From Our Classroom to the App Store: How a Learner Built LeanerTogether with Claude Code

Short version: a 47-year-old hospital assistant manager with no software engineering job title attended a one-day WSQ class on Agentic AI Applications with Claude Code, started building on 1 June 2026, and had a working web version of his app by the end of that same day. Two months later, The Straits Times ran his story: 3.2kg down, body fat from 22% to 11.9%, and a live app on both the App Store and Google Play. He did not give up hawker food to do it.

We teach a lot of classes. Every so often a learner walks out and builds something that makes the whole point better than any course description could. This is one of those.

Who he is, and what he built

Tan Chin Hock is 47 and works as an assistant manager in a hospital. He is not a full-time developer. He attended our WSQ Claude Code class on 30 May 2026, and according to the Straits Times report by Hedy Khoo, he began building LeanerTogether with the agentic coding assistant Claude Code on 1 June 2026 as a side hustle — and had a working web version by the end of that first day.

The app is a calorie and habit tracker built specifically for how Singaporeans actually eat. Its scanner recognises chicken rice, laksa, mee siam, cai png and nasi lemak — over 31,000 local and regional foods — rather than assuming you cook Western salads at home. That single design decision is the whole product thesis, and it is the kind of insight that comes from a domain expert, not a generic app studio.

His own results, per The Straits Times

He kept eating nasi lemak with fried chicken, egg prata with curry and economy rice throughout. The method was simply tracking everything honestly and staying in a deficit. As he told the paper: "I feel very good about where I am today. I am at the leanest in my adult life, even leaner than when I was serving as a commando during national service."

The part that matters for you: the build timeline

Set the weight loss aside for a moment and look at the software timeline, because it is genuinely remarkable and it is now repeatable.

Ten years ago, an idea like this needed a co-founder who could code, or $30,000 and a six-month agency engagement. The bottleneck was never the idea — it was translating the idea into working software. That bottleneck is what agentic coding tools remove. You still need judgement about what to build and for whom. You just no longer need to hand-write every line to find out if you were right.

What "agentic" actually changes

Most people first meet AI coding as autocomplete: you type, it finishes your line. Useful, but it still assumes you are the one writing the software. An agentic tool works differently — you describe the outcome, and it plans the steps, creates and edits files across the project, runs the code, reads the errors, and fixes them without you driving each keystroke.

That difference is why a hospital manager can ship a working app in a day. The skill being exercised is not syntax recall. It is:

• Specifying clearly — describing what the app must do precisely enough that an agent can act on it.
• Context engineering — giving the agent the right project background so it makes decisions consistent with what already exists.
• Verifying — reading what came back and knowing whether it is actually correct, rather than merely plausible.
• Iterating — steering across dozens of small corrections instead of one perfect prompt.

Those are all learnable in a day, and they are exactly what our WSQ Agentic AI Applications with Claude Code course covers — Claude Code fundamentals and operation modes, context and memory management, custom slash commands and tools, MCP integrations, then RAG pipelines, skills, sub-agents and hooks. At $500 before GST, with 50% WSQ funding for Singaporeans and PRs aged 21+, or 70% if you are 40 and above, plus SkillsFuture Credit, PSEA and UTAP options.

Where to start, depending on where you are now

Two honest starting points, because they suit different people:

• You have never built an app before. Start with WSQ Build Professional Web Apps Quickly with AI-Assisted Vibe Coding ($400 before GST). It gets you from nothing to a deployed full-stack web app, so you learn what the pieces are before you start directing an agent to build them.
• You already ship things and want the agentic workflow. Go straight to WSQ Agentic AI Applications with Claude Code ($500 before GST) — the class Chin Hock took. If you want to go deeper afterwards, the Claude Code Masterclass extends into heavier real-world workflows.

If your interest is automating a business process rather than shipping a consumer app, WSQ Agentic AI Automation with n8n is the better fit — same agentic thinking, applied to workflows instead of apps. All of these are WSQ-funded and SkillsFuture Credit claimable.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how to code to take the Claude Code course?

You need basic comfort with computers and logical thinking, not a computer science degree. Learners with no professional coding background do complete it and go on to build. If you have never touched a codebase at all, the Vibe Coding class first will make the Claude Code class land much better.

How much does it cost after funding?

The Claude Code course is $500 before GST. With 50% WSQ funding you pay roughly half that; at 70% (Singaporeans aged 40+) you pay meaningfully less again. You can then apply SkillsFuture Credit or PSEA to the remaining amount, which for many learners brings the net cash outlay close to zero. Final eligibility is subject to verification.

Can I really build a publishable app in one day?

You can build a working prototype in a day — Chin Hock had a functioning web version within one. Shipping to the App Store and Google Play is a longer road: store listings, privacy declarations, review cycles and real-user bugs. The class gets you to "it works". Getting to "it is on the store" takes persistence beyond the classroom, and he put that in himself.

Is one day enough to actually learn this?

One day is enough to learn the workflow and build with it. Fluency comes from using it on something you actually care about afterwards. The learners who get the most out of it walk in with a project in mind — which is precisely what Chin Hock did.

What can I use my SkillsFuture Credit on here?

All four courses linked above are SkillsFuture Credit eligible. NTUC members can also claim UTAP, and SG-registered companies sponsoring staff can tap SFEC. If you are unsure which applies to you, ask us before you enrol and we will walk you through it.

The takeaway

The interesting thing about this story is not that an app got built. It is that the distance between "I have an idea and a real problem" and "it is live on two app stores" collapsed to a few months, for someone whose day job is in a hospital.

Chin Hock brought the domain insight — knowing that a calorie tracker which cannot recognise cai png is useless in Singapore. The tooling handled the translation into software. That is the trade that is newly available, and it is available to you too.

Ready to build yours? Browse WSQ Agentic AI Applications with Claude Code and claim up to 70% WSQ funding or your SkillsFuture Credit.

Details of Mr Tan Chin Hock's weight-loss results, build timeline and quotes are drawn from The Straits Times article by Hedy Khoo, published 23 August 2026, and from the public App Store and Google Play listings for LeanerTogether. LeanerTogether is his own independent venture and is not affiliated with Tertiary Infotech Academy. Individual course outcomes vary.