THE TRUTH HURTS
We're here to expose the uncomfortable reality: AI is quickly making many developers smoothbrained.
OUR MISSION
Remember when you actually had to think to write code with your bare hands? When you couldn't just fire up ChatGPT and expect it to immediately solve your problems? When Stack Overflow was your fallback, not your backbone?
Those days are fading fast from the collective memory. And the negative side effects are already being proven. We're increasingly less surprised when we learn of yet another developer who's lost their pinky muscle memory and all they can do is cry about it on Reddit. They can no longer write a simple for-loop without hitting the prompt. They've fizzled their Fizzbuzz.
So we decided to take action. The Dev Atrophy Test exists to shine a light into the abyss and discover who out there still has the raw coding skills buried deep inside their AI-laced cerebral cortex. To humble the overconfident and celebrate the OG Chads.
"But AI relieves us from the drudgery to focus on the fun stuff and makes us more productive!" - Every poor smoothbrain developer, 2025
Sure, AI is a neat tool. But when the tool becomes a crutch, and one you barely question, you've got a big problem. When you fire off a prompt instead of centering the div yourself, you're not a dev anymore - you're a bottom feeding prompt engineer larping.
HOW WE TEST
Our quiz isn't some gentle hand-holding experience. It throws you into the deep end with real coding challenges that require actual understanding and finger banging, not just copy-paste ticks.
NOOBIE
The basic fundamentals every developer should know by heart
LE CHAD
Intermediate concept lore that once got you upvotes on StackOverflow (remember those days?)
HARDCORE
Advanced challenges that will test your gigachad ego
Each difficulty level has been carefully crafted to poke key aspects of your supposed "expertise". We cover the gamut from the foundations in HTML, CSS and advanced JavaScript plus a sprinkling of databases and Node. No AI assistance allowed. Not even Google. No cheating. Just you, your potato chip greased mitts, that thing between your ears, and the cold hard light of the computer screen.
WHO WE ARE
We're a group of renegade devs who still remember the "good ol' days" of tearing our hair out for hours to eventually discover a missing closing tag at 4am. We've been through the trenches of debugging without AI, scouring the interwebs, going on side quests, black holes, and building shitty things from scratch without a chatbot grabbing our nether regions. But get this straight – we're not anti-AI, we're just anti-AI-dependency. There's a difference between using AI as a tool and using it as a replacement to think and struggle. We believe humanity should understand coding fundamentals so as they can still get shit done in a cave with no WIFI.
"AI is great for boilerplate. AI is great for helping you explore new concepts in a quick interactive way. AI should not be blindly trusted and let off the leash to replace human programmers."
THE RESULTS
Over 7,000 devs have taken our test. The results? Brutal. 53% scored in the "brainlet" category. These aren't only junior devs - many of them have years of experience but have become so dependent on that pure AI Dopemone hit, that their brain function has receeded.
But here's the thing - we're not here to roast you (okay, well maybe a 'lil). We're here to WAKE YOU UP. To remind you that understanding fundamentals of coding isn't just about passing a lame quiz - it's about staying curious and active as a developer, making and wrestling the errors yourself. And yes that might also mean making shittier, weirder, software - but it's YOUR shit and we're all for it.
Whether you score as a "Giga Dev" or a "Certified Brainlet," the important thing is that you know where you stand and have a path to correct it. Knowledge is power, and self-awareness is the first step to positive change.