BEATCODE: LeetCode first, distractions second

This program blocks a specific app or apps until you have solved a certain number of LeetCode problems today so you can LOCK IN.

Essentially, it's based on the psychological trick where you reward yourself after doing something lol.

This was originally designed as a very niche, personal, specific thing for me. As both a developer and music producer who got easily distracted making beats, I wanted to block my DAW (digital audio workstation) until I solved LeetCode, hence the name BEATCODE. But honestly, no matter what apps you block, you are still using this to "beat" the system...

Setup

big shoutout to claude for writing this (I am extremely lazy)

⚠️ NOTE: Only Windows is currently supported (FOR NOW)

If you're not on Windows... sorry bout that 😭

1. Download and install uv.

2. Sync the environment (creates .venv):

uv sync

3. Edit configuration

Copy .env.example to .env.

copy .env.example .env

Edit:

• LEETCODE_USERNAME - your LeetCode username (public profile).
• MIN_PROBLEMS_PER_DAY - quota (e.g. 1).
• PROCESSES - The distracting processes you want to block. Comma-separated process names as shown in Task Manager (e.g. notepad.exe, WhatsApp.Root.exe). This will scan for the process by name and YEET IT
• FAIL_OPEN_ON_API_ERROR - true or false = if LeetCode is unreachable, allow the processes, and show a tray notification (recommended).

4. RUN IT!

uv run python install_autostart.py

This creates a shortcut in your Windows Startup directory, and starts up the program! Whenever your computer restarts, it will automatically run this program.

To uninstall, delete the .lnk file.

The shortcut points at the pythonw.exe inside .venv. Just don’t move/delete the project’s .venv. If you ever recreate the venv, re-run install_autostart.py.

For development

When developing or debugging, you'll want to see print statements, errors, and logs in the console.

For development, run the app like this:

uv run python main.py

This runs the main program using the standard Python interpreter (not pythonw), so any output (including debug or error messages) appears in your terminal.

Notes

• LeetCode has no official API; this uses their public GraphQL endpoint. It can change without notice.
• Submissions must be Accepted and visible on your public recent activity for the count to update.
• Run from an account that is allowed to terminate your distraction processes (same user is usually fine).
• from __future__ import annotations has been deprecated starting Python 3.14, but like, AI generated this slop and I'm too lazy to change it, so I'm keeping it in for now. Also, backwards compatibility!! Am I right?