Riichi Dojo: Japanese Mahjong

The Quiz That Teaches You to Read Real Hands

Opening the app for the first time drops you straight into a question. No tutorial screens, no lengthy explanations upfront. Just a tile configuration and a prompt: what is the correct discard? The app assumes you learn best by doing, and it proves that assumption right within the first three questions. Each wrong answer triggers a detailed explanation that walks you through the logic step by step. This immediate feedback loop separates Riichi Dojo from reading a rulebook or watching a video guide. The app forces you to engage with the material actively, which makes the rules stick in a way passive learning never achieves.

The structured curriculum spans ten chapters, starting from the absolute basics of tiles and melds and progressing through advanced concepts like furiten, scoring, and defensive play. Chapter 1 introduces the building blocks: tiles, sequences, triplets, and what a winning hand actually looks like. By Chapter 10, you are facing full-game simulations that require you to apply everything you have learned in a realistic context. The progression feels deliberate, each chapter building on the previous one without overwhelming you with too much information at once. The app's quiz format turns each rule into a lightweight interactive challenge, with instant feedback that reinforces correct thinking and corrects misconceptions immediately.

The Feedback Loop That Makes Mistakes Valuable

One of the standout mechanics is the trap question system. These are deliberately tricky questions designed to catch common misunderstandings. Getting one wrong does not feel like a failure because the app immediately shows you why the obvious answer was incorrect and explains the correct reasoning. This safe environment for making mistakes is crucial for learning complex rules like furiten, where the nuances can be subtle. A player might think they are in tenpai, but the app will reveal that they are actually in furiten because they previously discarded a tile that would complete their hand. The instant explanation breaks down the scenario, showing the discard history and the current hand, making the abstract rule concrete.

The furiten training module deserves special attention. It presents scenarios where you must identify whether a player is in furiten based on the tiles they have discarded. This is one of the hardest concepts for new players to grasp, and the app dedicates an entire chapter to it. The questions progress from simple one-tile furiten situations to complex cases involving multiple discards and same-turn furiten. The app's approach forces you to actively track discards and think about what tiles are safe to discard yourself. This builds a defensive mindset that is essential for real games but rarely taught effectively in traditional guides.

How the Scoring Exercises Change Your Decision-Making

The scoring section is where the app's quiz format truly shines. Instead of memorizing point tables, you are presented with a hand and asked to calculate the han and fu values. Each question requires you to identify the yaku present, count the han, calculate the fu, and then determine the final point value. The app provides a built-in yaku reference table that you can consult during the quiz, which encourages you to look up information rather than guess. This active retrieval practice is far more effective than passive reading. Over time, you start to recognize common scoring patterns without needing to consult the table, which directly translates to faster decision-making in real games.

The interaction between the scoring exercises and the tenpai identification drills creates a powerful combination. When you practice tenpai, you learn to recognize waiting patterns quickly. When you practice scoring, you learn the point value of different hand compositions. Together, these skills allow you to make informed decisions about whether to push for a hand or fold based on the potential point gain versus the risk of dealing in. The app does not explicitly teach this trade-off, but the combination of these two modules naturally builds that awareness. A player who has worked through both sections will instinctively know that a 1-han hand is not worth risking a deal-in, while a mangan hand might be worth the gamble.

The Changelog Reveals What the Developer Prioritizes

The most recent update corrected a specific question in the Chapter 10 graduation quiz. The scenario involved a three-tile wait situation where the opponent had already declared riichi. The original question suggested that the correct play was to pon (call a tile) to speed up your hand, but the corrected answer explains that you should actually fold because the tile you would pon is the opponent's safe tile and the risk of dealing in is too high. The developer added automatic validation to prevent similar "push when behind" answers from appearing again. This level of detail in the changelog indicates that the developer is actively refining the learning experience based on user feedback and is committed to accuracy. The fix also highlights a key weakness of the app: it sometimes presents ambiguous scenarios where the "correct" play depends on context, and the app's quiz format struggles to capture that nuance. The player is forced to choose a single best answer, which may not always reflect the complexity of real games.