Keyboard shortcuts & workspace tips

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.
Enter in the custom input box	Run the custom input.
← → 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.
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.

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 you added. Reset restores the original file set.

Labs

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + S	Save every open file to the Lab session. Build, Run, Check, and lesson navigation also save.
← → Home End on a divider	Resize the file tree, the consoles or terminals, and the guide column. Double-click a divider to reset it.

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. 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.
Remove a connection	Double-click it.
Place a component	Click it in the palette, or drag it to a position.
Connect two components	Drag from the right handle of one to the left handle of the other.
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.

Navigation

• On desktop the navigation rail can be collapsed to icons; the choice is remembered in that browser.
• 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.
• The selected puzzle lives in the address bar, so the browser Back and Forward buttons, bookmarks, and shared links all return to the same exercise.
• The light/dark toggle sits in every header. Equipping a purchased Playground theme switches the interface to dark to match it.

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