Skip to content
Learn by doing

Labs

Short, hands-on missions in the simulator. Each one tells you what to do, why, and what changed, from your first app to running your own AI models.

18 labs, a few minutes each

Basics

Build your first app and learn the parts every app has. Open to everyone.

  1. Lab 1
    Your first app

    Build the three parts almost every app has, then watch requests flow through them.

    5 stepsOpen lab
  2. Lab 2
    When one server is too busy

    Triple the traffic, watch one server give up, then add a copy to share the work.

    6 stepsOpen lab
  3. Lab 3
    Find the slow part

    Something is slowing this app down. Use the colours and the coach to find it, then fix it.

    4 stepsOpen lab
  4. Lab 4
    Remember answers with a cache

    The database is slow. Keep popular answers close, so most requests never reach it.

    5 stepsOpen lab
  5. Lab 5
    Keep going when a server dies

    Servers break. Kill one on purpose, then add a backup so the app keeps working.

    7 stepsOpen lab

Growing

The tools apps use as they get popular. Free with an account.

  1. Lab 6
    More readers with a read replica

    Almost everyone is reading, and the database can't keep up. Give reads their own copy.

    4 stepsOpen lab
  2. Lab 7
    Do slow work later with a queue

    Saving takes too long and people are left waiting. Reply at once and do the work in the background.

    7 stepsOpen lab
  3. Lab 8
    Send files from nearby with a CDN

    Pictures and files are swamping the app server. Hand them to a network built for files.

    5 stepsOpen lab
  4. Lab 9
    Stop a flood with a rate limiter

    Three times more requests than the server can handle. Turn the extra away quickly so the rest stay fast.

    6 stepsOpen lab
  5. Lab 10
    When retries make it worse

    Trying again sounds helpful. On a busy server, it can double the trouble.

    6 stepsOpen lab

AI

Build a chatbot, then make it cheaper, smarter and safer.

  1. Lab 11
    Build a chatbot

    Connect people to an AI model, then see how a bigger model changes quality, speed and cost.

    8 stepsOpen lab
  2. Lab 12
    Answer repeat questions from memory

    Half the questions have been asked before. Stop paying the model to answer them again.

    7 stepsOpen lab
  3. Lab 13
    Answer from your own documents

    Most questions are about your own help pages, and the model has never read them. Fix that with search.

    6 stepsOpen lab
  4. Lab 14
    Keep the bot safe

    One in ten messages is an attack trying to trick the bot. Add a safety check before the model.

    5 stepsOpen lab

Expert

Bigger problems, fewer instructions: chase bottlenecks and survive outages.

  1. Lab 15
    Survive a sale night

    A big sale brings 1,500 requests a second. Fix one bottleneck, then watch the next one appear.

    7 stepsOpen lab
  2. Lab 16
    Build a photo app from nothing

    6,000 requests a second, mostly photos. Start from an empty canvas and make it hold.

    9 stepsOpen lab
  3. Lab 17
    Run your own model on GPUs

    Stop renting a model and run your own. See what it saves, and why one GPU isn't enough.

    8 stepsOpen lab
  4. Lab 18
    Survive a provider outage

    Your AI provider goes down, and so does your product. Add a second provider and a gateway that switches over.

    8 stepsOpen lab