No session timer
Stop when you need to and come back later. Your notes and sample apps stay in a repository you control.
Docker practice
Looking for a Play with Docker alternative?
Play with Docker was a free hosted playground. Docker, Inc. discontinued it on 1 March 2026. If you are looking for somewhere to practise containers without a session timer, that is exactly why this lab exists.
What changed
The hosted playground is gone. The need is not.
Play with Docker gave people a temporary remote Docker environment in the browser. That product has ended.
People still need a place to run containers, make mistakes and try again. One option is another short-lived remote session. Another is a lab you clone onto your own machine, or into a Codespace you control.
The Docker Practical Lab is the second kind: free under the MIT licence, built around your Docker daemon, with cleanup that only touches lab-labelled resources.
Why a lab you keep
A different shape from a playground session
This is not a pixel-perfect replacement for Play with Docker. It is a better fit for learning at your own pace.
Works offline once images are local
After the base images are on your machine, practice does not depend on a hosted playground staying online.
Cleanup that stays in its lane
Lab resources carry a label. Reset removes those and leaves the rest of your Docker work alone.
A real learning track
Sample apps you run natively first, ten self-checked exercises, and six break-and-fix drills. Not only a blank remote shell.
Docker Practical Lab
What you can do today
Early alpha. A safe baseline on your own Docker daemon, three sample apps you run before you containerise them, ten self-checked exercises from first container through Compose, and six break-and-fix drills. In your browser with Codespaces, or on your laptop with one command.
- Clone the public repository or open it in GitHub Codespaces.
- Run doctor and up to prepare the labelled lab baseline.
- Run the Python API, Node app and static site on your machine before you containerise them.
- Work through exercises 01 to 10 with ./lab check NN marking your work.
- Run ./lab drills, then break and verify tickets such as crash-loop and port-tangle.
Worth knowing
If you want the internals
Different projects teach different things. Both can be useful.
For deep container runtime internals, iximiuz Labs and writing are excellent.
CloudSprocket Labs is for operational practice: run things, break them, check your work and reset. Use whatever helps you learn.
Start with the Docker Practical Lab
Exercises and drills are ready in the public repository. Open a Codespace or clone to your machine and begin with ./lab doctor.
Docker is a trademark of Docker, Inc. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Docker, Inc.