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Instructables VS Exercism

Compare Instructables VS Exercism and see what are their differences

Instructables logo Instructables

DIY How To Make Instructions

Exercism logo Exercism

Download and solve practice problems in over 30 different languages.
  • Instructables Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09
  • Exercism Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-28

Instructables features and specs

  • Diverse Range of Projects
    Instructables offers a wide variety of projects across multiple categories, including technology, crafts, cooking, and more, catering to diverse interests and skill levels.
  • Community Engagement
    The platform fosters a strong sense of community with user-generated content, allowing individuals to share their projects, comment on others, and collaborate with like-minded hobbyists.
  • Step-by-Step Instructions
    Most projects come with detailed step-by-step guides and pictures, making it easier for users to follow along and successfully complete projects.
  • Educational Resource
    Instructables serves as a valuable educational tool, providing tutorials that can help users learn new skills and gain knowledge in various fields.
  • Free Access
    A significant portion of the content on Instructables is accessible for free, allowing users to explore and create without any financial commitment.

Possible disadvantages of Instructables

  • Quality Variation
    The quality of projects can vary greatly, as the content is user-generated. Some instructions may lack clarity or be incomplete, leading to potential frustration.
  • Ad Distractions
    The free version of the site includes advertisements, which can be distracting and hinder the user experience while browsing or following instructions.
  • Premium Membership
    Access to some of the more advanced features or ad-free browsing requires a premium membership, which can be a downside for users looking for a completely free experience.
  • Overwhelming Choices
    With a vast number of projects available, users might find it overwhelming to locate the most suitable or high-quality instructions for their needs.
  • Inconsistent Updates
    Not all categories or projects are consistently updated, which might lead to outdated information or limited new project inspirations in certain areas.

Exercism features and specs

  • Free Access
    Exercism provides free access to a wide range of coding exercises and learning resources, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation.
  • Mentorship
    Offers personalized mentorship from experienced developers who can provide feedback and guidance on your code submissions.
  • Wide Variety of Languages
    Supports numerous programming languages, which allows users to learn and practice coding in multiple languages.
  • Structured Learning Tracks
    Organizes exercises into structured tracks, guiding learners through progressively challenging problems in a logical order.
  • Community Support
    Has an active community forum where users can discuss problems, share insights, and ask for help.
  • Open Source Contributions
    Encourages contributions to the platform itself, offering an opportunity for users to give back and improve the resources available to others.
  • Focus on Clean Code
    Emphasizes writing clean, well-documented code, which is beneficial for developing best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Exercism

  • Variable Mentorship Quality
    The quality of mentorship can vary, as it depends on the availability and expertise of volunteer mentors.
  • Learning Curve
    There can be a steep learning curve for beginners who may find some exercises too challenging without sufficient initial guidance.
  • Limited Interactivity
    Exercises are primarily text-based without interactive or visual learning aids, which might be less engaging for some users.
  • Dependence on Volunteers
    The platform relies heavily on volunteer mentors, which can lead to delays in getting feedback and may affect the consistency of support.
  • Interface Complexity
    Some users find the interface and workflow somewhat complex and unintuitive, particularly for those new to the platform.
  • No Real-Time Collaboration
    Lacks real-time collaboration features, meaning users cannot code together or get instant feedback.
  • Focus on Individual Learning
    The platform predominantly focuses on individual learning rather than collaborative projects, which can be a downside for those looking to develop team-working skills.

Analysis of Exercism

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Exercism is considered good for learning and improving programming skills.

Why this product is good

  • Exercism offers free access to a wide variety of exercises in over 50 different programming languages, catering to both beginners and experienced programmers.
  • The platform provides a unique mentorship model where volunteers review submitted solutions, offering personalized feedback and guidance.
  • The exercises are well-structured, facilitating both practice and mastery of language-specific concepts and problem-solving skills.
  • Exercism encourages learning through doing, promoting an active learning environment which can be more effective compared to passive learning styles.
  • The platform allows for self-paced learning, enabling users to progress at their own speed and revisit topics as needed.

Recommended for

  • Beginner programmers seeking practical coding exercises to reinforce their learning.
  • Intermediate and advanced developers looking to hone their skills or learn new programming languages.
  • Individuals who appreciate personalized feedback and mentorship to improve their coding practices.
  • Students and educators searching for supplementary resources to support coursework or syllabus requirements.
  • Professionals aiming to practice coding interview problems and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

Instructables videos

Instructables Electronics Class: Project Review

Exercism videos

Learn with Exercism.io

More videos:

  • Review - JavaScript Exercise | Learn JavaScript with Exercism | #0 Setup
  • Review - exercism.io 01 hello-world

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Instructables and Exercism)
Additive Manufacturing
100 100%
0% 0
Online Learning
3 3%
97% 97
Online Education
0 0%
100% 100
Digital Fabrication
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Instructables and Exercism

Instructables Reviews

We have no reviews of Instructables yet.
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Exercism Reviews

LeetCode Alternatives: Top platforms for coding practice
What are LeetCode and LeetCode alternatives good for?LeetCode๐Ÿ’กInterested in leveling up your career? Apply to the Formation Fellowship today!ApplyHackerRankCodeSignalAlgoExpertCodewarsGeeksforGeeksEdabitExercismTopCoderShould you use LeetCode for advanced interview prep?Get holistic interview prep with Formation
Source: formation.dev
8 Best LeetCode Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Exercism is the alternative to LeetCode learning platform, with over 4000 activities in up to 52 popular programming languages. It is very different from other comparable programming websites in that it emphasizes solo practice and also mentor-based learning. The greatest part about this software is to have an active developer community that assists novices all around the...
The 10 Most Popular Coding Challenge Websites [Updated for 2021]
Exercism is a coding challenge website that offers 3100+ challenges spanning 52 different programming languages. After picking a language that you'd like to master, you tackle the coding challenges right on your machine (Exercism has their own command line interface that you can download from GitHub).
Top 25 websites for coding challenge and competition [Updated for 2021]
Best qualities: Exercism starts off with language tracks that allow users to choose their preferred languages. Moreover, there are human mentors who will check your code and help you improve as you progress. This makes the platform perfect for total beginners who want to deepen their understanding of a new programming language.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Exercism should be more popular than Instructables. It has been mentiond 318 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Instructables mentions (37)

  • Broken Samsung charger
    Note that I could not find much documentation on references written on these components and that I am pretty new to electronics but it's something I'm interested in and I love to experiment (I have already went through hackster.io and instructables.com tutorials). Source: about 3 years ago
  • A compilation of bragging about how much money Beggy claims she has taken (read: scammed) her followers for. All of these have been posted in the past 3 DAYS. Her smug desperation is positively RANCID. Poor little Audrey-Prop is just dangling there.
    This person would have better luck participating in contests run by Instructables. Write a tutorial, submit it to one of the contests that are run every 6 weeks(themes and subjects vary from cooking, computer themed, design) for a chance to win an Amazon gift card worth $100-500 depending on the contest. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Over 11 hrs since she posted this and not a single ๐Ÿ”ฅ in the comments - I really do love that for her. She's now offering to help you figure out what you are passionate about/want to sell courses on ๐Ÿ™„
    Want to know how to make a tutorial? Go to Instructables. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Help me validate my idea for StrideDoc - an all-in-one solution for creating interactive demos, step-by-step tutorials, and product documentation!
    From your comment, I would say that we will work in a completely different niche than the one instructables.com tried to work. Source: over 3 years ago
  • looking for good free plans to build a shed/barn
    Instructables.com is a good place to start. Source: over 3 years ago
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Exercism mentions (318)

  • AI made me lazy. I didnโ€™t notice until it was too late.
    Exercism.org structured deliberate practice, no AI required. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Free Python Resources
    Providing free coding exercises and mentorship, Exercism helps developers practice and improve their programming skills step by step. Their Python Track offers a series of exercises that guide learners from beginner to more advanced levels. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Collaboration Circles for Developers (2026)
    Exercism is a code practice + mentoring platform in 74 languages. Why it can work: although it is not exclusively focused on groups of five, its mentoring and peer review model allows forming mini-circles where participants give each other mutual feedback. Limitation: it is not originally intended as a "venting circle" (My favorite), but more technical-practical. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Cracking Blackjack with Go: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Move
    Keep practicing, keep coding, and most importantlyโ€”have fun with it! If you enjoyed this exercise, explore more challenges on exercism to continue building your Go skills. As always, you can find the complete code in my GitHub repo: https://github.com/RubenOAlvarado/algorithms. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Ask HN: What book should my CS1 students read?
    (concepts/topics) : The New Turing Omnibus, 66 Excursions in Computer Science[1] Code Complete [2] Debugging The 9 Indispensable Rules of Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems [3] Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software [4] -- backround stories on how 'computer' things came to be -------- [1] : https://www.amazon.com/New-Turing-Omnibus-Sixty-Six-Excursions/dp/0805071660... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Instructables and Exercism, you can also consider the following products

Treehouse - Treehouse is an award-winning online platform that teaches people how to code.

Codecademy - Learn the technical skills you need for the job you want. As leaders in online education and learning to code, weโ€™ve taught over 45 million people using a tested curriculum and an interactive learning environment.

edX - Best Courses. Top Institutions. Learn anytime, anywhere.

Coursera - Build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies

Pantheon - The professional website platform for Drupal & WordPress sites.

Hackr.io - There are tons of online programming courses and tutorials, but it's never easy to find the best one. Try Hackr.io to find the best online courses submitted & voted by the programming community.