Varsity Audio – how ChatGPT was used to build it

🎧 What You Can Gain from Varsity Audio

• Learn financial concepts while walking, commuting, or relaxing
• No need to read long text on screen — just listen
• Perfect for auditory learners
• Helps revise Zerodha Varsity content on-the-go
• Available in lightweight formats (MP3)

💡 Why I Built Varsity Audio

• I wanted to convert quality educational content into audio without using bloated or commercial apps
• Many people struggle with reading long-form financial education content
• Existing podcasts didn’t follow the structure of Varsity chapters
• I wanted to explore how far ChatGPT + TTS tools can go for building real learning aids

🛠 Tools and Stack Behind the Project

• Frontend: React + Tailwind + Vite
• Backend: Node.js + Express (API endpoints for uploads and data)
• Storage: Audio files hosted on Cloudinary
• Text-to-Speech: Used ChatGPT to generate clean narration-ready text, piped to Google TTS or other TTS APIs
• Admin Panel: Simple form to upload chapter title, content, tags, and audio file
• Deployment: Render.com for backend + frontend split

🤖 How ChatGPT Helped Along the Way

• Brainstormed initial UI and project layout
• Helped debug issues in React and Express
• Generated placeholder content and descriptions
• Refined audio tone and formatting for TTS
• Suggested ways to structure JSON data for chapters