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Cram.ai — Turn Notes Into Levels

Inspiration

Turn messy PDFs/notes into playable practice so studying feels like clearing levels, not grinding pages.

What it does

Upload PDF/TXT → auto topic roadmap (levels)
Per-node MCQs with hints + adaptive difficulty
XP/coins rewards; shop for hints/perks
Progress tracking and auto-advance

How we built it

Stack: Node.js/Express, MongoDB/Mongoose, React
Backend: JWT cookie auth; courses/notes CRUD; PDF/TXT ingestion; roadmap builder; quiz engine (per-node difficulty); progress; shop; rate-limit + error handling
Frontend: retro, responsive flow → Login → Course → Upload → Build → Play → Shop

Key flows:

Notes pipeline: extract → Note → link to Course
Roadmap: lightweight topic extraction → nodes + start location
Game loop: answer → award XP/coins → adapt difficulty → update location

Challenges

Noisy/scanned PDF parsing
Tracking game state with stateless requests
Cheat-resistance (answers server-side)
Syncing roadmap, progress, and rewards

Accomplishments

End-to-end upload → roadmap → quiz → rewards → shop on real notes
Adaptive difficulty with smooth progression
Clean API surface: /courses, /notes, /roadmap, /nodes/*, /progress, /shop