The problem
Almost every serious way to learn programming assumes you read English. For a huge Arabic-speaking audience, that's a wall before the first line of code, not because the concepts are hard, but because the language and the tooling aren't built for them. Akood set out to remove that wall.
What I built
Akood is a full learning platform where someone can go from zero to writing real, running code, entirely in Arabic, entirely in the browser.
- Write real code, in the browser. A first-class editor and an execution environment, so learners run actual programs instead of watching videos.
- Sandboxed execution. Untrusted code runs in an isolated environment with resource and time limits, so the platform stays safe no matter what a learner submits.
- A gamified curriculum. Lessons, challenges, and progression designed to keep people moving, practical exercises over passive reading.
- Auto-generated practice. Tooling that produces and checks exercises at scale, so the curriculum grows without a content bottleneck.
Technical highlights
The hard problem was running arbitrary user code safely and fast. Each submission executes in a sandbox with strict CPU, memory, and wall-clock limits, isolated from the host and from other learners, secure enough to expose publicly, fast enough that the feedback loop still feels instant. Around it sits an RTL-first interface where Arabic is the default, not a translation bolted on.
The result
A coding platform built for Arabic speakers from the ground up, now serving 10k+ monthly users learning to program in their own language.