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    <title>Forem: Tom Schoutens</title>
    <description>The latest articles on Forem by Tom Schoutens (@tom_schoutens).</description>
    <link>https://forem.com/tom_schoutens</link>
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      <title>Forem: Tom Schoutens</title>
      <link>https://forem.com/tom_schoutens</link>
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      <title>CodePop - an AI-powered quiz generator</title>
      <dc:creator>Tom Schoutens</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:15:35 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://forem.com/tom_schoutens/codepop-an-ai-powered-quiz-generator-38d3</link>
      <guid>https://forem.com/tom_schoutens/codepop-an-ai-powered-quiz-generator-38d3</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is a submission for the &lt;a href="https://dev.to/challenges/github-2026-01-21"&gt;GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What I Built
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;CodePop generates interactive multiple-choice quizzes on coding topics using AI. Simply enter "Quiz me about &lt;strong&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt;" where X is your chosen coding topic, and get 5 dynamically generated questions with instant feedback and scoring.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It was a fun experience for me to incorporate a LLM in an app. I am currently studying for a certification and I like that I can ask any coding topic and can learn in a fun way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Features
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;AI-Powered Question Generation&lt;/strong&gt;: Uses LLM (Ollama or cloud API) to create factual, verifiable quiz questions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Smart Topic Validation&lt;/strong&gt;: Supports 19 coding topics across backend, frontend, and mobile development&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Intelligent Caching&lt;/strong&gt;: Stores generated questions in SQLite to avoid repetition within a session&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Difficulty Levels&lt;/strong&gt;: Each question categorized as easy, medium, or hard&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Graceful Degradation&lt;/strong&gt;: Shows partial quiz if LLM fails, with helpful notifications&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Supported Topics
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Backend:&lt;/strong&gt; Java, Python, Node.js, C#, Go, Rust, PHP&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Frontend:&lt;/strong&gt; JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Vue, Angular, HTML, CSS, Svelte&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Mobile:&lt;/strong&gt; Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Subtopics supported too (e.g., "Java Spring Boot", "React hooks")&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Demo
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Github: &lt;a href="https://github.com/mastatomba/codepop" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;https://github.com/mastatomba/codepop&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Screenshots
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F04855xd72r2sv6tmxtwg.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F04855xd72r2sv6tmxtwg.png" alt=" " width="800" height="791"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The user will enter a coding (sub)topic and click on "Start Quiz".&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fmstkpcgkoecalqjy8h9h.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fmstkpcgkoecalqjy8h9h.png" alt=" " width="800" height="791"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The user goes through the quiz flow and gets immediate feedback.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F2acqpjyl0png1apb2czs.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F2acqpjyl0png1apb2czs.png" alt=" " width="800" height="791"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the quiz is ended, the user is presented with a result screen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fszbsxxsb9993khy77ynu.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fszbsxxsb9993khy77ynu.png" alt=" " width="800" height="791"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The user is able to continue with the topic, or start a new quiz.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  How It Works
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;User enters a coding topic&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Frontend loads previously asked questions from browser session storage&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Backend validates topic against supported list&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Backend checks SQLite for existing questions (excluding already-asked ones)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If &amp;lt; 5 questions available, LLM generates new questions with explanations

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Backend passes ALL existing question texts to LLM to avoid duplicates&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;LLM sees complete history and generates questions on different aspects&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;New questions stored in database for future use&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Frontend saves question IDs to session storage&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;User answers 5 multiple-choice questions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Score displayed at the end&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Taking the same topic again shows different questions (within same session)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  My Experience with GitHub Copilot CLI
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wrote down my idea in a MD file, which I shared with copilot CLI to start brainstorming. This phase was going really well and we created the architecture and decisions docs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Later on I implemented some features together with copilot CLI, like implementing the Ollama quiz master LLM.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When testing the app, I sometimes got errors with question containing code snippets, we used json as LLM output. Together with copilot CLI we made it more robust.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The plan mode works fine in the beginning of a session, but I notice when continuing the conversation going back to plan mode does not prevent it from writing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the end I had a good experience working with Github Copilot CLI and I will continue to use it for my personal projects.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>devchallenge</category>
      <category>githubchallenge</category>
      <category>cli</category>
      <category>githubcopilot</category>
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