PCBGrade
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PCBGrade
Learn practical PCB design by actually designing boards.
Learn hardware engineering by actually building it. Twenty lessons, from the first schematic through a finished board, scored from the circuit you submit.
LearnTwenty lessons in order. The idea first, then the board.PracticeThe same challenges, filtered by topic and difficulty.InterviewHints off. A timer if you want one. The same measurement.AnalyzeUpload a board you already designed and read what the copper shows.EducatorsAssign a challenge and see which rules a class actually misses.TutorialSelect, place, wire, and the first route.
First circuit · First PCB · Power · USB · Mixed signal · Capstone
Pass · LED current
9.09 mA measured
8–12 mA required
The R1–D1 net, drawn twice: in the schematic and as copper. The check is the lesson measurement for that loop.
See PCBGrade in action
Schematic, copper, then a measurement
A series LED is wired, the same net is routed between pads, and the check reports the current against the published window.
01
Learn
A lesson names the physical idea before the challenge asks you to use it.
02
Design
Place parts, wire the schematic, and route copper on the board.
03
Check
The server measures the design. The result names the rule, the value, and the limit.
Curriculum
From a first loop to a capstone board
01 · Problems 1–5
Foundations
Route and check a simple board
Nets, footprints, pads, vias, routing, clearance, and a local capacitor
02 · Problems 6–10
Core PCB Engineering
Place power parts in the order the current and the fault require
Width, return current, a linear regulator, connector protection, and a buck hot loop
03 · Problems 11–15
Intermediate PCB Design
Keep a pair on its reference and sample a signal without cutting the ground
A four-layer stackup, a differential pair, USB-C, gain and filtering, and an ADC
04 · Problems 16–18
Advanced PCB Design
Repair spacing, heat, and build defects without breaking the circuit
Edge rate and aggressors, current and heat, and manufacturable geometry
05 · Problem 19
Engineering Judgment
Repair a faulty board from evidence, then recheck the copper
How to read a symptom, separate it from the next one, and change one cause
06 · Problem 20
Capstone
Finish a four-layer data-acquisition design and read the measured result
Power, analog, ADC, MCU, USB, stackup, routing, and DFM on one board
Interview preparation
Practice the engineering reasoning hardware interviews actually test
Pick a topic and work one to five challenges with hints off. A timer is optional. After you submit, the report names the rule, the measured value, and the limit. Each topic shows what you have already passed in Learn.
PCB Fundamentals
Width, return current, and a stackup. The questions are about copper you can point at.
Schematic Reasoning
A regulator, a protection path, and a gain network. The card tells you the pins. The measurement tells you if you followed it.
Power and Layout
The buck hot loop and a high-current path. Placement is the answer, not a shorter line on the screen.
Analog and Mixed Signal
Filtering, a reference, and where a clock is allowed to run. A split ground is not the default repair.
Board Debugging
Symptoms and authored panels. You match a panel to a cause, then change the circuit. The grader measures that repair.
High-Speed Fundamentals
Pair skew, USB continuity, and aggressor spacing. These are layout constraints, not a field solver.
DFM and Manufacturing
Silk, courtyards, drills, and the copper around a hole. A circuit can be right and still be hard to build.
Founder
Why I built PCBGrade
Interview and practice content informed by conversations and interviews with 100+ engineers across major hardware and technology companies.
I am Max Malakhovets, an electrical engineering student at Penn. Before I built a 12-layer, 2,000+ component DAQ PCB for a Berkeley physics experiment, I learned PCB design by doing the work: datasheets, layout, and a lot of wrong turns.
Those conversations did not endorse PCBGrade, validate every problem, or make their companies partners. They showed me which schematic, layout, debugging, and tradeoff questions keep coming up when people hire for hardware roles.
PCBGrade is the practice I wanted: structured lessons, a board you actually edit, a score from the measurement, and interview sittings that use the same challenges.
For educators
Assign a challenge, share a join code, and read the rules a class actually fails. Scores come from the same server measurement students see.
Analyze
Review a board you already designed
Upload a .PcbDoc directly. KiCad and IPC-2581 are supported as well. PCBGrade checks connectivity, clearance, width, and drills, and draws the copper it parsed.
Open Analyze- Clearance
- 0.10 mm measured
- 0.20 mm required
- Fail
- Short circuit
- no joined nets
- distinct nets stay apart
- Pass
Start with one loop
The tutorial teaches select, place, rotate, wire, and the first route. The curriculum starts at Problem 1.