Purdue University Sophomore Shares Love of Learning with the World

When sophomore Computer Science student Faisal Alsayyari launched his YouTube channel in May 2025, he aimed to share programming and engineering ideas in a way that is both educational and engaging. Over the past year, he has published dozens of videos and attracted hundreds of thousands of views around the world, sparking his enthusiasm for spreading his love of learning. Inspired by creators such as Grant Sanderson of the 3Blue1Brown channel, as well as developer “build-in-public” videos that document coding projects, Faisal began by creating content that blends teaching with the process of building software. He also saw his channel as a motivational tool to pursue ambitious projects by sharing his progress with others.

Faisal discovered early on that building a successful YouTube channel requires constant experimentation. His first couple of videos didn’t gain much traction. However, his third video took off, attracting tens of thousands of views within days. This experience taught him an important lesson about storytelling and audience engagement. “You have to make sure there’s always a pressing question on the viewer’s mind, because if the viewer gets lost for just one sentence, they’re going to click [away].”

One of Faisal’s most successful videos, titled ‘One Second to Compute as Many Square Roots as I Can,’ has now surpassed 200,000 views. “If you [only] watch one video from my channel, just watch that one,” he joked. Although the video required significant effort to produce, Faisal has learned over time that effort alone doesn’t determine success. “Just because you put more effort into a video doesn’t mean it will be more successful. You have to step back and really think about the idea and how you frame it.”

Behind the scenes, each video involves far more work than viewers might realize. Faisal often records hours of raw footage while coding, reading documentation, and debugging problems. “For one of my videos, I had about eight hours of raw footage and the final video was six minutes,” he said. Editing can take several days, as he carefully trims the material to focus on the most important moments. The hardest part, he admits, is cutting scenes that don’t serve the story. “You have these moments you want to include, but sometimes you just have to get rid of them.”

Ultimately, Faisal hopes that his journey inspires other KGSP students who may be interested in sharing their own ideas online. His advice is simple: start creating and don’t wait for perfection. “You shouldn’t try to make your first video perfect – that’s a trap that I fell into,” he said. Instead, he encourages aspiring creators to start creating and learn along the way. “Just make it exist first. You can make it better later.” Each new video, he explains, becomes another chance to experiment and build something meaningful along the way. Looking ahead, Faisal has no shortage of ideas for future videos and plans to continue building both his programming skills and his growing community of viewers.

You can follow Faisal’s YouTube channel at @FaisalAlsayyari.