Can a Non-Software Engineer Vibe Code a Real App with AI? I Tried It.

How I built a personal spending tracker in 20 hours using ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex — and a bit of curiosity

I got a short break before my next job begins. Already late to the party, but I decided to finally try something I’ve been curious about: vibe code an app with AI. As a non-software engineer, can I build a real full-stack app in a week using AI tools?

If you are still wondering what vibe coding even is, here is how Google puts it:

Vibe coding is a software development workflow that uses AI to generate and refine code from natural language prompts, with the developer acting as a guide rather than a traditional coder.

It is essentially coding by chatting—with AI as your copilot, and you as the idea person.

How Much Do I Know?

To set the stage, let me first talk about how much I know about software development and AI:

1. I am a data scientist, so I know Python.
2. I did quite a bit of data engineering tasks at my last job, so I am comfortable setting up a local development environment and using GitHub and the terminal.
3. I have basic front-end knowledge — I learned HTML and CSS myself, and have a personal website that is deployed with GitHub Pages.
4. I have worked with software engineers on…