I wanted a daily discipline of contributing to GitHub—but I didn’t want to spam meaningless commits. Instead, I built a Telegram bot that sends me a daily 5-question CS quiz (DSA, Cloud, Cybersecurity, DevOps, AI/ML, Data Science, General CS). Each finished quiz day creates 5 lightweight commits to a repository I control. That way:
- I learn and sharpen my CS knowledge every day.
- I keep my GitHub contribution graph green with purposeful activity—one quiz = five commits.
- It’s automatic once configured, and runs 24/7 on Render (free tier) so I get my reminders even when my laptop is off.
-
Telegram bot with commands:
/daily— take a 5-question CS quiz/notify HH:MM [TZ]— schedule a daily reminder (e.g.,/notify 07:30 Asia/Kolkata)/when— show your next reminder time/unnotify— disable your reminder/streak— show your current/best streak (completing all 5 in a day)/streakboard— leaderboard per chat/setuser <github-username>+/quiz— a separate GitHub contributions quiz mode/forcecommit [n] [tag]— manual commits for testing (optional)
-
Persists:
- Scores and streaks in
quiz_scores.db(SQLite) - Reminder preferences per user (time + timezone)
- Scores and streaks in
-
After you answer all 5 questions for the day, it triggers 5 GitHub commits via the GitHub API.
-
Runs locally (polling) or in webhook mode. On Render, you can run:
- Polling + keepalive (simple, works on free tier)
- Webhook mode (custom URL path using a secret)
main.py # Telegram bot, commands, scheduling, webhook/polling
questions.py # Question bank + random question selection
quiz_engine.py # GitHub contribution-graph question generator (original mode)
storage.py # SQLite schema + CRUD for scores, reminders, streaks
github_committer.py # Minimal GitHub API client to create file commits
requirements.txt # Python dependencies
.env.example # Example env vars (copy to .env locally; never commit real secrets)
Key flows:
-
/notify HH:MM TZ→ saves your reminder in DB → schedules a daily JobQueue job at that time in your timezone. -
At reminder time → bot DM’s you a quiz prompt → you answer Q1..Q5 → when you hit 5 for that day, the bot:
- Marks your day complete (streak++)
- Calls
github_committer.pyto create 5 commits in your configured repo.
-
Python 3.11+
-
A Telegram bot token from BotFather
-
A GitHub repo to write commits to (e.g.,
yourname/daily-quiz-commits) -
A GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) with minimal scopes:
- Public repo:
public_repo - Private repo:
repo
- Public repo:
-
(Render deployment) A Render account
# Clone your repo (omit if you already have it locally)
git clone https://github.com/<you>/Contribution-Graph-Pop-Quiz.git
cd Contribution-Graph-Pop-Quiz
# Create and activate a virtualenv (Windows PowerShell shown)
python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txtRecommended requirements.txt:
python-telegram-bot[job-queue]==20.7
python-dotenv==1.0.1
tzdata==2025.1
requests==2.32.3Create .env (do not commit this file) based on .env.example:
# Telegram
BOT_TOKEN=123456789:AA...fromBotFather...
# GitHub commits
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx... # classic PAT; public_repo or repo depending on target
GITHUB_REPO=yourname/daily-quiz-commits
GH_USER_NAME=Your Name
GH_USER_EMAIL=your-verified-email@example.com # must be a verified GitHub email
# Timezone for defaults
TZ=Asia/Kolkata
# (Webhook mode only)
WEBHOOK_SECRET=some-long-random-string
BASE_URL=https://your-render-service.onrender.com
PORT=10000 # Render injects this; you don't need it locallyImportant: Your
GH_USER_EMAILmust be a verified email on your GitHub account, otherwise commits won’t show on your contribution graph.
# from your venv
python -u main.py-
You should see logs like:
Keepalive HTTP on 8000Starting in polling modeApplication started
Now, in Telegram:
-
Send
/start -
Schedule a reminder:
/notify 11:00 Asia/Kolkata- You’ll receive a test question in ~2 seconds (confirms it’s armed).
-
Check next run:
/when -
Take a quiz:
/daily
If you prefer webhook mode, you can run:
python main.py --webhookEnsure you have:
WEBHOOK_SECRETandBASE_URLset in your environment.- The app will register webhook at
BASE_URL + "/telegram/<WEBHOOK_SECRET>".
Note: Polling mode is simpler and works well on Render free tier (with our keepalive). Webhook mode is available but not required.
You can run the bot 24/7 on Render so you’ll get the daily notification even when your laptop is off.
-
Push your code to GitHub (without
.env). -
On Render:
-
Create New → Web Service
-
Link your GitHub repo
-
Build Command:
pip install -r requirements.txt -
Start Command:
python main.py -
Environment → Add:
BOT_TOKEN=... GITHUB_TOKEN=... GITHUB_REPO=yourname/daily-quiz-commits GH_USER_NAME=Your Name GH_USER_EMAIL=your-email@example.com TZ=Asia/Kolkata
-
-
Deploy. Logs should show:
Keepalive HTTP on <port>Starting in polling mode
-
In Telegram:
/notify 11:00 Asia/Kolkata→ you’ll get a test question in ~2 seconds./when→ shows next run (tomorrow at 11:00 IST).
Why this works on free tier: We run a tiny HTTP server inside
main.pyso Render’s health checks keep the service alive. PTB uses long-polling to fetch updates.
-
Same as above but change Start Command to:
python main.py --webhook -
Add env vars:
WEBHOOK_SECRET=some-long-random-string BASE_URL=https://your-service.onrender.com -
Logs should show:
Starting in WEBHOOK mode at https://.../telegram/<secret>
When you answer all 5 questions for the day via /daily, the bot:
- Marks the day completed in
daily_progress→ streak tracking. - Calls
github_committer.make_daily_commits_if_configured(n=5, tag=<user_id>). - That function creates/updates tiny files in
GITHUB_REPO, authored asGH_USER_NAME <GH_USER_EMAIL>using yourGITHUB_TOKEN.
For the commits to appear on your contribution graph, ensure:
GH_USER_EMAILis a verified email on your GitHub account.- The repo (
GITHUB_REPO) is under your account or you have write access. - Timezone is correct (commits happen on the intended date).
/start— Welcome/help— Show help/setuser <github-username>— Set username for GitHub quiz/quiz— Original GitHub contributions quiz/daily— CS quiz (5 questions, 1/day)/notify HH:MM [Area/City]— Schedule reminder (e.g.,/notify 07:30 Asia/Kolkata)/when— Show next scheduled reminder/unnotify— Cancel reminder/streak— Show your streak/streakboard— Top streaks (per chat)/score— Overall score (GitHub quiz mode)/forcecommit [n] [tag]— Manually trigger commits (testing)
-
Never commit
.env. It contains your tokens. -
Use minimal GitHub PAT scopes:
- Public repo →
public_repo - Private repo →
repo
- Public repo →
-
If you ever accidentally commit secrets, revoke them and rewrite history (
git filter-repoor BFG).
.gitignore should include:
.env
quiz_scores.db
.venv/
__pycache__/
*.pyc
*.pyo
*.pyd
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
I don’t get reminders on my phone.
- Ensure the bot is running (locally or on Render).
- On Render, check logs: service must be “live”.
- Run
/notify HH:MM Asia/Kolkataagain; you should receive a test ping. - Run
/whento confirm the next run time.
Commits aren’t showing on my contribution graph.
GH_USER_EMAILmust be a verified email in your GitHub account.- Check repo name/permissions; PAT user must have write access.
- If the repo is public and PAT is fine-grained, ensure Contents: Read and write permission for that repo.
401 Bad credentials when committing.
- The token is wrong or lacks scopes. Regenerate with minimal scopes and paste into
.env(no quotes/spaces).
Timezone issues.
- Use valid IANA tz like
Asia/Kolkata,America/New_York. - Ensure
tzdatais installed (it’s inrequirements.txt).
- Add more questions in
questions.py(simple Python list of QAs). - Add categories or difficulty.
- Extend
storage.pywith more analytics (e.g., per-category accuracy). - Replace the commit payload with something meaningful (e.g., daily note or spaced-repetition logs).
MIT (or your preferred license). Feel free to remix.
This project helped me keep a daily learning habit, while giving my GitHub graph authentic activity. If you adopt it, consider customizing the question bank to match what you want to learn next. Keep it fun—and keep shipping 💚.
Mitra Boga
