Hello Reader

This edition lands on 7/11, which means one thing if you're in the US: free Slurpee day. If you're reading this near a 7-Eleven, consider this your official permission slip to go claim one.

We can't hand out frozen drinks through your inbox (yet), but we can offer the next best thing: a fresh round of community wins, a beta you can actually play with, and a challenge with merch on the line. Fair warning that this week's edition moves fast, so pace yourself. Nobody wants brain freeze twice in one day.

Let's get into it.

TL;DR

◉ Platform Updates: Beta test the new learning experience + a competition!

◉ Kind Words: Thank you Harini!

◉ Student of the Week: MD AZAM KHAN​

◉ Poll of the Week: Debugging methodologies + last week’s results!

Platform Updates

​Explain is in beta, and you can try it now!​

Explain lets you turn anything confusing into an “Explainer”: a short, AI-narrated guide in plain language. We built it with code in mind, but you all had other plans.

Within days, people were making Explainers on credit scores, buying a home, changing car brakes, Stoicism, Indian temples, and coffee. Coding topics too, of course. But the range has genuinely surprised us.

It’s free while it’s in beta, works in just about any major language, and the Community tab is where you can publish yours and browse everyone else’s.

One ask: it’s a beta, so things might wobble. If something’s confusing, broken, or brilliant, we want to hear it. That’s what the WhatsApp group is for (https://scrimba.com/whatsapp). Come say hi.

Make one, win merch 🏆

To celebrate the launch, we’re running a mini challenge: make a short Explainer about something you’re genuinely into right now. Coding-related or completely random, we just want to know what it is and why it brings you joy.

The winner gets a $50 merch store coupon, plus a feature across our socials and right here in the newsletter.

Watch this Explainer for the details:

Kind Words

Harini Sri Reddy just finished the Prompt Engineering for Web Developers course and wrote a post that honestly made our week.

They talked about going in expecting to learn prompt writing and coming out with much more: a real sense of when to trust AI, when to verify it, and how to make it an actual development partner instead of a slot machine.

Harini, thank you. Taking the time to write something that thoughtful means a lot, and Treasure is beaming.

If a course ever clicks for you the way this one did for Harini, we’d love to hear about it. Posts like these are the best part of our feed.

Student of the Week

This week the spotlight is on MD Azam Khan, who built what he’s calling his most important project yet: a cat meme generator.

You pick an emotion, toggle “gifs only” if you’re feeling fancy, and a matching cat appears in a modal. The world needed this app, and Azam delivered.

But the silly premise is doing serious reps underneath: DOM manipulation, dynamic radio buttons built from real data, array filtering with multiple conditions, and modal logic. His words: “Small project. Big fundamentals.”

That’s the whole philosophy in four purr-fect words. Congrats, Azam! 🐱

Poll of the Week

Last week’s verdict: it’s team dark mode, and it wasn’t close. Two thirds of you apparently physically recoil from a white screen. The vampires have the numbers.

This week, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite debugging methodology:

Meme of the Week

Texting a dev? Expect flags.

Wrap Up

It’s time for your weekly dose of cuteness from #scrimba-pets !🐶🐱🐍🐟

AFK. Do not disturb.

Thank you for reading, everyone! Have a lovely week, keep calm and Scrimba on.

Alana @alanacapcreates The Scrimba Community Newsletter