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elixirkoans/elixir-koans

★ 2,398 · Elixir · MIT · updated Sep 2025

Elixir learning exercises

An interactive, test-driven set of exercises for learning Elixir, modeled on the Ruby Koans format — you fill in blanks across 24 modules until a file-watching runner reports a pass. It's aimed at developers who already know another language and want hands-on reps with Elixir's syntax and concurrency model, not people learning to program for the first time.

It goes past syntax into the stuff that actually differentiates Elixir — processes, Tasks, Agents, GenServers, protocols — instead of stopping at pattern matching and enums like most koan clones do. The autorunner uses inotify-tools for instant feedback on save, so the loop is tight. Each koan module has a matching test file, and the numbered ordering (01_equalities through 24_with_statement) builds complexity sensibly rather than being a random grab bag. It's a plain Mix project, so there's no bespoke build tooling to fight with.

It stops at the core language and concurrency primitives — nothing on supervision trees, releases, or the Phoenix/Ecto stack, so it doesn't bridge into anything resembling a real app. There's a Dockerfile and docker.sh in the tree but the README never mentions them, so that path is only discoverable by reading the source. Last push was September 2025 but the koan count and structure look static for years; for a project this size there's no changelog or indication content keeps pace with language releases. CI badge exists but says nothing about whether the koans themselves get revisited when Elixir ships breaking changes.

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