Find something to study
The search box on the home page takes a plain description of what you want to learn and returns a ranked path. Reading any existing path is free signed out. Building a brand-new one signed out works once per device per day; after that it asks you to sign in, and a signed-in account gets three new builds a day. Free resources sit above paid ones. On a generated path, every link is checked for a live response before it can appear; hand-written paths are verified by hand when they are curated.
The hand-written paths are built as courses rather than reading lists. Each one is split into units, and every unit says what it is for and what you should be able to do by the end of it, so you can tell whether to move on instead of guessing. Certification paths carry the exam domains as the vendor publishes them, weightings included, with a link to the vendor page so you can check the scope yourself.
You do not know where to start
Search the subject. Save the path and its steps become a checklist on your dashboard. You can keep three paths active at a time; finishing one frees the slot and keeps the path, so you never have to delete something you completed to start the next.
You already have a class or a book
Skip the search entirely. Make a subject on the dashboard, open a note, and go straight to step 2.
Write it down, or bring it in
Notes are plain markdown. There is no separate flashcard form and no button to press. The editor reads your note as you write and picks out the pairs.
**Vocab:** Photosynthesis
**Def:** The process by which plants turn sunlight into energy.
Photosynthesis: The process by which plants turn sunlight into energy.
A single line with a colon or a dash does the same thing. The term goes on the front, the rest on the back.
Slash menu (/)
Type / anywhere in the editor for headings, lists, a checklist, a quote, a code block, or a ready-made Vocab and Def pair.
Editor & formatting
Ctrl+S / ⌘S saves now, Ctrl+F / ⌘F find/replace, Ctrl+B / ⌘B & Ctrl+I / ⌘I bold/italic.Auto-saves as you type. Use the editor toolbar buttons for bold, italic, headings, and formatting.
Importing a file
PDF, DOCX, plain text, or markdown. Capped at 500,000 characters of text.
Saving a PDF
The note editor exports either the note itself or just its flashcards as a study sheet. It hands off to your browser's print dialog, so choose Save as PDF there.
Sharing & QR codes
Once a note holds ten vocab pairs, a Share button appears in the header. It creates a view-only practice link and a QR code you can scan with a phone camera. Anyone can practice your cards without an account, nobody can edit your note, and you can stop sharing anytime.
Streaks, points, and badges
All computed from your own review history, never invented. Your streak starts on your very first review (🔥 1 day streak); points add one per review and twenty per card you master to box 4; badges appear on the dashboard as you earn them. The activity heatmap tracks your 70-day review history.
Taking your notes with you
Settings has a "Download my notes" button that hands you every note in your account as one markdown file. Your writing is yours; nothing here locks it in.
Switching subjects
The switcher sits in the top bar, beside your account. Picking a subject reloads the dashboard around it.Open the menu from the top right. The switcher is the first thing inside it. It appears once you have a second subject.
AI auto-generation
Drafts up to 10 vocab pairs and 10 quiz questions automatically, up to 3 times per subject in each 24-hour window.
A **Quiz:** block, with its options separated by pipes on the **A:** line, is understood by the editor and shows up in the note preview.
Ten pairs makes a deck
Cards do not appear one at a time. A note becomes a deck the moment it holds ten different vocab pairs, and everything in it converts at once.
Below ten, nothing is created. Edit a finished note back under ten pairs and the cards it made are removed again.
Review, which is the only mode that counts
Every card sits in a box, and the box decides how long until you see it again. A vocab card shows a text box first: you write what you remember, then reveal the answer with Ctrl or Cmd plus Enter, and the stored answer appears beside your attempt. Five cards come due at a time, a set every 12 hours, so a session is short on purpose.
Box 0 is not a graded question. It shows you the card you just made with Keep, Edit and Delete, so the first time you see a prompt doubles as a check that it was worth making. Keep sends it to box 1.
Right moves a card up one box. Wrong sends it to box 1 from wherever it was, so a card you have known for three weeks and then miss starts its climb again.
The second failure on a card stops the session and asks you to explain it in your own words there and then. What you write replaces the answer, because reading the old one a third time was not going to work.
Spaced repetition
A learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material.
A brand new card starts in box 0 and jumps the queue. This first look is not graded: you are judging whether the card was worth making.
How much is due at once
A set is five cards, flashcards and quizzes together, coming twice a day. The next is ready exactly 12 hours after your last answer, so it lands at a time you can plan around. If you keep the site open, a small note tells you when it arrives.
Zen focus mode & shortcuts
Press Z or click Focus to toggle Zen mode, which dims surrounding controls and spotlights the flashcard. On a vocab card, type your attempt and reveal with Ctrl/Cmd + Enter; Space reveals only a card that takes no typed attempt. After the reveal, 1 is wrong and 2 is correct, and A to D or 1 to 4 picks a quiz option.
Sound & haptics
Audio tones play on card flips, right answers, wrong answers, and session completion. On phones that support it, subtle vibrations give physical feedback as you move through cards (Android; iOS does not expose this to browsers yet).
Practice, which costs you nothing
Open the Quick study hub on your dashboard and pick a mode. None of these write to the box schedule.
Ten cards a run, term on front. Click or Space to reveal.
Multiple choice, options shuffled every time. Three runs per subject in each 24-hour window.
Twelve rounds on a 60-second clock, mixing snap judgements, multiple choice and typing.
Eight terms and eight definitions face down on a board.
One term, two answers that read alike. Cards you have got wrong come up first.
Taking notes beside a video
When a step in one of your paths is a YouTube video, the dashboard offers to open it beside the editor.
Capture timestamp drops a link at your cursor for the second you are on. Click that link later and the player goes back to it. On a phone the two panes become a toggle.
Using Quad Encode as a mobile app
Quad Encode is built as a Progressive Web App (PWA). You can install it directly onto your phone without downloading anything from an app store.
Tap the share button at the bottom of Safari, then select "Add to Home Screen".
Tap the three-dot menu in the top right of Chrome, then select "Install app" or "Add to Home screen".
Ready to start studying?
Make your first subject, or search a topic and see what a path looks like before you sign up. Reading paths is free signed out, and each device gets one new path build a day.