Thinket

AP Computer Science A · AP CS Principles

We built Thinket so that students can learn computer science from any computer, anywhere.

Java for AP CSA, Python for AP CS Principles, running on our servers. No download, no install, no lab image, no administrator rights — just a browser and a link.

What it's for What it costs a public school
Fibonacci.java Console 
public class Fibonacci {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    int a = 0, b = 1;

    for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
      System.out.print(a + " ");
      int next = a + b;
      a = b;
      b = next;
    }
  }
}
output0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13

Purpose

What it's for, written the way we ask students to write it.

In AP CS Principles, a student describing a computing innovation has to state its purpose in one sentence: the thing, the people it is for, and what those people can now do. No features. No technology. It is a tricky thing to do well and why we hold ourselves to that standard.

  • We built Thinket so that computer science students can learn from any computer, anywhere.
  • We built Thinket so that computer science teachers can spend the period talking about computational thinking instead of managing software deployments.

Origin

Trinket did the hard part first.

We did not start this. For years Trinket worked to build a real programming environment that needs no download, no install, no lab image and no administrator privileges — just a link a teacher can hand out. Anyone who has watched twenty minutes of a period disappear into a Java installation knows exactly what that is worth.

Then, in the summer of 2026, Trinket released the whole platform under the CC0 public domain license. It turned an environment we admired into a foundation we could build on.

The one thing that did not come along with the code was the branding, so we picked our own. It's a nod to our heritage but a distinct creation.

Courses

Two courses. Two languages. One gradebook.

We teach these courses, so we built these first, but there is room to grow.

AP Computer Science A

java

The full Java course: classes and objects, arrays and ArrayList, recursion, 2D arrays. We compile and run on the server, so a submission can be run and graded on a real environment. 

for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
  System.out.println(i * i);
}

AP CS Principles

python3

The exam is written in AP pseudocode and block-based pseudocode rather than in any one language. We chose Python for the create task and the work leading up to it for its similarity to AP pseudocode. We're experimenting with python-backed Blockly and HTML / CSS / JavaScript too! 

scores = [88, 92, 79, 95]
average = sum(scores) / len(scores)
print("Average:", round(average, 1))

Platform

What we have built so far.

  • Code that runs where we can check it

    We execute Java and Python on the server, not inside the student's tab. A program that reports its own result cannot be graded; one that runs under our control can be handed real input and held to its output.

  • Mastery by learning objective, not by points

    We tag every quiz question with the objectives it measures, so the report says which ideas a student has and which they do not. The most recent evidence replaces the older evidence, because a student who has learned it has learned it.

    AP CSP · Algorithms and Programming

    AAP-2.K exceeds AAP-2.H at AAP-3.B approaching

  • Work a student cannot lose

    Autosave keeps a history, not just the latest copy. A student who breaks something an hour before it is due can walk their own file back to a version that worked, and the roll-back is itself undoable. We built this after losing work we could not get back.

  • Open curricula, republished whole

    Open textbooks import as complete courses with readings, exercises, end-of-unit checks intact. Teachers can edit any course content to increase student relevance and engagement.

Cost

Public schools never pay.

We don't offer an educational discount. We don't offer a free tier with the useful features behind an upgrade. It's not "free for now." Public schools do not pay for Thinket, and they never will.

If an independent school wants a licence, we will happily write one. If a philanthropist wants to support our work, we'd welcome help. But, the day a funder's requirement outranks a student's need is the day this undertaking stops being worthwhile.

This is a terrible business plan because Thinket isn't a business. If the only classroom Thinket ever serves is ours, we will be perfectly content. If it turns out Thinket can be helpful to others, so much the better.