Interactive Lessons
Chinilla includes interactive, guided lessons that run directly inside the IDE. Each lesson loads a pre-built (or blank) canvas with a coffee shop theme, walks you through a concept step by step, and awards a badge when you finish. Complete all lessons in a module to earn a certificate.
Access lessons from the Learn page.
How lessons work
Section titled “How lessons work”- Open a lesson from the Learn page
- The IDE loads with a pre-configured canvas and locked tools (so you can focus on what matters)
- Follow the instruction panel on the left, one step at a time
- Complete the pass criteria (run a sim, add components, identify a bottleneck, etc.)
- Earn a badge and move on to the next lesson
Progress saves automatically. You can close the browser and pick up where you left off.
Module 1: Using the Chinilla IDE
Section titled “Module 1: Using the Chinilla IDE”Difficulty: Beginner
Learn every feature of the IDE through hands-on interaction. Seven lessons that take you from zero to confident, using a coffee shop as your example system.
| Lesson | Title | What you learn | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Overview of the UX | Workspace layout, panning, zooming, tooltips, sidebar tabs | Explorer |
| 1B | Adding Components | Component palette, drag-to-place, arranging nodes | Builder |
| 1C | Connecting Components | Wiring components, connection labels, flow direction | Wired |
| 1D | Defining Behaviors | Component editor, throughput, capacity, behavior modes | Tuner |
| 1E | Running the Simulation | Play controls, order flow, timeline scrubbing, N selector | Operator |
| 1F | Reading the Overview | Overview tab, drops, bottleneck indicators, delivered vs lost | Analyst |
| 1G | Build Challenge | Unguided quiz: build a working coffee shop from scratch using a checklist | Builder |
Certificate: “Chinilla IDE Certified” upon completing all seven lessons.
Module 2: System Design Fundamentals (coming soon)
Section titled “Module 2: System Design Fundamentals (coming soon)”Difficulty: Intermediate
Learn core system design concepts by experimenting in the sim. All lessons use a coffee shop theme to make the concepts accessible.
| Lesson | Title | What you learn | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2A | What is a Bottleneck? | Spotting the slowest link, fixing throughput mismatches | Detective |
| 2B | Queues and Backpressure | Waiting lines, capacity limits, what happens when they overflow | Buffer |
| 2C | Redundancy and Failover | Circuit breaker pattern: fail-fast, cooldown, recovery | Shield |
| 2D | Scaling Horizontally | Hiring more baristas, splitting work, round-robin distribution | Scaler |
| 2E | Latency vs Throughput | Express lane vs batch brewing tradeoffs | Speedometer |
| 2F | Monitoring and Observability | Finding hidden failures using Overview, Console, Stability | Monitor |
Module 3: Build Your First System (coming soon)
Section titled “Module 3: Build Your First System (coming soon)”Difficulty: Advanced
Design a real system from scratch, graded by the stability engine.
| Lesson | Title | What you do | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3A | The Brief | Build a full system from a requirements doc | Architect |
| 3B | Stress Test Your Design | Push your system to N=20 and fix what breaks | Stress Tested |
| 3C | Design Review | Get an AI-generated architecture review of your design | Reviewed |
Badges
Section titled “Badges”Every lesson awards a badge on completion. Badges are displayed on your Learn page and on your certificate. There are 15 badges total across all three modules.
Certificates
Section titled “Certificates”When you complete all lessons in a module, you earn a certificate. Certificates include your display name, completion date, a unique verification ID, and can be exported as a PNG.
Progression
Section titled “Progression”- Lessons within a module must be completed in order
- Modules unlock sequentially (Module 2 requires Module 1 complete)
- Lessons can be replayed anytime after completion
- No time limits