Coding is not just a skill, it is a superpower for the AI age

As coding and artificial intelligence rapidly redefine the future of work, the need to embed computational thinking early in education has never been more urgent. In this insightful conversation with Education Post, Vivek Prakash, Co-founder & CEO of Codingal, discusses why coding should begin at the K–12 level and how it can be seamlessly integrated into existing curricula. Drawing from his experience in building global developer platforms, he highlights the shift from passive learning to creation-driven education. From live interactive classes to hackathons and AI-assisted teaching, Prakash outlines how Codingal is empowering students across 135+ countries to become problem-solvers, innovators, and confident creators in an AI-driven world.

Q1. Coding and AI are increasingly being seen as foundational skills for the future. How important is it for students to begin learning coding at the K–12 level, and how can schools integrate these skills without overburdening an already dense curriculum?

Over eight years of working with millions of developers, I noticed the strongest engineers shared one trait: they had started thinking computationally long before university. My own CS education at IIT Roorkee and an Amazon internship shaped the trajectory of my career. The question that led to Codingal was simple: why should that foundation be reserved for the few? It should start in school for every child.

The answer to integration is not addition. Coding can be embedded into subjects students already study: a data visualisation in geography, a simulation in physics, a storytelling app in English. At Codingal, we start with Scratch for younger students, building to Python as they grow. The goal is not to produce coders - it is to raise a generation who see a problem and instinctively ask: could I build something to solve this?

Q2. You co-founded Codingal with the vision of making coding education accessible to school students globally. What gaps in the traditional education system did you observe that inspired you to build a dedicated platform for coding and AI learning for young learners?

Years of working in the global developer ecosystem showed me a jarring contrast: students in the US and China were competing in coding hackathons while Indian school curricula treated computer science as an afterthought. My co-founder, Satyam Baranwal, had reached the same conclusion through over a decade of teaching kids coding offline, directly impacting more than 40,000 students before we joined forces.

The gaps were clear: access, relevance, and pedagogy. Most coding instruction was theory for exams, with no experience of building real things. What crystallised our vision was simple: kids were spending hours consuming apps built by others. We wanted them to build their own. That shift, from passive consumption to active creation, is the north star we launched Codingal around in January 2021.

Q3. Before Codingal, you co-founded HackerEarth, a widely used platform for coding assessments and developer hiring. How did your experience in the developer ecosystem influence your approach to designing a curriculum that prepares students not just to code, but to think computationally and solve real-world problems?

Eight years of scaling a developer platform at HackerEarth taught me what separates exceptional engineers from average ones. It was rarely syntax knowledge. It was the ability to break down ambiguous problems, think algorithmically, and persist through failure. These are habits cultivated through real challenges, not documentation.

That insight shaped Codingal’s curriculum entirely. We moved away from rote instruction toward project-based learning. A student building a weather app or training a machine learning model experiences the full cycle: problem identification, design, implementation, and debugging. That builds computational thinking far more effectively than any worksheet. We also brought the power of community and competitions into the platform, because engagement and rigour, done well, reinforce each other.

Q4. With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and automation, there is growing debate about how education systems should adapt. In your view, what are the most critical skills that students today must develop to remain relevant in the AI-driven economy?

Coding is not becoming obsolete; it is becoming a superpower. AI systems are built with code. The people who will thrive are not just those who can prompt AI, but those who understand how it works and can build on top of it. That requires genuine computational literacy, and the time to develop it is in school, not after.

Beyond coding: creativity and critical thinking matter most, because AI cannot ask genuinely new questions or make value judgements. Adaptability is equally critical as many jobs of the future do not exist yet. And the deeply human skills - empathy, communication, collaboration - matter more than ever as AI takes over routine work. Those who combine technical fluency with these qualities will define the next era.

Q5. India is witnessing a significant expansion of the edtech sector, particularly after the pandemic. How do you see the evolution of online learning platforms in the coming years, and what role will interactive and project-based learning models play in improving student engagement?

The pandemic proved online learning could reach millions, but it also exposed early edtech’s weakness: passive video without human connection. At Codingal, we call it positive screen time: instead of consuming content others made, students build their own. Every class ends with a student having created something that did not exist when they sat down.

We focus on live, one-on-one instruction. A real teacher who notices confusion, adapts on the fly, and celebrates breakthroughs is irreplaceable. We deliver over seven million minutes of live classes monthly, powered by over 1,000 tutors - more than 90 per cent of whom are women working from home. Our AI matching system pairs each student with the right teacher, and we are building AI copilots that assist teachers with real-time hints and adaptive problem sets during live sessions.

Q6. Coding competitions, hackathons, and project-based challenges have become key tools to inspire young programmers. How effective are such experiential learning approaches in nurturing creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration among school students?

Extremely effective. There is something qualitatively different about learning in a hackathon versus a structured lesson. When a student has eight hours to build from scratch with a team, every constraint becomes a design problem and every setback a debugging challenge. The collaborative dimension is critical: real-world coding is rarely solo, and you cannot learn to work with others from a textbook.

Codingal has built community and competition into the platform from day one: leaderboards, gamification, quizzes, badges, and hackathons. We have seen students arrive timid about sharing code and leave competitions presenting to judges with real confidence. That identity shift, from passive student to active creator, is one of the most valuable things we help young people experience. Every participant should leave with something built and something learned, regardless of where they placed.

Q7. Looking ahead, what is your long-term vision for Codingal and the broader coding education ecosystem? How do you see platforms like Codingal contributing to shaping the next generation of innovators, technologists, and entrepreneurs?

Our vision is for Codingal to be the default playground for every child who wants to learn computer science by building apps, games, and websites. We already have students in over 135 countries. In 2025, we disbursed over $1.8 million in payouts to our instructor community - building an education platform and an economy for teachers simultaneously. Codingal is revenue-funded: we grow on the strength of what students and parents value.

The global K-12 coding and AI education market is estimated at over $100 billion (per HolonIQ). But more importantly, understanding how technology works is becoming as fundamental as being able to read. The children on Codingal today are developing a way of thinking that will serve them wherever their lives lead - technology, medicine, business, or the arts. That is what keeps me going every single day.