Skip to content
KeySlice

The level ladder

The course is 62 levels in five chapters, plus 9 code levels in a sixth. Every unit opens with placement levels that have no timer, continues with run levels that clear on distance, and ends with exactly one fixed test. No level is hand-written: the counts are computed from the keys and the vocabulary each unit unlocks.

Your path, end to end

  1. Placement — levels 1 to 11

    Where the keys are, two at a time. No clock and no score: a key is shown, you are told which finger reaches it, you press it. This part is not a game and does not pretend to be one.

  2. The run — levels 12 to 62

    The arcade opens and stays open. Your typing speed is your travel speed, distance is the score, and every word you clear is cut in half. From here on every level is a run.

  3. Code — 9 levels, whenever you like

    Brackets, semicolons and underscores in Python, C++ and HTML. A separate ladder, not a rung of this one — start it whenever you write code.

01

Home row

0 of 9
jf J and F

The two index fingers, on the only keys with tactile bumps. Every other key is found relative to these.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
kd K and D

The middle fingers, staying on the home row.

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 6
ls L and S

The ring fingers — the weakest pair, and the ones that drift first.

  1. 7
  2. 8
  3. 9
02

First words

0 of 13
ca C and A

The left pinky reaches home, and the first downward reach. Real words start here.

  1. 10
  2. 11
  3. 12
  4. 13
  5. 14
nt N and T

Two of the five most common letters in English, both index-finger reaches.

  1. 15
  2. 16
  3. 17
  4. 18
iv I and V

Up with the right middle, down with the left index.

  1. 19
  2. 20
  3. 21
  4. 22
03

The common letters

0 of 15
me M and E

E is the most common letter in English; it arrives once the hand can hold position.

  1. 23
  2. 24
  3. 25
  4. 26
  5. 27
hr H and R

Both index reaches, one flat and one up.

  1. 28
  2. 29
  3. 30
  4. 31
  5. 32
go G and O

The long left-index stretch, and the right ring reaching up.

  1. 33
  2. 34
  3. 35
  4. 36
  5. 37
04

The hard reaches

0 of 12
bp B and P

The two hardest reaches on the board: left index down-in, right pinky up-out.

  1. 38
  2. 39
  3. 40
  4. 41
qu Q and U

Left pinky up, right index up — and the pair that lets you type "qu" properly.

  1. 42
  2. 43
  3. 44
  4. 45
wn W and N

Consolidating the ring and index reaches.

  1. 46
  2. 47
  3. 48
  4. 49
05

The last letters

0 of 13
cx C and X

The last of the bottom-row left hand, reviewed against C.

  1. 50
  2. 51
  3. 52
yz Y and Z

The two rarest letters in English, saved for last on purpose.

  1. 53
  2. 54
  3. 55
  4. 56
capitals Capitals

Shift held with the opposite hand — the half most self-taught typists never learn.

  1. 57
  2. 58
  3. 59
  4. 60
  5. 61
  6. 62
06

Code

0 of 9
python-typing-practice Python

Colons, underscores, indentation and dunder names — the keys Python leans on hardest.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
cpp-typing-practice C++

Braces, semicolons, angle brackets and the scope operator, which no prose drill ever touches.

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 6
html-typing-practice HTML

Angle brackets, quotes and slashes, typed in the closing-tag rhythm real markup demands.

  1. 7
  2. 8
  3. 9

Squares are placement levels and have no timer. Circles are runs. A ring is the unit test, which always runs the same drill so your speed on it is comparable week to week.

Why the level count is computed and not chosen

The lesson path introduces two keys at a time, as reaches from a home finger, and a drill may only use keys the path has already taught. That rule makes the units wildly unequal, and it is the reason a fixed number of levels per lesson does not work. The first unit is j and f: two keys, and a list of thirty tokens, because eight home-row keys cannot spell much English. The last is capitals, which unlocks twenty-six letters through shift and can draw on the whole vocabulary. Giving both the same nine levels means nine near-identical repetitions of a two-letter alphabet at the point where a beginner is most likely to leave, and a skim through the hardest material at the end.

So each unit's count comes from the unit. Placement levels are a function of how many new keys arrive; practice levels are a function of how many tokens the unit adds that no earlier unit could spell, compressed so that a unit with a thousand new words is worth three levels rather than fifty; and every unit ends in exactly one test. Add those up and the ladder falls out at 62 levels across the fifteen prose units, with 9 more for the three code tracks, counted separately because symbols are a different skill rather than the next rung of the same one.

What a level asks of you

A placement level asks one thing: press the right key without looking. There is no clock and no score, the full keyboard is drawn rather than only the keys you know, and a wrong press costs nothing but a repeat. It is the only screen here that shows you the whole board on purpose, because on that screen the untaught keys are context rather than noise.

A run level asks you to cover a distance. Your typing speed is your travel speed, so distance is the integral of how fast and how accurately you are typing, and the target is set by how far a reference typist would get in about forty-five seconds against that unit's own word list. Passing it clears the level and the run keeps going, so the target is a floor rather than a finish line. A unit's test level runs longer, uses a fixed drill instead of one weighted toward your weak keys, and is the number worth writing down.

If you have never typed on this site before, the run page opens on a free run over common short words instead of on the first level below. It takes about thirty seconds and gives you a real words-per-minute number before the ladder asks anything of you. It is not a level, it clears nothing here, and the only thing it leaves behind is a record of the keys that cost you.

If you have not learned the key positions at all yet, start with the step-by-step guide and the drills on the home page, then come back. If you write code, the three symbol tracks are Python, C++ and HTML.

Frequently asked questions

Why do some units have more levels than others?

Because the units are not the same size. The first unit teaches two keys and can spell thirty tokens; the capitals unit unlocks twenty-six letters through shift and can spell a thousand. A fixed number of levels per lesson gives both the same treatment, which means either a grind at the top of the course or a skim at the end of it. The count here is computed from how many tokens each unit adds that no earlier unit could spell, so it follows the curriculum instead of a round number.

What is a placement level?

The levels that open each unit, before it becomes a run. They have no timer, no score and no speed: a key is shown, you are told which finger reaches it and from where, and you press it. Their only job is that you stop looking down. A unit that adds two keys when you already know eight needs more of this than a unit that adds two when you know twenty, so the count comes from how many new keys arrive, not from a constant.

How is a level cleared?

By covering a target distance in the run. The target is a time made concrete: how far a reference typist gets in forty-five seconds against that unit's own word list, or seventy-five on a unit test. Passing it clears the level and does not end the run, because distance is the score and the run is meant to be worth continuing.

Can a unit lock itself again if I stop for a while?

No. Once a unit is unlocked it stays unlocked, permanently. The per-key record does fade with time, and that is on purpose — a letter you have not typed in a fortnight is weighted back into your drills. But fading only decides what you practise; it never decides what you can reach. A course that quietly takes a chapter back off someone for having a busy week is punishing absence, and this one does not.

Where is my progress stored?

In your browser by default, and nothing you type is ever uploaded. Clearing your site data clears your progress with it, and a different browser or device starts from the beginning. To carry it across, sign in with Google on the settings page and it syncs between your devices. Signing in is optional — the trainer is complete without an account, and signed out nothing you type leaves this browser.

How do I move my progress to another computer?

Sign in with Google on the settings page, then sign in on the other computer. Your levels, your per-key record and your streak follow you, and the first sign-in on a browser that already has progress asks before combining the two rather than overwriting either. If you made a transfer link on an older version of this site it still works — open it and it will show you exactly what would change before writing anything.