginner's perspective, if you don't want to program at all, this is probably not a good fit. There are many other platforms that do that better — things like FreeCodeCamp come to mind. It's not great for beginners because it throws you into the deep end right away. But if you are somewhere in the middle — someone who knows how to program, has built some projects on your own, but still has that nagging feeling that you would get lost if things got more complex — then the only way to improve is through practice, practice, and more practice. That's where we help,' Kuruvilla explains.
Learning to code has been a dream for millions of people — and it still is, especially in India. However, when layoffs hit and, for the first time, the world's top tech companies laid off thousands of people a few years back, mostly software engineers, it came as a shock to many that even highly paid developers aren't always secure.
But today, the landscape looks very different. Programming jobs are plummeting, tech layoffs are at their peak, and even if you are not a programmer but are creating your own software with help from artificial intelligence, coding boot camps — which once looked like the golden ticket to an economically secure future— no longer guarantee the same.
Kuruvilla doesn't agree that we are heading toward a future where coders will become extinct and AI will take over programming jobs. 'AI is not complete automation; it is partial automation,' he says. 'Maybe some parts of your job will become much easier and quicker to do, and you will just end up doing more. At the level these tools are at now, and where I think they will be in the short term, it's always going to be a human-in-the-loop kind of thing.'
'We continuously test them against our courses, and we know that they don't get very far. AI may perform well in the early stages, but as soon as the complexity reaches a certain level, it starts to get stuck,' he continues.
'We build things that are inherently difficult—often the kinds of things AI doesn't handle well yet, like databases, operating systems, and similar complex systems. We break these projects down into bite-sized chunks, so each stage is approachable. If you spend maybe half an hour to an hour on a task, that time adds up, and over time, you are building theoretically complex software. I would say it's all about learning by doing—and that's our core focus,' he said.
While more tech companies such as Meta and Microsoft are encouraging developers to use AI to write code, Kuruvilla believes highly valued programmers are still at the forefront of the technology's potential. He said it's an exaggeration to claim that tech companies won't need software developers in the future — they still need developers to build AI agents, for example.
Despite dire warnings that AI could soon automate millions of jobs — with software developers often singled out as prime targets — millions of young Indians still aspire to become software engineers.
'I think the allure of being a software engineer remains much the same as it was five years ago — AI or not. Computer science is still in demand because it's one of the highest-paying jobs. I also think it's a more flexible kind of job — it's something you can just do on your laptop.'
'It's one of the few fields where the barrier to practice is almost zero. It's not like being a doctor, where you have to study books and then gain hands-on experience. In software engineering, there's no real cost to failure while practicing. So I think it's one of the fields where we can take the actual work you will be doing on the job and simulate it through a platform.'
Codecrafters, Kuruvilla says, is a good fit for those who are early in their career — maybe a year or two into a job — but it's definitely not aimed at those who are just starting college and have no idea what coding is. It's also not suitable for people who have been in the field for a decade.
Of the 300,000 user base, Kuruvilla says India is the largest country in terms of sign-ups though a majority of paying users continue to come from the US and Europe. The platform offers its courses through memberships, which can be purchased for three months, 12 months, or a lifetime.
In terms of expansion, Kuruvilla is considering targeting students who are closer to their final year, especially in India. 'The reason we haven't done this yet is because ours is a paid product, and based on our pricing, it's not a great fit for students at the moment. But I think what we will do is launch a free program specifically for students,' he said.
Programming is still a worthwhile skill to learn, even though it may not be as important as before. Python, JavaScript, and Java remain widely used. Some might have declared coding obsolete due to the rise of low-code platforms, AI, or no-code solutions that let anyone build software without writing a single line of code. But the statement that coding is dead may not be true.
'When we hire, we don't require people to know specific languages. We say if you know the language we use, that's a plus. But we care more about how versatile you are as an engineer. We believe that engineering skills are transferable across frameworks and domains. So if you have created iOS apps and have done a breadth of engineering work — building different kinds of software — I don't think it's too hard for you to pick up the Google stack. It shouldn't be too difficult,' Kuruvilla says when asked about how important upskilling is for software engineers.
There is still no real replacement for a human coder. Even if automation is the future, as many claim, someone still has to write the underlying code that powers these platforms. AI and no-code can be great for simple applications, but when companies need custom logic, integrations, scalability, and performance tuning, they will need real coders.
'One thing we always tell people who come to our platform is that you should optimise for both breadth and depth. You need to build different kinds of software. For example, you might try making a game, a task management app, a database, or a phone app — that covers breadth. Once you pick one thing, take it as far as you can. For instance, if you are building a spreadsheet app, don't stop at just having a basic grid and entering values. Add formulas, automations, and try to make it more and more complex. That's where most people struggle — they don't have the skills to go deep, and that's where we help.'
'If you have got both breadth and depth covered, I think you are pretty future-proof. Anything new that comes along will likely be similar to something you've already seen, so it's not too hard to pick up. On the other hand, if you don't do either — if you only learn one thing without exposing yourself to others, and you don't try to build complex software but stick to simple projects — then, yes, you will struggle when you are forced to adapt,' he said.
The Y Combinator-backed startup raised a $1.8 million seed round last year from prominent tech figures, including Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, former Vercel COO Kevin Van Gundy, Supabase CEO Paul Copplestone, solo VC Alana Goyal of Basecase Capital, and PlanetScale co-founder Jitendra Vaidya.
Kuruvilla and his team work in a fully remote setup, with Kuruvilla based in Cupertino, California, and Banskota living in San Francisco. The entire team at Codecrafters is spread across the world, with members in Estonia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, and India.
Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at indianexpress.com who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin.
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