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Guides 11 of 17 · Practice
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Keyboard shortcuts & workspace tips

6 min read

Katabench keeps its own shortcuts to a handful you will use constantly, and leaves the rest to the editor, which is the same engine as VS Code. This page collects all of them in one place. Ctrl means Cmd on a Mac unless stated otherwise.

Playground

Shortcut What it does
Ctrl + Enter Run the visible samples and your custom input.
Ctrl + Shift + Enter Submit against the full hidden suite.
F6 / Shift + F6 Move focus to the next or previous area: puzzle list, problem, editor, results (desktop).
Enter in the custom input box Run the custom input.
↑ ↓ Home End in the puzzle list Move between tracks and puzzles; Enter opens one. The list is a single Tab stop, so the next Tab goes on to the problem.
← → Home End on the result tabs Switch between Output and Tests (and the mobile Problem, Code, Results tabs).
← → Home End on the editor divider Resize the editor and results panes in small steps, or jump to either limit.

Double-click the divider between the editor and the results to restore its default size.

Switching puzzles cancels a Run or Submit that is still in flight.

The code editor

F1 opens the editor's command palette, which lists every command with its current keybinding. The ones worth memorizing:

Shortcut What it does
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z Undo / redo. In a single-file Playground puzzle this also takes back a Reset or a Reveal.
Ctrl + / Toggle a line comment on the current line or selection.
Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓ Move the current line up or down.
Shift + Alt + ↑ / ↓ Duplicate the current line up or down.
Ctrl + D Add the next occurrence of the selection as another cursor.
Ctrl + F Find in the current file.
Tab / Shift + Tab Indent or outdent the selected lines.
Ctrl + M Make Tab move focus out of the editor instead of indenting; press it again to switch back. On a Mac it is Ctrl + Shift + M. The editor shows this reminder when you reach it with the keyboard.

Completion, signature help, and hover documentation come from a built-in C# catalog and work offline. Compiler diagnostics from a Run or Submit are shown inline as underlines on the file that produced them. The editor has a fixed type size, no minimap, and no vim keymap; the visual theme follows the app's light or dark mode or a theme you equip from Rewards.

In multi-file katas the file tabs above the editor also let you add a new .cs file or remove one: ← → Home End move between the tabs, and Delete on a tab removes that file. Reset restores the original file set. Right after either one, Undo in the notice over the editor brings back a removed file, or your files as they were before a Reset. The notice closes when you type, switch puzzles or reload, and Ctrl + Z cannot bring the files back after that.

Labs

Shortcut What it does
Ctrl + S Save every open file to the Lab session. Build, Run, Check, and lesson navigation also save.
Ctrl + Shift + Enter Check the lesson from anywhere in the Lab, including the editor and the terminals.
F6 / Shift + F6 Move between the editor, the terminals, the lesson heading, and Check.
Esc, then Tab or Shift + Tab in a terminal Leave the terminal for the next or previous control. The shell still receives the Esc.
Ctrl + M in the editor Make Tab move focus instead of indenting; press it again to switch back. On a Mac it is Ctrl + Shift + M.
← → Home End on a divider Resize the file tree, the consoles or terminals, and the guide column. Double-click a divider to reset it.
← → Home End on terminal tabs Switch terminals when the work area is too narrow to show them side by side.

Tab indents in the editor and completes in a terminal, as it does in an IDE and a shell, so use F6 to move between the big areas of the Lab without a mouse.

Guide code cards offer Copy, Insert at cursor, and, for commands, Run into a named terminal. When several terminals are open, pick the target first; a terminal refuses a second command while the previous one is still starting. Run brings its terminal into view, switching tabs when the terminals are shown as tabs. A terminal pane can be maximized when you need the space, and terminal input pauses while a Check runs so the check reads a stable workspace.

On small screens, Guide and Code & output are tabs. On desktop, Hide instructions and the full-screen toggle give the editor and terminals the whole window.

System Design Studio

Action How
Remove the selected component Backspace or Delete.
Select a component Tab to it and press Enter; the Inspector opens.
Undo / redo a canvas change Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z (or Ctrl + Y), or the ↶ ↷ buttons in the toolbar. On macOS use Cmd.
Remove a connection Double-click it, or Remove next to it in the Inspector.
Place a component Click it in the palette, or drag it to a position.
Connect two components Drag from a dot on a component's edge to another component, or pick the target in the Inspector's Add connection to and press Connect.
Auto-arrange Tidy in the toolbar.
Full-width canvas Hide brief in the toolbar.

See Using the System Design Studio for Check, Submit, and the capacity report.

  • On desktop the navigation rail can be collapsed to icons or expanded from the button at its top, beside the logo; the choice is remembered in that browser. Tab onto a compact rail icon to see its name.
  • On smaller screens the navigation opens as a drawer. Esc closes it and focus returns to the menu button.
  • The first Tab press on any page reveals a Skip to content link. In the Playground the next presses reveal Skip to editor, Skip to problem, and Skip to results.
  • The selected puzzle and the puzzle-list filter live in the address bar, so the browser Back and Forward buttons, bookmarks, and shared links all return to the same exercise and list.
  • The light/dark toggle sits in every header. Equipping a purchased Playground theme switches the interface to dark to match it. On a phone the toggle is in the navigation drawer's footer.

For the rest of the app's layout, see Finding your way around.