Hi @anon28508191, thanks for the reply!
I decided to jump past the mario database project checkmark - I did complete it once earlier using docker but because of some bug the checkmark did not show up. Anyway, the point with the non-required projects is to learn the stuff so thats ok.
The project I just finished worked using gitpod and following the instructions,
but I stumbled across the same problem as you in an earlier project so I try to do these in one sitting now.
I ran all the projects in the Backend Development and API’s course locally and it was actually much simpler - and also free! I’m on a linux system to begin with, so that might simplify things.