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Open Ecosystem Challenges#

Welcome to Open Ecosystem Challenges! 🚀

These are hands-on, recurring prompts designed to help you practice Cloud Native, OpenTelemetry, AI/ML, and other open source skills.

Each challenge runs in a pre-provisioned environment, so you can focus on solving real problems, not setup headaches.

What makes these challenges special:

  • 🎯 Skill-focused - Target specific technologies with clear objectives
  • 📖 Story-driven - Learn through engaging narratives
  • 🚀 Zero setup - Run in GitHub Codespaces, pre-configured and ready
  • ✅ Two-step verification - Smoke tests and GitHub Actions validate your solution
  • 🎓 Three levels - Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert for each adventure

🗺️ Available Adventures#

Browse the available adventures and pick one that interests you:

February 2026: The AI Observatory#

Story: Investigate a mysterious bandwidth anomaly at a remote research station by instrumenting its AI system with OpenTelemetry.

Level Name 🧠 Key Learnings
🟢 Beginner Calibrating the Lens
🟡 Intermediate The Distracted Pilot
🔴 Expert The Noise Filter
  • OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions
  • Tail sampling in the OTel Collector

January 2026: Building CloudHaven#

Story: Join the Infrastructure Guild and modernize CloudHaven's infrastructure from manual provisioning to a self-service platform using Infrastructure as Code.

Level Name 🧠 Key Learnings
🟢 Beginner The Foundation Stones
  • Infrastructure as Code with OpenTofu
  • Remote state management with GCS backend
  • Dynamic & conditional resources
🟡 Intermediate The Modular Metropolis
  • OpenTofu module testing with tofu test
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD) workflow
  • Input validation with regex
🔴 Expert The Guardian Protocols
  • GitHub Actions for drift detection and plan/apply
  • Integration tests with service containers
  • Security scanning with Trivy

December 2025: Echoes Lost in Orbit#

Story: Restore interstellar communications by fixing broken GitOps setups, progressive delivery systems, and observability pipelines across three galactic missions.

Level Name 🧠 Key Learnings
🟢 Beginner Broken Echoes
  • Debug GitOps flows with Argo CD
  • ApplicationSet templating & pitfalls
  • Environment isolation & namespaces
  • Sync policies: automated, prune & self-heal
🟡 Intermediate The Silent Canary
  • Progressive delivery with Argo Rollouts
  • Canary deployments & automated analysis
  • Write PromQL queries for health validation
  • Kube-state-metrics for deployment decisions
🔴 Expert Hyperspace Operations & Transport
  • Configure OpenTelemetry Collector pipelines
  • Spanmetrics connector (traces → metrics)
  • Detect "idle canaries" with traffic validation
  • Distributed tracing with Jaeger
  • Trace-derived metrics for progressive delivery

More adventures coming soon!

🎮 How It Works#

Each level is independent - start anywhere, complete in any order. Levels share a connected story but have their own:

  • Codespace configuration
  • Documentation and guides
  • Validation tests

Levels:

  • 🟢 Beginner: New to the technology? Start here to learn the basics
  • 🟡 Intermediate: Comfortable with fundamentals? Practice advanced patterns
  • 🔴 Expert: Want a real challenge? Tackle complex real-world scenarios

✅ How to Verify Your Solution#

Each challenge includes a two-step verification process:

  1. Smoke Test - Run locally in your Codespace for quick validation
  2. GitHub Actions Workflow - Comprehensive verification you manually trigger after pushing

📖 Learn more: Read the complete Verification Guide for detailed instructions on both steps.

❓ FAQ#

Do I need to complete levels in order?
No! Each level is independent. Start wherever you feel comfortable.

Can I use these for team training?
Absolutely! Perfect for upskilling, onboarding, internal training, and hackathons.

Are there costs?
GitHub Codespaces offers free hours per month - usually sufficient for individual use. Check GitHub's pricing for details.

Need help?
Check adventure-specific docs, open an issue, or start a discussion.

🚀 Ready to Start?#

Choose your adventure and begin learning!