Desktop App: Introduction & Product Vision

Part 1 of 5 in the Architecture & Foundation series.

Why Does Ediky Exist?

Engineering students face a scattered, frustrating placement prep experience. Here's what they're fighting with right now:

The problem: placement prep is fragmented across disconnected tools. A student opens LeetCode for DSA problems, GeeksforGeeks for tutorials, Codeforces for competitive programming contests, a Google Doc for notes, a spreadsheet for progress tracking, and Discord for community help. That's five different platforms with five different logins, five different interfaces, five different learning curves.

When you solve a problem on LeetCode, your progress doesn't automatically sync to your notes app. When you complete a CS fundamentals course on GeeksforGeeks, there's no central dashboard showing how much you've learned overall. When you take a mock assessment, the results don't feed into a study plan that tells you what to focus on next.

Students spend as much time context-switching between tools as they do actually preparing.

The frustration multiplies at interview time. You remember you solved a problem months ago, but you've forgotten the approach. Your notes are scattered across three platforms. Your mock test scores are in a spreadsheet. You don't have a unified way to practice OA (online assessment) simulations that match real company patterns. You don't know if you're on track to be ready.

The Core Insight: One Integrated Workspace

Ediky's core insight is simple: one integrated workspace beats multiple disconnected tools.

Instead of switching between platforms, a student opens Ediky and finds everything they need in one place:

• DSA problems (tagged by company, difficulty, approach)
• Online assessment simulator (realistic company OAs with timed sections, negative marking, sequential navigation)
• CS fundamentals lessons (OS, DBMS, CN, SQL, OOP)
• Integrated code editor (write code, run it, see results instantly)
• Progress tracking (dashboard showing overall %, problems solved, revision due, weekly streaks)
• Notes system (annotate lectures, create quick summaries, sync across devices)
• Calendar (track OA dates, reminders, deadlines)

A student solves a problem in Ediky → the dashboard updates instantly → they take an OA sim → results feed into their progress → they revisit problems due for revision → everything is connected.

How Ediky Reaches Students

To be truly accessible, Ediky needed two deployment strategies:

Web version (ediky.com):

• Zero installation. Open a browser, visit the URL, sign in, start learning.
• Accessible from any device (laptop, tablet, phone), any OS (Windows, macOS, Linux).
• Works for users who want quick access without downloading anything.
• Great for casual browsing, reading tutorials, checking progress.

Desktop app (ediky.exe / ediky.app):

• One-click download and install. Runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Works offline after initial sync — critical for students without reliable internet.
• Full integration with the OS: system notifications, file system access.
• Full exam integrity monitoring: system process tracking, webcam monitoring, clipboard tracking, audit logs.
• Faster performance: local code execution, local database queries.
• Better for focused study sessions and realistic OA simulation.

Both versions sync seamlessly: solve a problem on web, see it marked solved on desktop. Take an OA mock on desktop, see results on web.

The Mission

Make placement prep structured (clear progression, not random problems), integrated (one place for everything), and accessible (free, no barriers to entry).

By "structured," we mean: students don't ask "what should I learn next?" because Ediky's curriculum tells them. Problems are organized by company, difficulty, topic. OA simulations are modeled on real company patterns. CS fundamentals are sequenced logically.

By "integrated," we mean: progress ripples across all features. Solve a problem → dashboard updates → revision queue recalculates → OA performance tracked → all visible in one dashboard.

By "accessible," we mean: free during beta, works on any device, works offline on desktop, requires no setup on web, no paywalls blocking content.

Architecture Philosophy: Two Deployments, One Codebase

To support both web and desktop, Ediky's architecture was designed around a key principle: maximize code sharing, minimize duplication.

The React UI — components, state management, styling — is identical on web and desktop. Write it once, run it everywhere. On web, Vite bundles it for the browser. On desktop, Vite builds it for Tauri.

The backend is different for each deployment because of their different requirements:

• Web backend: Cloudflare Pages Functions and Workers (serverless, edge-based, globally distributed) + Firebase (real-time database, auth).
• Desktop backend: Tauri + Rust (native OS access, offline capability) + SQLite (local database).

This dual-backend approach lets each deployment use the best tool for its constraints:

• Web: optimized for latency (edge servers near users), global scale, always-online.
• Desktop: optimized for offline-first (local SQLite), OS integration, exam proctoring (system monitoring).

Why This Matters

Students see one seamless platform. Developers maintain one codebase (React shared across both). Infrastructure is efficient: serverless for web scale, local for desktop performance.

The architecture isn't "web and desktop are completely separate." It's "they're the same UI, different backends" — the theme the next four pages dig into one layer at a time, starting with the frontend.

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→ Next: Frontend Architecture↩ Overview: Architecture & Foundation