LoopWar.
dev — Project Overview & Launch Plan
Generated on: 2025-08-19
LoopWar.dev — Project Overview, Product Spec, Roadmap & Launch Plan
Prepared for: LoopWar Team
Prepared by: Rahul (LoopWar Founder) + Assistant
Date: 2025-08-19
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1. Executive Summary
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LoopWar.dev is an AI-first learning platform focused on making coding,
system design, and practical software skills accessible, personalized,
and fun. Unlike pure problem banks, LoopWar blends a curated curriculum,
project-driven tracks, and an AI mentor that provides hints, step-by-step
debugging, personalized roadmaps, and interactive "LoopWar" coding battles.
Mission:
Empower students to learn by doing, with AI-guided help, real projects,
and gamified collaborative learning that prepares them for careers.
Vision:
Become the go-to platform for students and colleges that want hands-on
learning with AI mentors and project-based outcomes.
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2. Problem Statement & Opportunity
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Students face these common issues:
- Confusion: What should I learn first? Which problems matter?
- Isolation: Static problem statements without guidance.
- Gap to industry: Difficulty converting algorithmic knowledge to real projects.
- Motivation: Repetitive practice without personalization leads to drop-off.
Opportunity:
Build a platform combining problem solving, guided projects, and AI
mentorship to increase learning effectiveness and retention.
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3. Target Users & Personas
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Primary:
- College students (CS & non-CS) seeking practical skills and placement prep.
- Beginners wanting guided learning paths in a single platform.
Secondary:
- Competitive programmers who want AI-powered hints and battle modes.
- Colleges & educators for classroom integration and assignments.
Personas:
- "Newbie Nisha": Freshman starting programming in Python.
- "Placement Prakash": Preparing for interviews; wants DSA + system design.
- "Project Priya": Wants to build AI projects & deploy them.
- "Teacher Tanu": Uses LoopWar as a course supplement for labs.
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4. Core Product & Key Features
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Core Principles:
- Problem-first experience (pick problem → choose language).
- Multi-language templates and canonical answers.
- AI Mentor: tiered hints, targeted feedback, and debugging.
- Project tracks & capstones with rubrics and peer review.
- Gamified battles: Solo vs AI, Team vs Team, Time-limited duels.
Key Features:
1. Problem bank with tags, difficulty, and multi-language templates.
2. Code editor & sandbox runner with public & hidden tests.
3. AI Hint Engine: automatic hint generation, failure analysis, test-case explanations.
4. Personalized Learning Paths: adaptive syllabus based on performance.
5. Projects & Capstones: step milestones, automated grading + manual review.
6. LoopWar Battles: matchmaking, leaderboards, and spectate.
7. Analytics Dashboard: progress, weak-topic suggestions, cohort comparison.
8. Community: discussions, editorial, and user-submitted problems.
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5. Content Strategy (Curriculum & Languages)
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Languages (MVP priority):
- Python (beginner-friendly; AI / ML)
- C++ (competitive programming)
- Java (industry interviews)
- PHP (founder expertise & backend track)
Content Tracks:
- Foundations: Syntax, Control flow, Functions
- DSA: Arrays, Strings, Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues, Trees, Graphs, DP
- Web Dev: HTML/CSS/JS, REST APIs, Backend (PHP/Node)
- Databases: SQL basics → advanced queries
- AI/ML: Python mini projects, deployment basics
- System Design & DevOps: architecture patterns, docker, CI/CD
Content Format:
- Problems (easy/medium/hard)
- Guided Projects (milestones)
- Quizzes & assessments
- Editorials & canonical solutions per language
- AI-generated hints and diagnostics
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6. Product Flows & User Journeys
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A) New user (beginner):
- Sign up → pick a goal (e.g., "Learn Web Dev") → onboarding test → AI builds a roadmap.
- Follow path → complete lessons, problems, mini-projects → earn badges.
B) Competitive user:
- Browse problems by tag/difficulty → enter LoopWar battles → view leaderboard.
C) Teacher workflow:
- Create class → assign tracks → view student analytics & export grades.
D) Problem flow:
- Open problem → select language → read hints (optional) → code & run → submit → get feedback
and AI explanation.
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7. System Architecture (High-level)
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Components:
- Frontend: Static site for content + SPA editor (HTML/CSS/JS, optionally React later)
- Backend (Core): PHP (Laravel/Slim) — user auth, content API, progress tracking
- Realtime/AI microservices: Node.js or Python microservice for WebSockets, streaming, and
long-running AI tasks
- Database: Primary relational DB (MySQL/Postgres)
- Cache: Redis (sessions, rate-limiting, leaderboard)
- Storage: Cloud storage for user uploads (GCS/S3)
- AI Integrations: OpenAI / Vertex AI / custom model endpoints for hint generation,
explanation, and embeddings
- Code Runner: Sandboxed execution environment (Docker-runner, managed VMs or 3rd party
judge)
- Queue: RabbitMQ / PubSub for background tasks (grading, AI prompts, test runs)
- Monitoring & Logging: Prometheus / Grafana / ELK stack
Data Flow:
- User submits code → enqueue job to runner → run against public & hidden tests → results
stored → AI hint engine consumes failure traces → returns targeted hints & explanation.
Security:
- Sandboxed runner with strict time/memory limits, network egress restrictions.
- Secure API keys, encryption at rest & transit for user data.
- Rate limiting, content moderation for community submissions.
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8. AI Features & How They Work
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AI Mentor Capabilities:
- Tiered hints: from gentle high-level hint to step-by-step pseudo-code.
- Failure analysis: parse stack traces & test failures to explain root cause.
- Code correction suggestions: propose minimal changes to fix failing tests.
- Personalized curriculum: use embeddings of user mistakes to recommend topics.
Implementation approach:
- Use LLMs for natural language generation (hints, explanations).
- Use deterministic analysis (trace comparison, input-output diff) for concrete failures.
- Maintain prompt patterns & safety checks; cache common hints to control cost.
- Store anonymized training data (with consent) to fine-tune or create retrieval-augmented
generation (RAG) over editorial content.
Costs & Optimizations:
- Mix LLM calls with cached editorial content.
- Short prompts + structured outputs (JSON) reduce token usage.
- Use smaller models for hint tiers; escalate to larger only when needed.
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9. MVP Scope & Concrete Deliverables
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MVP Goals:
- Validate demand for AI-guided learning & LoopWar battles.
- Acquire first 1000 students from local colleges.
MVP Features:
1. User auth & profiles.
2. Problem-first catalog (≈50–80 problems).
3. Multi-language code editor (Python, C++, Java, PHP).
4. Sandboxed code runner and judge (public & hidden tests).
5. Basic AI mentor (hints & post-submit explanations).
6. Progress tracking, leaderboards, and basic gamification.
7. Admin panel to add problems and inspect submissions.
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10. Content Production Process
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Roles:
- Content Lead: define tracks & quality standards.
- Problem Writers: create problem statements, tests, and editorials.
- Reviewers: QA problems & canonical solutions.
- AI Prompt Engineer: craft hint templates & test prompts.
Workflow:
1. Problem ideation → 2. Draft statement & tests → 3. Internal review → 4. Publish to staging
→ 5. Run live QA (5–10 students) → 6. Publish.
Asset manifest per problem:
- id, title, tags, difficulty, allowed languages, public tests, hidden tests, editorial,
hints, canonical solutions.
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11. Monetization & Business Model
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Options:
- Freemium: core problems free, premium subscription for advanced tracks, projects, and
company packs.
- College licensing: campus-wide access & integration with LMS.
- Paid assessments & certifications.
- Recruiter partnerships and placement services.
- Sponsored contests / company challenge packs.
Pricing ideas (example):
- Free tier: access to basic problems & projects.
- Pro: INR 199/month or INR 1499/year — premium tracks, AI mentor priority, interview prep
packs.
- Campus license: negotiated per institution.
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12. Go-to-Market & Growth Strategy
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Initial channels:
- Campus ambassadors & college clubs.
- YouTube tutorials & project walkthroughs.
- Discord/Telegram community & competitions.
- Partnerships with coding clubs & professors.
- Social media (short videos showing AI mentor fixes).
Growth Tactics:
- Virality via "LoopWar Battles" shareable clips.
- Referral incentives & leaderboards.
- Placement success stories and testimonials.
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13. Key Metrics & KPIs
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Product Metrics:
- DAU, MAU, retention (D7, D30)
- Time on platform, problems attempted per user
- Completion rate of tracks & projects
- Conversion rate (free → paid)
- LLM usage & cost per active user
Education Metrics:
- Improvement in accuracy over time
- Skills progression & topic mastery
- Placement rate (over time)
Operational Metrics:
- Avg job runtime & runner success rate
- Uptime & error rates
- Abuse/moderation incidents
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14. Team & Hiring Plan
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Initial team (core):
- Founder/CEO (Product + Vision) — Rahul
- Backend Engineer (PHP + infra)
- Frontend Engineer (JS/React)
- AI Engineer (LLM prompts & microservices)
- Content Lead + 2 Problem Writers
- DevOps (part-time / contractor)
Hiring phases:
- Phase 1: Build MVP (0–3 months)
- Phase 2: Scale & optimize (3–9 months)
- Phase 3: Growth & partnerships (9–18 months)
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15. Security, Privacy & Compliance
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- User data protection (encrypt sensitive data; GDPR/India privacy basics)
- Secure storage of API keys (vault)
- Code runner isolation to prevent escape
- Abuse detection for plagiarism & content moderation
- Terms of use for AI-generated outputs
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16. Risks & Mitigations
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1. High LLM cost → mitigate via caching, tiered model usage.
2. Cheating & plagiarism → design robust similarity detection; proctored assessments.
3. Content quality → strict QA & review workflows.
4. Scaling judge infra → use autoscaling containers and rate limit usage.
5. Market competition → emphasize AI mentor, college partnerships, and project-based outcomes.
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17. Roadmap (12–18 months)
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Month 0–3 (MVP)
- Build core platform, 60 problems, basic AI hints, code runner, initial marketing to 5
colleges.
Month 4–6
- Add projects, LoopWar battles V1, advanced DSA packets, subscription model.
Month 7–12
- Expand languages, refine AI mentor (RAG), college licensing, placements features.
Year 2
- Mobile app, proctoring, enterprise partnerships, content marketplace.
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18. Appendices
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A. Sample problem manifest JSON (example):
{ "id":"array-001", "title":"Two Sum", "tags":["arrays","hashing"], "difficulty":"Easy",
"languages":["python","cpp","java","php"] }
B. Sample editorial & hint templates (stored separately in content repo).
C. Contact & next steps:
- Get MVP dev plan scheduled, assign tasks, begin outreach to 10 colleges for pilots.
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End of Document
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