Kakao Developer Tests Vibe Coding: Successfully Implements Web Project in 6 Hours

A Kakao internal platform developer conducted a toy project to verify the actual potential of Vibe Coding to replace developers. Using only the Cursor IDE and Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the developer performed an experiment to implement a web project using only conversational prompts, without directly typing source code.

Experiment Results: Clear Speed Improvement

The experiment demonstrated that it was possible to implement error-free features using only conversational language, without writing code. A project that would typically take at least 3 days using standard development methods was completed in 6 hours. During this period, 4 pages, 24 files, and over 1,500 lines of code were generated.

Limitations: Developer Intervention is Essential

However, it was determined that complete replacement of developers is impossible. The main limitations are as follows:

• Expertise Required: Developer domain knowledge is essential for exception handling, data synchronization, and architecture design.
• Compatibility Issues: Version compatibility problems with libraries such as Elasticsearch can lead AI to propose inefficient solutions, such as generating arbitrary parsing functions.
• Reduced Code Quality: Unnecessary code accumulates during iterative modification requests, increasing project complexity and maintenance burden.
• Constraints on Large-Scale Projects: Complex systems are difficult to implement using only conversational prompts, leading to issues with context length and token costs.

Conclusion

AI is a powerful productivity tool capable of replacing repetitive development tasks, such as converting ideas into code or finding solutions to errors. However, from the perspective of system design and maintenance, the role of the developer remains critical.