About RealOChem

RealOChem was created by Dennis Cao, an organic chemist at Macalester College. Dennis holds a BS from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Northwestern University, and has spent over 10 years teaching organic chemistry. He built RealOChem for students, instructors, and chemists who want more realistic practice with real molecular structures—not textbook toy examples.

What You'll Find

Over 40 interactive modules spanning general chemistry (dimensional analysis, Lewis structures, electron configuration, molecular geometry, balancing equations, stoichiometry, gas laws, and more) and organic chemistry (IUPAC nomenclature, stereochemistry, conformational analysis, resonance, reaction mechanisms, pK_a, and functional group identification). Problems are sourced from real compounds in PubChem, programmatically generated from chemical data, or randomly created client-side—giving you millions of unique practice problems you won't see twice.

How It Works

Every problem gives instant feedback. Many pages have adjustable difficulty controls. IUPAC Nomenclature has an AI-powered hint system that provides Socratic feedback without revealing answers. No account required. Signing in optionally enables the saving of bookmarks and tracking of progress across devices.

Built With

RealOChem is powered by RDKit for 2D structure rendering, 3Dmol.js for interactive 3D views, and Firebase for hosting and backend services. For full attribution, see the Credits page.

Usage & Licensing

RealOChem’s practice content is free for classroom and individual use under Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 — see the License & Usage page for details.

Feedback

Have suggestions, found a bug, or just want to say hello? Send feedback—it goes straight to Dennis.