My Tech Journey - Web Dev | DSA | Open Source

Let me take you on a rollercoaster🎢 ride through my tech journey – a tale of code💻, chaos😵, and occasional caffeine☕-induced enlightenment.

- Disclaimer :
+ These are my personal experiences and thoughts.
+ I’m always open to healthy criticism and constructive feedback.
+ Let’s keep it positive and productive!

💻 The Great Leap into Coding

It all started in the second year of college.
Picture this: a clueless sophomore staring at a screen full of cryptic text, wondering if C was just a letter or a secret language from the Matrix. Turns out, it’s both.

After struggling with C, I decided to explore other languages. Java? Check. Python? Check. A bit of C++ for flavor? Sure, why not? By the end of it, I felt like a polyglot of programming – or at least a jack of all trades, master of none.

But hey, the goal wasn’t mastery . It was about getting an overall view of coding, like a tourist hopping between countries without learning the local language. Mission accomplished! 🌎

🌐 Web Development: Love at First <div>

Web development was my next major exploration. It began with learning HTML and CSS, the foundational tools for creating websites. Following this, I ventured into JavaScript. However, I regret not dedicating sufficient time to thoroughly understand its concepts. Instead, I quickly transitioned to React faster than a coder Googling “How to center a div.”

React became an immediate favorite as I delved deeper into it. I expanded my skills further by learning Node.js and Express, along with a basic understanding of MongoDB, eventually working towards becoming a so called MERN Stack Developer. The real game-changer, however, was discovering Next.js. This framework elevated my development experience and quickly became my preferred tool. Learnt Typescript & Tailwind.

✨ Got my tech stack ready: ✨

Stuck on tutorial hell for number of times (But you don't need to... the solution is given further in blog)

With Next.js, I built projects, hosted them on GitHub, and shared them with the world. The world’s response? Cricket noises 🦗[Dead drop silence]. Well, except for my friends, who gave me some compliments. Thanks, guys. You’re the real MVPs. 🥇

Maybe you want to check them out!

AkashJana18 (Akash Jana) · GitHub

Always seems impossible until its done. . AkashJana18 has 52 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

github.com

👿 DSA: The Necessary Evil

Towards the end of my second year, I got the DSA ~~fever~~ FOMO (that’s Data Structures and Algorithms, for the uninitiated). It’s the golden ticket to a tech job, they said. So, I plunged headfirst into the grind, solving over 500 questions across various platforms.

But let’s be real – DSA is ~~exhausting, tiresome, boring as hell~~ demanding and rigorous. The reward? Zero, unless you’re at the very top. It’s like training for a marathon and realizing halfway through that there’s no finish line. I tried to stay consistent, but the monotony was soul-crushing. 😫

But here's my Leetcode profile:

Pro tip :
DSA is great for your resume & job, but don’t let it kill your love for coding.

👑 Open Source: The Late Bloomer’s Redemption

Fast forward to my final year, September 2024. I discovered open source, and it was a game-changer. Why didn’t I start earlier? Because I doubted myself. 😔

But once I got started, there was no looking back. Open source was everything I’d been missing: recognition, validation, help from a global community, and yes – actual cash. It is solution to tutorial hell as you apply your knowledge in real. I won swags, built credibility, and finally felt like I was making a difference.

The only regret? Not starting sooner. If you’re reading this and thinking about open source, ✔ just do it. The rewards are worth it. ✨

Some suggestions to get started: Quira

🪁 024: CoAgents v0.2 release

CopilotKit is an open-source tool that makes it extremely easy to integrate AI copilots into your React apps. Imagine in-app context-aware chatbots, AI-enhanced text fields, or in-app AI agents that interact seamlessly with both your application and its users. Currently, CopilotKit is working on Co-Agents a new product that provides infrastructure for connecting LangGraph agents to humans in the loop.

This December, CopilotKit is releasing CoAgents v0.2 which includes LangGraph Cloud Support, LangGraph JS, and improved documentation. The challenge is to work on a CoAgents demo to help the CopilotKit team stress-test CoAgents and helping them find bug fixes.

🪁 CoAgent Quest ✨

023: 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐧

Daytona is an open-source Development Environment Manager (DEM) licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Daytona allows you to manage and deploy Workspaces — reproducible development environments based on standard OCI containers, with built-in support for the Dev Container standard.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to create a sample project for Daytona using your preferred tech-stack.

💻 Daytona Quest ✨

There are 100 prizes of $50 which will be awarded to the first 100 valid submissions! And an extra $1000 prize pool to reward to exceptional samples!

🎐 Winding up

My tech journey has been a mixed bag of mistakes, milestones, and moments of pure joy. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: tech is as much about the journey as the destination. So, embrace the chaos, learn from your mistakes, and most importantly, have fun along the way. 🎮

What’s your tech journey like? Share it in the comments below. Let’s swap stories and grow together. Happy coding! 🚀