🎃 CodeScare

Inspiration

Leetcode is stressful. Debugging is painful. So why not embrace the chaos and add some spooky fun to the grind? Born from a 2 AM debugging session gone wrong (or very right?), CodeScare turns your coding failures into jumpscare worthy moments. Because if you're going to fail a test case, you might as well get BOO'd while doing it! 👻

What it does

CodeScare is a Chrome extension that adds a jumpscare overlay to Leetcode whenever you trigger a Run or Submit action with failed testcases. Here's the experience:

🕷️ Click "Run" with incorrect submission → Screen goes dark → Animated spiders crawl from the edges → "👻 BOO!" → Spooky sounds → Your error message appears

Key Features:

Full-screen spooky overlay with animated spiders, webs and shaking text
Keyboard support - Works with Ctrl/Cmd+Enter shortcuts
Dismissible - Press Esc or click Skip if you're not feeling it

Building Process:

Started with basic button detection on LeetCode
Added overlay injection with spooky CSS animations
Integrated audio playback (fought browser autoplay policies and won!)
Built settings page for customization
Created icon generator HTML tool for quick asset creation
Tested across multiple LeetCode layouts
Added keyboard support
Polished dismissal mechanics

Challenges we ran into

Leetcode's Dynamic UI:

Leetcode has multiple UI versions and layouts. The Run/Submit buttons don't have consistent class names or IDs. Solution? We used multiple selector strategies and MutationObserver.

Browser Autoplay Policies:

Chrome really doesn't want you to play audio automatically. We had to:

Handle user interaction requirements
Add graceful fallbacks when audio fails
Make audio optional and mutable

Accomplishments that we're proud of

✨ It actually works! We built a functional Chrome extension in a few hours that works across different Leetcode layouts.

🎭 It's genuinely funny - We tested it on friends and the reactions were priceless. Mix of laughter, screams and "I HATE YOUs" (affectionate).

⌨️ Keyboard support - We respect power users. Ctrl+Enter triggers the jumpscare just like the button click.

🎃 The vibes are immaculate - This project embodies the spirit of building something fun, silly and completely unnecessary. Would anyone use this? Probably not. Did we have a blast building it? Absolutely.

What we learned

Technical Skills:

Chrome Extension Manifest V3 APIs (service workers, content scripts, storage)
Advanced CSS animations and transforms
MutationObserver for DOM change detection
Browser autoplay policy workarounds
Chrome extension debugging techniques

Design Lessons:

Timing is crucial for comedic/scary effects
User control is important
Accessibility considerations (even for joke projects)
Visual feedback matters for engagement

Hackathon Wisdom:

Scope creep is real (we wanted 10 themes, settled for less)
Fun projects are more motivating than "serious" ones

Meta Learnings:

Documentation matters (README saved us during debugging)
User feedback is gold (watching people react to the jumpscare was hilarious)

What's next for CodeScare

Near Future:

🎨 More Themes: Cute (cartoon spiders), Cyberpunk (glitch effects), Minimal (tasteful fade)
🔊 Sound Packs: Horror movie screams, meme sounds, etc.
📊 Stats Tracking: Count your failures (motivating OR depressing, TBD)
🎮 Easter Eggs: Rare special jumpscares (1% chance for different animation)
🌐 Multi-Platform: HackerRank, CodeForces support

Dream Features (if we had infinite time):

AI-Generated Roasts: GPT writes personalized insults based on your error
Difficulty Scaling: Harder problems = scarier jumpscares
Multiplayer: Scare your friends remotely when they fail
VR Mode: Full immersive horror experience (definitely overkill)
Evil Pet System: Virtual spider that grows with each error (Tamagotchi but evil)
Achievement System: "Failed 100 Times", "Master of Syntax Errors"

Realistic Next Steps:

Publish to Chrome Web Store (if we dare)
Add Firefox support
Better error detection (distinguish compile errors vs. runtime vs. wrong answer)
Analytics dashboard (how many times has this extension made people jump?)

Disclaimer: This extension will not help you pass coding interviews. It will, however, make your failures more memorable. Use responsibly (or don't, we're not your parents). 👻