powstik
Prove

Powstik Varsity

No waitlist. The work decides.

Open to anyone, anywhere. Real people check your work.

  • 100% admit rate
  • $0 core, always
  • 1 way to earn Honors: verified work

Powstik Varsity does not grant degrees.

Departments

Department

Computer Science & Data

Ship code, models and analyses anyone can run.

What is the Computer Science & Data Department?

The Computer Science & Data Department groups the Powstik paths and outcomes on that subject. You build real work and get it checked.

Who is it for?

It is for anyone who wants to learn a subject by doing it. You can start at any level.

Is it free?

Yes. Every path, outcome and check in a Department is free.

How does verification work?

A real person who knows your work signs in and checks each proof. You can never check your own proof. Your standing grows as more people check your work.

Programs

Finish every path in a Program, then pass a blind review of your final project to earn Honors.

How standing works

Permanent and earned only from verified work. Never bought, applied for or handed out. Separate from the weekly team league.

  1. Member

    Joined any path in this Department.

  2. Varsity Letter

    5 verified outcomes here, each checked by 3 different people.

  3. Honors

    Complete a Program, then pass a blind review of its final project by Faculty you didn't choose.

    Opens as Faculty join

Sign in to see your standing

Faculty

People who check others' work in this Department.

No Faculty in this Department yet. Seats fill as people verify work here.

Paths

AdvancedFREE

Become an AI Engineer

From zero to shipping AI products that real people use.

Skills
5 required + 1 opt24w
AdvancedFREE

Prove Your Data Science Chops

A free, verifiable alternative to a data science Masters degree.

SkillsLearning
6 required + 1 opt52w
BeginnerGrades 6-12FREE

Code Your First Game

For grades 6–12: go from player to game maker

Skills
2 required + 2 opt24w
AdvancedUndergraduateFREE

Computer Science Fundamentals

Build the foundations that every CS abstraction rests on. Prove you understand the machine, not just the language.

Skills
2 required + 3 opt36w
AdvancedUndergraduateFREE

Algorithms & Data Structures

Implement. Analyse. Prove. Then compete. Working code is not the proof — understanding is.

Skills
3 required + 1 opt28w
ExpertUndergraduateFREE

Prove Your Machine Learning Chops

Understand the mathematics before you touch the framework. Implement gradient descent from scratch.

Skills
3 required + 2 opt40w
AdvancedUndergraduateFREE

Prove Your Cybersecurity Chops

Find the vulnerability. Exploit it. Document every step of your methodology.

Skills
0 required + 4 opt32w
ExpertPostgraduateFREE

Cloud Architecture

Design systems that survive real failure modes. Trade off consistency against availability with documented reasoning.

Skills
0 required + 3 opt32w
ExpertPostgraduateFREE

Prove Your Software Engineering Chops

Engineering at scale is not about writing more code. It is about making decisions that hold up.

SkillsTeams
2 required + 4 opt40w

Outcomes

Milestone map

Ship AI Products in Production

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Ship a real AI-powered product to production and keep it live with real users — proof is usage data and a technical post-mortem, not a tutorial.

Milestone map

First App Shipped (Curriculum Complete + Public Repo)

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Complete a free coding curriculum and ship one self-contained program that solves a real problem and runs on someone else's machine — not a certificate.

Milestone map

Become Data Analyst

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Take a real 10,000+ row dataset from raw to a documented, visualised answer — proof is the analysis and what it honestly cannot conclude.

Milestone map

Ship a Full Stack App From Scratch

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Build and deploy a working full-stack app — real auth, real database, a public URL — that solves an actual problem, not a tutorial clone.

Milestone map

Ship a Mobile App to a Real App Store

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Ship a working mobile app to a real app store listing, built to use at least one real device capability beyond the screen.

Milestone map

Run Production Infrastructure Reliably

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Automate a real, currently-manual deployment or infrastructure task into a CI/CD pipeline or infrastructure-as-code that runs without human intervention.

Milestone map

Coding Bootcamp Graduate (Portfolio Project Deployed)

3 milestones · 16 weeks

Go from zero to job-ready developer through an intensive program.

Milestone map

Data Analysis Project (Peer-Reviewed, Dataset + Findings)

3 milestones · 10 weeks

Go from spreadsheets to Python pandas and produce real insights.

Milestone map

Software Tool Power-User Review (Verified)

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Go from beginner to power user in a tool essential to your work.

Milestone map

First Three Projects Shipped (Beginner to Public App)

5 milestones · 16 weeks

Write, run, and ship your first Python programs — from a terminal hello-world to a deployed web app that real strangers can use.

Milestone map

Build and Deploy Your First Web App

5 milestones · 12 weeks

Build a complete web application — frontend, backend, and deployed to a public URL — that real strangers can use without any instructions from you.

Milestone map

Master React (Beginner to Shipped Product)

3 milestones · 10 weeks

Build and deploy a React application that solves a real problem for real users.

Milestone map

Master Python for Real Projects

5 milestones · 12 weeks

Write Pythonic code, work with APIs and external libraries, build and test a data pipeline, and publish a real Python package on PyPI.

Milestone map

Make Your First Open Source Contribution

3 milestones · 6 weeks

Get a pull request merged into a public GitHub repository with 100+ stars.

Milestone map

Pass a Senior Engineering Interview

3 milestones · 12 weeks

Receive and accept an offer for a senior (L5+) engineering role at a tech company.

Milestone map

Earn AWS Solutions Architect Certification

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Pass the AWS SAA-C03 exam on first or second attempt.

Milestone map

Build an AI Agent from Scratch

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Design, build, and deploy an AI agent that takes actions in the world autonomously.

Milestone map

Ship an AI Product to Real Users

4 milestones · 10 weeks

Take an AI feature or product from working demo to 10 active users outside your network. Proven by real usage data, not by the code shipping.

Milestone map

Master SQL for Data Analysis

4 milestones · 8 weeks

Write and optimize complex queries across joins, CTEs, window functions, and indexes on a real production dataset.

Milestone map

Master Statistics for Data Analysis

5 milestones · 10 weeks

Apply descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression, and A/B test design to real datasets — every milestone requires working with real data and documenting the decisions, not just the calculations.

Milestone map

Complete a Kaggle Competition (Top 25%)

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Enter and submit a Kaggle competition, finishing in the top 25% of participants.

Milestone map

Earn CISSP Certification

3 milestones · 16 weeks

Pass the CISSP exam and complete the endorsement process.

Milestone map

Master Rust (Beginner to Systems Project)

0 milestones · 12 weeks

Write, test, and publish a Rust project that demonstrates ownership, lifetimes, and safe concurrency.

Milestone map

Master TypeScript (Beginner to Typed Codebase)

0 milestones · 8 weeks

Migrate or build a JavaScript codebase to strict TypeScript with zero `any` usage and full type coverage.

Want teams and weekly leagues? See Arenas

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