freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp

Improve solution download format to ZIP project structure

Open

#65887 opened on Feb 14, 2026

View on GitHub
 (14 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)TypeScript (444,744 stars) (44,572 forks)batch import
help wantedplatform: learn

Description

Currently, solutions download as a single .txt file containing HTML, CSS, and JS together. It would improve developer experience if the solution downloaded as a ZIP file containing properly separated files like:

  • index.html
  • styles.css
  • script.js

This would make the project immediately runnable and align with real-world project structure.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascripttypescriptnodejsexpress
Domain
backenddeveloper experience
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Node.jsUnderstanding of file streams
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65
Research direction
The issue requests replacing the current single file .txt download with a ZIP containing separated HTML, CSS, and JS files. Look at the solution download endpoint in the freeCodeCamp codebase, likely in the server side route handling solution exports. Check comments for discussions on using archiver library or Node.js built in zlib. The main challenge is generating ZIP in memory and sending as response. Existing PRs or maintainer hints may be in the comment thread.