OP isn't trying to win a competition, it sounds like they're trying to learn to be a better developer. I know way too many devs (and have been one myself) who can use a batteries-included system until something goes wrong, but because they have no idea how such a system is constructed they can't debug it, or they don't understand why something isn't performing well.

It goes with the adage that every developer should implement a linked list exactly once—you should use the standard library from then on, but if you don't understand what's going on under the hood, you'll misuse it eventually.