Hello, learners! Are you ready to put your skills to the test? We are thrilled to announce a new 7-Day Challenge centered around our latest short course. This is your chance to move from theory to product by building a “Tiny Tamagotchi” using the Spec-Driven Development workflow from the Spec-Driven Development with Coding Agents short course.
Challenge Dates: Wednesday, April 15 – Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Submission Deadline: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 11:59 PST
Rewards & Recognition
We want to celebrate your hard work!
Winner Recognition: Standout submissions will receive special recognition from DeepLearning.AI and are eligible for small prizes (to be announced) to honor your technical excellence!
Your Challenge
Build a tiny virtual pet web app where the quality of your Technical Specification is the primary goal. You aren’t just coding; you are planning a living system.
The Workflow
- Write the Spec first: Define your pet’s logic, stats, and evolution.
- Implement the App: Use your Spec to drive the actual code.
Core Features
To create a digital companion that feels alive, focus on these four pillars:
- Living Vitals: Create meters for Hunger, Happiness, and Energy that automatically “tick” down over time to simulate a real-time need for care.
- The Care Loop: Provide simple actions like Feed, Play, and Rest to replenish stats and keep the pet healthy.
- Dynamic States: Use Normal, Sick, and Evolved states to give the player immediate visual feedback on their caretaking success.
- Personal Touches: Add small “Easter eggs” or quirky reactions to give your pet a unique personality beyond just the numbers.
Project Scope
To keep the focus on the workflow rather than over-engineering, please adhere to the following scope for the game requirements:
 Required |
 Not Allowed |
|---|---|
| Pet: Naming, 1 user, 1 evolution, 1 recovery path | Authentication and multiple users, multiple pets, inventories, or currencies |
| Stats (0–100): Hunger, Happiness, Energy | Mini-games, social features, or notifications |
| Actions: Feed, Play, Rest | Admin features or complex evolutions |
| States: Normal, Sick, Evolved | Permanent death mechanics |
Some Technical Guidelines:
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We recommend using AI Coding agents like OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or Gemini CLI (free).
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You will have to make your own design choices for the application–things like state persistence, single-page application vs. multi-page application, which tech stack/framework to use, etc.
How You Will Be Evaluated
The DeepLearning.AI staff isn’t looking for the flashiest UI. We are evaluating your ability to produce a clear, scoped, and implementation-ready Spec that a coding agent could follow perfectly. Your implementation must follow your Spec, but the Spec itself is your primary artifact for evaluation.
The following is the rubric that will be used to judge the quality of your specs:
| Criteria Group | Individual Criteria (0 or 1 score only) |
|---|---|
| Completeness | Are mission, audience, constraints, user flows, and success criteria all defined? Are edge cases addressed? |
| Clarity and Specificity | Are decision points (algorithms, thresholds, lifecycles) explicitly stated rather than left implicit? |
| Internal consistency | For each feature, the MD files are internally consistent with each other (meaning they do not contain any explicit contradictions) |
| Internal consistency | Feature spec documents are completely internally consistent with the constitution spec documents (meaning they do not contain any explicit contradictions) |
| Testability | 75%+ of the validation strategies in validation.md test explicitly stated principles, features, or other specifications laid out in the plan.md and requirements.md documents. |
| Testability | Validation strategies include at least two levels of difficulty (such as automated and manual tests, or “smoke tests” and user flow testing) |
| Testability | Validation strategies include a testing suite that is correctly and fully implemented |
Submission Details
To submit your project, please follow these steps carefully:
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Location: Go to the 7-Day Challenge category for Spec-Driven-Development on the Forum.
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Thread: Add your submission as a reply in the Submit post and add “Submission” in the ttle
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Tags: Ensure your post includes both the "7-day-challenge" tag and the "submission" tag.
Your submission must include:
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GitHub Repository Link: We only need to see your documentation folder! Ensure it contains:
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/specs: mission.md, roadmap.md, tech-stack.md -
/feature-name: feature-plan.md, requirements.md, and validation.md for each feature.
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Video: A brief walk-through showing your functional web app in action. (using a screencapture/share app like Loom)
Join your Peers
Go to the Short Course Q&A on the Forum to connect with other learners
Hop into our Discord channel to share updates, ask questions, and connect with other learners participating in the challenge: link
Public
April 15, 2026 → April 22, 2026