Compi: Taking on India's Toughest Exams

Back in 2021, after the whole CrowDoubt experience, I was still thinking about how tech could shake up Indian Ed-tech. I saw all these teachers building their own thing online, and I wondered if I could create something cool *just* with code, without needing a big personality attached.

I focused on the big kahunas of college entrance exams: JEE and NEET. My idea was to build a platform that made studying for these feel less like endless solo grind and more like a focused, competitive game.

Compi aimed to make mock tests feel less like a chore and more engaging. Here's how it worked:

• Pick Your Battleground: Students would choose the exam they were prepping for (JEE or NEET) and then select specific subjects and topics they wanted to practice.
• Assemble the Squad: Once they made their selections, they'd get matched into online "lobbies" with other students who had picked the same preferences. We needed at least 25 players to kick off a session.
• Three Rounds of Brainpower: Each game had three rounds. In each round, everyone had to tackle multiple-choice questions related to their chosen subjects and topics.
• Survival of the Fittest (Intellectually): After each round, a certain number of players with the lowest scores would get eliminated. It was a race to stay in the game!
• Bragging Rights: The last student standing in the lobby – the one who aced all three rounds – would get special recognition displayed on their Compi profile. A little digital badge of honor for conquering the mock test arena.

The idea was to create a sense of friendly competition and make practicing for these high-stakes exams a bit less lonely and a bit more fun.

For Compi, I went with Golang on the backend – it's super fast and could handle the real-time competition and scoring without breaking a sweat. The app itself, the one students used, was built with React Native, so it could run smoothly on both Android and iOS phones.

Compi was my first real dive into building something directly for users. It even got a few thousand downloads, mostly through ads I paid for. But honestly? Getting enough people to consistently play at the same time to fill those 25-person lobbies was a real challenge. Ultimately, I couldn't find that magic formula to keep people engaged, and I had to shut it down. Didn't quite hit that product-market fit with this one.