Intermediate challenges¶

You've built something that works. These are about structure, error handling and code someone else can read.

Each of these needs more than one module. If yours is one long file, that's the first thing the brief is teaching you.

HTTP API client with a cache¶

Goal. A small library that wraps a public API and caches responses so you don't re-request the same thing.

Pick an API with no authentication — there are plenty of open ones.

Done when:

• Repeat calls with the same arguments hit the cache, not the network.
• The cache expires after a configurable interval.
• Network failures raise something your caller can catch and understand.
• Tests pass with no network access at all.
• The public interface is documented well enough for someone to use without reading the source.

Stretch. Cache to disk instead of memory. Add retries with backoff. Rewrite it with httpx and async, and measure whether it actually got faster.

Time. A week of evenings.

Log file analyser¶

Goal. Read a large log file, extract structure, and report on it.

Done when:

• It handles a file too large to fit in memory.
• Malformed lines are counted and skipped, not fatal.
• Output includes counts, a time range, and the most frequent entries.
• It has a --json mode for machine-readable output.
• Running it on an empty file produces an empty report, not a crash.

Stretch. Multiple log formats via a plugin structure. Streaming from stdin so it works in a pipe. Charts, if you can do it without making the tool worse.

Time. A week of evenings.

def parse(path):
    with open(path) as handle:
        for line in handle:
            entry = parse_line(line)
            if entry is not None:
                yield entry

lines = open(path).read().splitlines()

Discord bot cog¶

Goal. Add a feature to Eos — or your own bot, if you'd rather not open a pull request yet.

This is the brief most likely to end with your code running in the server.

Done when:

• The cog loads without touching any other cog.
• Commands validate their input and fail with a message, not a traceback.
• Anything needing the database goes through the API, not direct SQL.
• No blocking calls in an async function. No time.sleep.
• Permissions are checked where they matter.

Stretch. Add persistence via a new API route. Write tests for the helper functions. Handle Discord's rate limits properly under load.

Time. A weekend, plus review time if you open a pull request.

Where next¶

There isn't an advanced page yet. At this point the useful next step is maintaining something real — pick an issue on one of our projects and work with a reviewer.