Simple definition of Vibe coding
Vibe coding is a style of making software by telling an AI what you want in plain English and letting it write most of the code. The term was popularized in 2025 by computer scientist Andrej Karpathy. It often means you focus on trying the app, pasting errors back in, and prompting again, sometimes without reading every line. This matters because it can help people build small tools faster. A downside is buggy or insecure code you do not understand. Safety tip: test carefully, review important parts, and never paste secrets like passwords into prompts.
How to explain Vibe coding to kids
Vibe coding is when you tell a computer helper what you want to make, and it writes the code for you. You guide it by saying what to change and by trying it out. You still need to check that it works the right way. If something feels confusing, it is okay to ask an adult.
Here’s how to think about it
It is like making a school slideshow by describing your idea to a helper who fills in the slides for you. You keep saying, “Make the title bigger,” or “Fix this mistake,” and the helper updates it fast. But you still need to read it and try it before you present it. If you do not check, you might show something with errors.