DEV Community: Shubham shah

About Shubham Shah

Shubham shah — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 08:54:25 +0000

Shubham Shah is a programmer, software developer, and computer science student interested in building practical software systems and exploring modern computer technology.
His work spans full-stack web development, software architecture, backend engineering, databases, Linux, cloud technologies, real-time applications, cybersecurity concepts, and artificial intelligence.
Shubham is the founder and developer of Bornebyte, a software development identity under which he builds and experiments with technology projects. One of his major projects is Hostello, a modern hostel management platform designed to bring hostel administration, student management, room allocation, fee management, staff communication, canteen operations, QR-based workflows, notifications, session management, and role-based security into a unified system.
He is particularly interested in understanding systems beyond the surface level — from application architecture and databases to authentication, authorization, real-time communication, deployment, and infrastructure.
Through his projects, Shubham focuses on turning real-world problems into software products while continuously learning and experimenting with new technologies.

I’m Shubham Shah — A Computer Science Student Who Builds Things to Learn

Shubham shah — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 17:23:02 +0000

Hi, I’m Shubham Shah.

I’m a Computer Science Engineering student, programmer, developer, and someone who genuinely enjoys understanding how technology works underneath the surface.

I started programming when I was in Grade 8.

What started with writing small programs gradually turned into something much bigger: I became fascinated by software, Linux, servers, networks, backend systems, artificial intelligence, and the process of turning an idea into something people can actually use.

I don't just want to learn technology.

I want to build with it.

🚀 I Learn by Building

One thing that has shaped the way I learn is that I don't enjoy stopping at tutorials.

If I learn something new, I want to use it.

If I learn backend development, I build a backend.

If I learn databases, I design a real database.

If I learn authentication, I think about sessions, security, roles, permissions, and failure cases.

If I learn AI, I want to build an actual AI-powered product rather than another chatbot demo.

That mindset has led me to work on several projects.

One of my major projects is Hostello, a hostel management platform designed to replace the scattered registers, spreadsheets, and messaging workflows that many hostels rely on.

Hostello involves concepts such as:

Role-based access control
Authentication and session management
Multi-building management
Room allocation
Attendance
Fees
Canteen management
QR-based identification
Outpass management
Notifications
Real-time communication
Staff management
Complaints and emergency workflows
Data isolation
PWA support
Email integrations
WebSockets
Security-focused architecture

I didn't build Hostello simply to have another project on my resume.

I built it because I wanted to understand what happens when a project starts becoming a real software system.

That experience changed the way I think about development.

🧠 From Writing Code to Understanding Systems

Earlier, I used to think programming was mostly about writing code.

Now I see it differently.

A production system isn't just:

Frontend → Backend → Database

There are many more questions.

How are users authenticated?

What happens when a session expires?

Who is allowed to access a particular resource?

How is data isolated between organizations?

What happens when thousands of requests arrive?

How should real-time updates work?

How should background jobs be handled?

What happens when a third-party service goes down?

How do you deploy the system?

How do you monitor it?

How do you secure it?

How do you make it maintainable six months later?

These questions are what make software engineering interesting to me.

🐧 Why I Love Linux

One of my strongest interests is Linux.

I don't just like using Linux as a desktop operating system.

I enjoy understanding what is happening underneath it.

Processes.

Filesystems.

Permissions.

Networking.

Sockets.

Services.

Servers.

Containers.

Reverse proxies.

SSH.

System administration.

Infrastructure.

This curiosity has pushed me toward technologies such as Docker, Caddy, networking tools, cloud infrastructure, and server-side development.

I enjoy that feeling when something breaks and instead of reinstalling everything, I can investigate why it broke.

💻 Technologies I've Worked With

Over time, I've explored a wide range of technologies.

Languages

C
C++
Java
Python
JavaScript
TypeScript
Go
PHP

Web Development

HTML
CSS
JavaScript
React
Next.js
Node.js
Express
Django
Tailwind CSS
Bootstrap

Databases & Backend

PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Firebase
Prisma
REST APIs
Authentication systems
Real-time systems

Mobile

Flutter
React Native

DevOps & Infrastructure

Linux
Git
GitHub
Docker
Reverse proxies
Server administration
Deployment
Networking

And now I'm going deeper into something that I believe will shape the next phase of my career:

Generative AI and Agentic AI.

🤖 My Current Focus: Generative AI

I'm currently shifting a large part of my learning toward Generative AI.

But again, I don't want to learn AI by simply calling an API and displaying the response.

I want to understand the engineering behind AI-powered applications.

I'm exploring areas such as:

LLMs
Prompt engineering
Embeddings
Vector databases
RAG
AI agents
Tool calling
Agentic workflows
AI memory
Evaluation
Model orchestration
AI application architecture
Multimodal AI
Deployment of AI systems

My goal is to combine my existing software engineering knowledge with AI.

Instead of thinking:

"How can I add AI to my application?"

I want to think:

"What problem can I solve because AI now exists?"

That's a much more interesting question.

🛠️ Some Things I've Built

Besides Hostello, I've worked on projects including:

Notes Platform

A full-stack notes application with rich editing, search, filtering, sharing, analytics, APIs, and mobile integration.

PPT Generator

A Python-based PowerPoint generation system that converts structured data into presentation files.

I built it because I wanted an alternative to expensive presentation-generation tools and wanted to understand automated document generation.

PrintX

A concept for a distributed printing platform where users can send documents to registered printers using a unique printer code and track their print jobs remotely.

Mini Git

A learning project exploring how version-control concepts can be implemented at a lower level.

Docky

A project exploring how container technologies work by attempting to implement container-like concepts in Go.

And there are many more ideas sitting in my notebook.

Some will become products.

Some will fail.

Some will teach me things I didn't expect.

I'm okay with that.

🏆 Hackathons & Building Under Pressure

Hackathons have also played an important role in my journey.

I participated in the Saral Hackathon in Nepal, where my team represented KMC and secured 1st place among 18 teams.

I've also participated in other university and technology competitions, including Smart India Hackathon 2026.

Hackathons taught me something that tutorials never could:

Ideas are cheap. Execution is difficult.

You have limited time, incomplete information, technical problems, team discussions, and a product that still has to work.

That environment is addictive.

👨‍🏫 I Also Like Teaching

Something else that has stayed with me is teaching.

I've taught programming concepts, including Python and AI, to other students.

Teaching forces you to understand something differently.

When you are learning alone, you can sometimes convince yourself that you understand a concept.

When another person asks:

"But why does this actually work?"

you suddenly discover the gaps in your understanding.

That's one reason I enjoy explaining technology.

🌍 What I'm Working Toward

I don't want my college years to be only about attending classes, passing exams, and collecting certificates.

I want to use these years to build a strong technical foundation.

My long-term interests are moving toward:

Software Engineering → Systems → Cloud → AI → Agentic AI → Distributed Systems

And eventually I want to explore areas such as:

Cybersecurity
Blockchain
Infrastructure
Large-scale systems
AI-powered products

I don't know exactly where this path will take me.

And honestly, I don't think I need to know yet.

Right now, I want to keep building.

📚 Why I Write

I'm publishing more of my work because I believe building something is only half the journey.

The other half is documenting what you learned.

So I'll be writing about:

Projects I've built
Things I've learned
Technical experiments
AI
Software engineering
Linux
Backend systems
Architecture
Problems I've encountered
Mistakes I've made
Things I'm still trying to understand

Some posts will be polished.

Some will be experiments.

Some might document a failure.

But all of them will represent something I actually worked on.

👋 So, That's Me

I'm Shubham Shah.

A computer science student.

A programmer.

A developer.

A builder.

A Linux enthusiast.

An AI learner.

And someone who would rather spend a weekend building something difficult than building another basic todo application.

I'm still learning.

There is a huge amount of technology I don't understand yet.

That's exactly what makes this journey exciting.

Build → Break → Understand → Improve → Repeat.

That's how I want to learn.

And this is only the beginning.

Let's Connect

If you're interested in software engineering, AI, Linux, systems, or simply building interesting things, I'd love to connect.

I'm documenting the journey here as I continue learning and building.

See you in the next project.

Building a Modern Hostel Management System: Architecture, RBAC, Real-Time Communication and Security

Shubham shah — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 16:37:33 +0000

Most hostel management systems are still built around spreadsheets, registers, WhatsApp messages, paper forms, and disconnected software.

I wanted to approach the problem differently.

Instead of building another simple CRUD application, I started building Hostello — a modern hostel management platform designed to bring hostel administration, students, wardens, staff, rooms, fees, food management, communication, notifications, and security into a single system.

I’m Shubham Shah, founder and developer of Hostello, and this article explains some of the engineering decisions behind the platform.

Live project: Hostello

The problem with traditional hostel management

A hostel can contain hundreds or thousands of students, multiple buildings, floors, rooms, wardens, administrative staff, security staff, and canteen operations.

A seemingly simple operation such as:

"Which students in Building A have checked into the canteen today?"

can become surprisingly complicated when information is distributed across different systems.

The same problem appears with:

Room allocation
Student attendance
Fees
Complaints
Outpasses
Emergency communication
Food consumption
Announcements
Staff communication
Sick-food requests
User permissions
Session security

The goal behind Hostello was to connect these operations into one platform.

1. Role-Based Access Control

One of the first architectural decisions was to avoid treating every authenticated user the same way.

Hostello uses a role-based model involving different categories of users such as:

Super Admin
Admin
Warden
Student
Canteen Staff
Other Staff

But authentication alone isn't enough.

A user should not automatically receive access to every piece of hostel data simply because they are logged in.

For example:

A warden assigned to one building should not necessarily be able to manage another building.

Similarly, an administrator may have access to multiple buildings while another administrator may have a narrower scope.

This means authorization needs to consider both:

Who is the user?

and

What resources is that user allowed to access?

This is where role-based authorization and data isolation become important.

2. Multi-Level Hostel Architecture

A hostel isn't just a list of students.

A useful representation is something closer to:

Hostel
│
├── Building A
│   ├── Floor 1
│   │   ├── Room 101
│   │   ├── Room 102
│   │   └── Room 103
│   │
│   └── Floor 2
│       ├── Room 201
│       └── Room 202
│
├── Building B
│   └── ...
│
└── Building C
    └── ...

This hierarchy becomes important for authorization, analytics, room allocation, staff assignments, and notifications.

Instead of simply asking:

Can this user access students?

the application may need to determine:

Can this user access these students
belonging to this building
and this floor
within this hostel?

That distinction becomes increasingly important as the application grows.

3. Real-Time Communication

Another interesting engineering requirement was real-time behavior.

Traditional applications often rely heavily on:

Request → Server → Response

For some operations, that's perfectly fine.

But consider a situation where an admin sends a message to a staff member.

The staff member shouldn't necessarily need to manually refresh the page to discover the message.

Hostello uses WebSocket-based communication and other real-time techniques to support live interactions.

The conceptual flow looks like:

Admin
  │
  │ Send message
  ▼
Backend
  │
  │ Real-time event
  ▼
WebSocket connection
  │
  ▼
Staff

This approach can also be useful for:

Notifications
Message status updates
Communication
Dashboard updates
Operational events
Other live application states

Real-time functionality isn't just about making an application feel faster.

It changes how the application communicates with its users.

4. Individual Staff Accounts

Another part of the system is individual staff identity.

Instead of having one generic account such as:

staff@hostel.com

different staff members can have their own accounts.

This provides a foundation for accountability and direct communication.

For example:

Admin
   │
   ├── Staff A
   ├── Staff B
   └── Staff C

Staff can receive messages from authorized users, including administrators, wardens, and students.

They can also update message status and reply.

This turns staff communication into an actual application workflow instead of relying entirely on external messaging platforms.

5. Session Management and Remote Logout

Authentication is only one part of security.

Session management is equally important.

Hostello includes session-oriented security features such as remote logout.

A user may have multiple active sessions:

Laptop
   │
   └── Session A

Mobile
   │
   └── Session B

Tablet
   │
   └── Session C

A security-conscious application should provide mechanisms to manage these sessions.

For example:

Active Sessions

Chrome - Linux
Last active: Recently

Android Device
Last active: 10 minutes ago

Chrome - Windows
Last active: Yesterday

The user can then revoke a session remotely when necessary.

This is particularly useful when dealing with administrative accounts.

6. QR-Based Canteen Management

One of the more interesting workflows is canteen management.

Every user can have an associated QR code.

When a student enters the canteen, staff can scan the student's QR code.

Conceptually:

Student QR
    │
    ▼
QR Scanner
    │
    ▼
Identify Student
    │
    ▼
Check Canteen Record
    │
    ▼
Record Consumption

The system can maintain food-consumption records associated with dates.

That makes it possible to answer questions such as:

Did Student X have food today?

Which dates did Student X consume food?

Which dates did Student X not consume food?

This transforms canteen management from a manual register into structured operational data.

7. Fee Management

Fees are another major part of hostel administration.

Instead of maintaining payment information separately, a centralized system can associate fee records with students.

For example:

Student
   │
   ├── Hostel Fee
   ├── Payment Status
   ├── Payment History
   └── Outstanding Amount

This creates a foundation for administrators to monitor financial information without maintaining separate spreadsheets.

8. Outpass Management

Another workflow is outpass management.

Instead of:

Student → Paper Form → Warden → Parent → Approval

the process can become digital.

A simplified flow is:

Student
   │
   │ Outpass request
   ▼
Hostello
   │
   ├── Warden workflow
   │
   └── Parent approval
            │
            ▼
         Decision

The system can then maintain the request and its state.

This makes the process easier to track and reduces dependency on paper forms.

9. Notifications

Hostel operations frequently depend on timely information.

Hostello uses notification mechanisms such as browser push notifications and application-level notifications for relevant workflows.

Examples include:

Announcements
Messages
Sick-food requests
Operational updates
Other important events

The goal is not simply to send more notifications.

The goal is to deliver relevant information to the users responsible for acting on it.

10. Progressive Web Application

Hostello is designed as a web application that can also behave like an installable application through PWA capabilities.

This is useful because hostel users may access the system from:

Desktop computers
Laptops
Android devices
Tablets
Other supported browsers

Instead of forcing every user to install a separate native application, a web-based approach can provide a common application surface.

11. The Technology Behind It

The project uses a modern web development stack.

The architecture includes technologies and concepts such as:

Next.js
React
JavaScript/TypeScript
Prisma
PostgreSQL-compatible database infrastructure
WebSockets
APIs
Role-based authorization
Progressive Web App architecture
Browser push notifications
Email integrations
Cloud deployment

But the technologies themselves aren't the most interesting part.

The difficult part is connecting them into a system where:

Authentication
      +
Authorization
      +
Data Isolation
      +
Real-Time Communication
      +
Notifications
      +
Business Logic
      +
Security
      =
Usable Product

12. What I Learned Building It

Building Hostello changed how I think about software engineering.

A project can start as:

CRUD application

and quickly become:

Authentication
      ↓
Authorization
      ↓
Data modeling
      ↓
Security
      ↓
Real-time systems
      ↓
Notifications
      ↓
Distributed workflows
      ↓
User experience
      ↓
Operational reliability

The hardest problems aren't always writing the API endpoint.

They are questions such as:

Who is allowed to perform this action?
Which building does this user belong to?
Which data should they see?
What happens if the user has multiple sessions?
What happens if the connection drops?
How should a real-time event reach the correct user?
How should different roles interact?
How can the same system work across desktop and mobile?
How should operational data be structured for future analytics?

These questions are what turn an application into a real software system.

13. Why I Built Hostello

I didn't want to build Hostello simply as a college project.

I wanted to explore what happens when a real-world operational problem is treated as a software engineering problem.

The project combines:

Product design + full-stack development + system architecture + security + real-time communication + database design + user experience.

And I'm continuing to improve it.

Final thoughts

Hostello is still a work in progress, but building it has given me an opportunity to work on problems far beyond basic CRUD applications.

The project is an experiment in building a complete digital infrastructure for hostel operations.

I'm particularly interested in the engineering challenges that appear when the number of users, buildings, roles, permissions, events, and real-time interactions increases.

If you're interested in the project, you can explore the current version here:

Hostello — Hostel Management Platform

I'm Shubham Shah, the founder and developer of Hostello, and I'll be documenting more of the technical decisions, architecture, and lessons learned while building it.