About
About After Syntax
After Syntax is a practice simulator for software engineers, from their first job to senior. It trains the judgment that design work needs: reading a situation, choosing between trade-offs, and explaining the cost you accept.
What is After Syntax?
After Syntax is a practice simulator for engineering judgment. Each practice is a case about a fictional software system, modeled on a real kind of product. You investigate it, take its design decisions and see what each decision costs. You write no code.
It trains the reasoning that design reviews and system design interviews look for: framing the problem, weighing trade-offs, predicting failure and explaining your choices.
Who is After Syntax for?
It is for software engineers from their first job to senior. A newer engineer learns the idea behind each decision at the moment they take it. A senior engineer faces the same kind of case with less help.
You need to know how software systems are built in general, not any one language or framework. Practices explain the terms they use.
How does a practice work?
A practice is one case that you work through in one sitting. It has four parts.
- The case. You read the situation: the system, its limits, the team’s messages and what is being asked of you.
- Your design. You make the design decisions and say why, before you see any result.
- The test. A simulator runs your design against the system’s rules, so you see what each decision costs instead of guessing.
- The review. You get feedback on your reasoning that quotes your own words: what holds, what is missing and the idea behind it.
What does the AI do?
The AI asks questions and challenges your design the way a sharp reviewer would. It never writes your design or names the answer. The drill’s results come from each system’s fixed rules, not from an AI guess.
How is After Syntax different from coding puzzles and video courses?
Puzzle sites train you to write a correct function against fixed tests. Video courses show how other people designed their systems. After Syntax asks you to make the decisions yourself, on a system with real limits, and shows what each one costs.
Most of these trade-offs have no single right answer, so a practice prices your choice instead of marking it right or wrong. A real error is still named as an error.
What does After Syntax cost?
There will be one plan, Pro, at $12 a month or $99 a year. It will start with a 7-day free trial, one per person, and you will pay nothing if you cancel before the trial ends.
Prices are in US dollars. There is no free plan.
Is After Syntax open?
After Syntax is not open yet. It opens soon. Until then you can read about it here and on the blog, but you cannot create an account or start a trial.
Who makes After Syntax?
After Syntax is made by INAR Technologies Inc., in Ontario, Canada. Write to support@aftersyntax.com with any question.