A study notebook for my brother, written by an open model

Description and use

A free, open‑source study notebook for GATE preparation, powered by Gemma 4 and hosted on Render.

Problem

Studying for the GATE computer science paper alone lacks encouragement and instant feedback.

Outcome

The notebook delivers instant, free, and open study resources, with progress tracking and on‑demand content generation, improving motivation for solo GATE preparation.

Workflow

• 1. Pre‑generate 258 content items (notes, practice papers, flashcards) for all 86 chapters using Gemma 4 via a script that runs 8 requests concurrently.
• 2. Store the generated JSON (~744 KB) in the public GitHub repo.
• 3. Serve the notebook with FastAPI, rendering plain HTML/CSS/JS and inline SVG for icons and stickers.
• 4. On page load, load the pre‑generated JSON to display notes, practice papers, and flashcards instantly.
• 5. Provide an “ask about anything” box that calls Gemma live for on‑demand content.
• 6. Use Pydantic to validate returned practice papers and flashcards; retry with stricter prompts if validation fails.
• 7. Host the app on Render using a render.yaml blueprint; switch between Gemma 4 models if one fails.
• 8. Track progress locally in the browser via stickers, green ticks, and a study calendar.
• 9. Encourage user interaction by rewarding correct answers with stickers and marking chapters with green ticks after flashcards are reviewed.
• 10. Allow offline use by keeping all content in the browser and providing a public, MIT‑licensed JSON library.

Evidence

My brother is preparing for GATE, a big engineering exam in India (think of it as the entrance exam for a master's at the IITs).

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It looks and feels like a school notebook, the grid paper kind we all had as kids.

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The whole syllabus as a bookshelf. 13 subjects and 86 chapters, straight from the official syllabus.

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A practice paper for every chapter. Five exam‑style questions. Get one right and you get a sticker...

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Ask about anything. If something's missing, type it in and Gemma writes fresh notes, a paper or flashcards right there.

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No login, no accounts. Everything stays in your own browser.

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Python and FastAPI on the backend. Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript on the front. No framework, no build step.

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Gemma 4, Google's open‑weight model, through the Gemini API. The main model is gemma‑4‑26b‑a4b‑it, with gemma‑4‑31b‑it as a backup.

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Everything ends up as about 744 KB of JSON in the repo.

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Now chapters open instantly, cost nothing, and still work even if the API key goes missing.

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