# TradeoffQuest

> Simulate software architecture trade-offs in a visual 3D playground. Place components, run scenarios, and learn system design through immediate feedback.

TradeoffQuest is a free, browser-based **system design simulator**. Place architecture components in a 3D playground, run traffic scenarios, and learn trade-offs through immediate visual feedback — queues growing, nodes overheating, requests dropping. No account required.

Important notes:

- **Not** a cloud console clone or infrastructure-as-code toy — it teaches **judgment under constraints**, not tool clicks.
- Pipelines and data flows are **auto-wired** from the component graph; you focus on placement and capacity, not manual linking.
- Play at https://tradeoff.quest/ (JavaScript required for the 3D scene).

## Play

- [TradeoffQuest — play the simulator](https://tradeoff.quest/): Free web app; challenges, campaigns, and incidents for architecture trade-offs.

## What you can learn

- [System design trade-offs](https://tradeoff.quest/): Caching, load balancing, async job queues, read replicas, rate limiting, and bottleneck diagnosis.
- [Visual feedback loop](https://tradeoff.quest/): Latency, overload, and failure shown as flow and congestion — readable without staring at metrics alone.

## Optional

- [Full site brief (llms-full.txt)](https://tradeoff.quest/llms-full.txt): Longer markdown summary — game modes, components, featured challenges, FAQ-style facts for AI assistants.
- [Open Graph preview image](https://tradeoff.quest/og.png): Social / link preview art for TradeoffQuest.