🧪 Interactive Learning Tools

10 tools that make abstract concepts tangible. Stop reading. Start doing.

⌨️ Skill Drills

Build muscle memory with repetition

Vim Navigation Trainer

Navigate using hjkl only. Arrow keys disabled!

⌨️ Vim Navigation Trainer

Stars: 0Moves: 0

Arrow keys are DISABLED. Use only:

h ←
j ↓
k ↑
l →

Binary & Hex Racer

Quick conversions between decimal, binary, hex.

🧮 Binary & Hex Racer

Score: 0Streak: 🔥 0

Convert between decimal, binary, and hex. 8 seconds per question!

10 → 1010 (bin)
255 → FF (hex)

Port Number Speed Run

Quick! What port is SSH? Race the clock.

⚡ Port Number Speed Run

Score: 0/0Streak: 🔥 0Best: 0

Learn common service ports! Pick the correct port for each service.

15 seconds per question. Use hints if you're stuck.

🔧 Builders

Construct solutions interactively

TCP Handshake Builder

Click packets in order to establish a connection.

🔌 TCP Handshake Builder

Click packets in the correct order to establish a TCP connection.

💻
Client
Click packets below
🖥️
Server

Regex Builder

Click blocks to build regex patterns for log parsing.

🔍 Regex Builder

Challenge 1/3
Log line:
2024-01-15 10:30:45 [ERROR] Connection failed from 192.168.1.100
🎯 Goal: Extract the date, time and IP address
Your regex pattern:
Click parts below to build your regex...
/(select parts below)/
Available patterns:

chmod Calculator

Toggle permissions and see chmod update in real-time.

🔐 chmod Permission Calculator

Toggle permissions and see the chmod value update in real-time.

OCTAL
754
chmod 754 file.txt
SYMBOLIC
-rwxr-xr--
ls -l output
Owner= 7 (rwx)
Group= 5 (r-x)
Other= 4 (r--)
Quick presets:

🔬 Visualizers

Make the invisible visible

The Distance of Latency

If L1 cache is one foot away, RAM is miles.

🔬 The Distance of Latency

If L1 cache is 1 foot away, how far is RAM? Feel the difference.

L1 CacheCross-Country
L1 Cache
CPU Cycles
4
Time
~1ns
If L1 = 1 foot
1.0 feet

On-die, per-core. Lightning fast.

Visual Scale (logarithmic)
L1 Cache
~1ns
L2 Cache
~3ns
L3 Cache
~10ns
Main Memory (RAM)
~50ns
NVMe SSD
~25μs
Network (Datacenter)
~500μs
Network (Cross-Country)
~50ms

💡 In HFT, accessing RAM instead of L1 can cost you the trade.

Speed of Light Calculator

Physics sets the floor. See why microwave beats fiber.

🌍 Speed of Light Calculator

Physics sets the floor. How close can you get to it?

Distance
1,144 km
(710.848 miles)
⚡ Theoretical Min
3.82
ms (one-way)
Straight line, vacuum
📡 Microwave
4.21
ms (one-way)
Line-of-sight towers
🔌 Fiber Optic
8.01
ms (one-way)
Underground cables
💡 HFT Insight: Microwave saves ~7.60ms round-trip vs fiber. At $10M/day trading, that's worth millions in infrastructure.

🎮 Operator's Console

Simulate real-world scenarios

Order Book Replay

Watch a flash crash in slow motion.

📊 Order Book Replay: Flash Crash

ETH/USD
T+0s
T+0s: Normal Market
Healthy spread: $0.50. Deep liquidity on both sides.
BIDS (Buy Orders)
$2000.0050
$1999.50120
$1999.00200
$1998.50350
$1998.00500
ASKS (Sell Orders)
$2000.5045
$2001.00100
$2001.50180
$2002.00300
$2002.50450
Spread: $0.50 | Mid: $2000.25

Kernel Config Tuner

Toggle settings, watch your latency grade improve.

⚡ Kernel Config Tuner

Toggle settings and watch your latency score improve

F
Stock Kernel
Base Latency
100μs
Tuned Latency
100μs
Improvement
0%
🔧 CPU
isolcpus=2-7★ RECOMMENDED
Isolate CPU cores from scheduler. Dedicate to your app.
-15μs
nohz_full=2-7★ RECOMMENDED
Disable timer ticks on isolated cores. Less jitter.
-10μs
rcu_nocbs=2-7★ RECOMMENDED
Move RCU callbacks off isolated cores.
-5μs
intel_pstate=disable★ RECOMMENDED
Disable CPU frequency scaling. Lock to max.
-8μs
💾 Memory
transparent_hugepages=never★ RECOMMENDED
Disable THP. Prevents random latency spikes.
-12μs
numa_balancing=0★ RECOMMENDED
Disable NUMA balancing. Pin memory manually.
-6μs
vm.swappiness=0★ RECOMMENDED
Never swap. Keep everything in RAM.
-5μs
🌐 Network
busy_poll=50★ RECOMMENDED
Busy-poll sockets. Uses CPU but lowers latency.
-20μs
tcp_timestamps=0
Disable TCP timestamps. Small header savings.
-2μs
📋 Scheduler
Disable irqbalance★ RECOMMENDED
Manually pin IRQs. Prevent random migrations.
-8μs

Want to learn more?

These tools are embedded in the /learn curriculum. Each lesson has interactive components.

Explore /learn →