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Daily Practice System Specification

PrepMaster · System spec

Daily Practice System Specification

Apple, Streak, Tree Leaderboard, and School Competition

01Core design principles

The system is designed to encourage daily practice without overwhelming students. Long-term progress must feel permanent and safe.

Daily engagement is driven by "Feed Your Apple," and weekly motivation comes from tiered mini leaderboards ("Trees"). Individual progress and school competitions operate as parallel systems; no action in one system can permanently harm progress in the other.

02Registration and student identity

At initial registration, students must provide exactly the following required fields.

Full name
Email address
School name

The school field is mandatory and cannot be skipped. A student cannot complete onboarding or access the app without selecting a school.

School name behavior

School is selected from a searchable dropdown to prevent spelling duplicates.
If a school does not exist, the student may create a new entry that becomes selectable for future users.
Each student is permanently associated with one school at a time.

School affiliation does NOT affect

Apple stage	Determined independently
Total XP	Accumulated independently
Daily Challenge difficulty	Calculated independently
Tree Tier placement	Calculated independently

School affiliation is used exclusively for school-based competitions.

03Apple growth levels

Each student has an Apple representing their overall progress, and they may name it during onboarding. The name is stored as a user-editable string with no gameplay effect, but is required for emotional ownership.

SeedStage 1

SproutStage 2

GreenStage 3

RedStage 4

GoldenStage 5

Each stage corresponds to internal levels and difficulty scaling, which affects Daily Challenge question selection. Difficulty scaling does not affect leaderboard placement.

Apple stages never decrease. Once a student reaches a stage, it is permanently locked in and cannot be reversed by missed days, streak resets, leaderboard demotions, or inactivity of any length.

Total XP and skill unlocks are permanent. XP is cumulative across the lifetime of the account. Skills unlocked at any stage remain usable forever and are never re-locked. This ensures students never feel they are "losing progress."

04Daily streak system

Students maintain momentum by completing a short daily challenge.

A Daily Challenge is generated once per calendar day per student, in their local timezone.
Daily challenges are limited to 3–5 questions and complete in under 5 minutes.
No Daily Challenge may contain more than five questions or require more than five minutes of expected completion time.

Completing a daily challenge

Grows the Apple (visual growth animation + Apple growth points for weekly leaderboard)
Extends the streak by +1
Contributes to weekly leaderboard progress

Primary call-to-action

The main button on the home screen must always be labeled exactly "Feed Your Apple." If the Daily Challenge has not been completed that day, this button launches it; if already completed, it opens a completion summary state.

05Streak breaks and penalties

1 day missed

Mild — recoverable

Streak resets to 0 immediately at the start of the next day
Apple stage unchanged
No Apple growth points or streak bonuses for the missed day
No leaderboard restriction — full eligibility for Top 5
No XP or skill loss

2 consecutive

Medium — bonus reduced

Streak stays at 0 and does not auto-restart
Apple enters a "slightly wilted" visual state (cosmetic only)
All Apple growth points earned that week reduced by ~20% penalty when activity resumes

3+ consecutive

Severe — leaderboard restricted

Streak stays at 0 until a new daily challenge is completed
Apple enters a "dull/faded" visual state
Student remains visible on the leaderboard and earns growth points, but is marked "Not eligible for Top 5" unless an Apple Shield is used

06Apple Shields

Apple Shields protect students from losing momentum. They are a limited, consumable resource stored as an integer per student.

One Apple Shield can

Prevent one streak reset caused by a single missed day
Prevent one weekly leaderboard restriction caused by 3+ consecutive missed days

Using a shield does not change Apple stage, total XP, or unlocked skills.

How shields are earned

Action	Reward
Completing a 7-day streak	1 shield
Placing in the Top 5 of a weekly leaderboard	1 shield
Inviting a friend (who signs up with the code)	1 shield

There is no automatic refill. Shields must be deliberately earned and deliberately spent. They cannot stack infinitely fast and are obtainable only through these discrete actions.

07Weekly leaderboards (Apple Tree)

Leaderboards operate on a weekly reset cycle. Each week runs from Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59 in the student's local timezone, and all values reset at the start of each new week.

Tree composition

Students are placed into small groups called "Trees" (20–25 students). Each Tree contains a maximum of 25 and a minimum of 20 when possible.

Green Tree

Beginner

Red Tree

Intermediate

Golden Tree

Advanced

Students only compete within their own Tree tier — except during the weekend school competition.

Weekly ranking

Determined by apples grown during that week. Lifetime XP and Apple stage have no effect on weekly ranking.

Daily challenge completion
Streak maintenance bonus
Weekly boss challenges
Small accuracy bonuses

End of week

Outcome	Who
Promoted to next tier	Top 5 in Tree
Demoted to lower tier	Bottom 5 in Tree
Weekly score reset to 0	Everyone

Promotion and demotion only affect Tree tier placement. Apple stage, XP, streak history, and shields are unaffected.

08Weekly school competition (weekend tournament)

In addition to Tree leaderboards, the system runs a weekly school competition.

Competition scope

School-based, not individual tier-based
All students from the same school contribute to the same school score
Students from all Tree tiers compete together — cross-tier by design

Competition schedule

Active: Saturday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59 (student local time)
Inactive: Weekdays

How schools earn points

Points are earned when students complete daily challenges during the competition window
Optional: boss challenges completed during the weekend also contribute
Each student's contribution adds to their school's total score

Competition rules

School scores reset every week
Individual streaks, Apple stage, Tree tier, and shields do NOT reset
Missing days does not disqualify a student from contributing to their school

School ranking and rewards

Schools are ranked by total points earned during the weekend. There is no tier separation for schools — all schools compete in a single pool. Top-performing schools may receive cosmetic recognition (badges, banners, or school highlights) for their Apple.

09Implementation principles

The system must be implemented as state-based logic with clear transitions triggered by Daily Challenge completion, day rollover, and weekly rollover.
No values marked "permanent" may ever be reduced.
Individual progress (Apple, XP, streak, Tree tier) and school competitions are parallel systems. No action in one system may permanently harm progress in the other.
School competitions are additive, time-limited, and reset weekly.