DEV Community: murari

BPSC TRE 4.0 Recruitment 2026: Apply for 46,595 Bihar Teacher Vacancies

murari — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 03:49:59 +0000

Application Roadmap

graph LR
  A[OTR Registration] --> B[Official Notification]
  B --> C[Study Period]
  C --> D[Examination]
  D --> E[Verification]```

I Built a Community for Government Exam Aspirants Using the Forem

murari — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 01:38:15 +0000

I’ve always felt that government exam aspirants in India don’t have a clean, focused, supportive space online. Everything is scattered across Telegram groups, WhatsApp broadcasts, random PDFs, and noisy job websites.

So I decided to fix it.

I forked the Forem platform and built a dedicated community for government exam preparation and current government job holders to learn, discuss, and guide each other.
What started as a simple idea slowly turned into a full 3-month build — late nights, weekends, and deep dives into the Forem codebase.

Web App: careerpolitics.com

What Makes This Community Different?

It’s built for real people, not algorithms.

Aspirants can ask doubts, share notes, discuss strategies, and get guidance directly from job holders who’ve already cleared the exams. No spam, no clutter — just meaningful interactions.

Clean, exam-focused sections.

RRB, SSC, Banking, State PSC, Group D — everything is neatly organized with tags and categories that follow the real study flow.

Daily practice and active discussions.

Members solve daily questions, join study threads, and break down explanations together. The goal is to reduce the loneliness of exam prep.

Genuine stories from job holders.

Government employees share insights about their roles, work culture, and preparation strategies.

Trustworthy job notifications.

No clickbait or misleading posts — only verified updates with the details that matter.

A dedicated space for both aspirants and job holders.

Aspirants get mentorship.
Job holders get a meaningful way to give back.

What I Personally Customized (Beyond Default Forem)

Over the last 90 days, I built features Forem doesn’t include by default:

A full Job Post system

Including:

Job post model
Admin approval flow
Priority/position ordering
Clean list and detail UI

Android app support

Optimized API endpoints + UI adjustments for smoother mobile use.
App: CareerPolitics

Kubernetes deployment on DigitalOcean

Heroku became costlier, so I moved to DigitalOcean and deployed via:

Containerized Forem fork
Kubernetes (DOKS)
PostgreSQL + Redis with persistent volumes
Cloudinary + AWS S3 for media storage
Automated deploys, liveness/readiness probes

This took almost an entire month by itself.

Community integrations

Smooth onboarding between website, app, and WhatsApp:

WhatsApp community:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/Jtw5oVYb0sG1JZfRqQFOGD

The Journey (Last 3 Months)

Studying the Forem architecture: 2–3 weeks
Building the job-post module: ~3 weeks
Reworking categories + UI: 1.5–2 weeks
Android integration: ~2 weeks
Kubernetes deployment + debugging: ~3 weeks
Continuous polishing: ongoing

Every line of code, every config file, and every deployment was a solo effort.

Why I Built This

Because exam prep feels less stressful when people share the journey.
Because mentorship from someone who has already cleared the exam is priceless.
Because community matters more than scattered Telegram PDFs and random notifications.
And because students deserve a space built for them, not for ads.

If anyone wants to explore the CareerPolitics fork, job module code, or Kubernetes setup, I’m happy to share.
And I’d genuinely appreciate ideas from the dev.to community on how to grow this — features, scaling patterns, community design, or anything you think could make this stronger.

We’re just getting started.

Generate Java Classes from JSON Schema

murari — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 16:21:48 +0000

The world of software development is a constantly evolving landscape, with new tools and technologies emerging at a rapid pace. One such tool that has gained popularity among Java developers is the Gradle jsonschema2pojo plugin. This plugin offers a powerful solution for automatically generating Java classes from JSON Schema, simplifying the process of working with JSON data in Java applications.

Understanding jsonschema2pojo

At its core, jsonschema2pojo is a Gradle plugin that automates the conversion of JSON Schema into Java classes. JSON Schema is a standard for describing the structure and constraints of JSON data. It allows developers to define the rules and structure of their JSON data in a formal and standardized way.

With the jsonschema2pojo plugin, you can effortlessly generate Java classes that mirror the structure of your JSON data. This eliminates the need for manual class creation and ensures that your Java code aligns perfectly with your JSON data structure.

Seamless Integration with Gradle

One of the key advantages of using the Gradle jsonschema2pojo plugin is its seamless integration with the Gradle build system. You can easily incorporate this plugin into your Gradle-based projects using the plugins DSL, as demonstrated in the example below:

For Groovy:

plugins {
  id "java"
  id "org.jsonschema2pojo" version "1.2.1"
}

jsonSchema2Pojo {
  // Configuration options go here
}

For Kotlin:

plugins {
  id("java")
  id("org.jsonschema2pojo") version "1.2.1"
}

jsonSchema2Pojo {
  // Configuration options go here
}

Fine-Grained Configuration

The Gradle jsonschema2pojo plugin offers a plethora of configuration options to tailor the code generation process to your specific needs. Here's a glimpse of some of the configuration options you can tweak:

Source Location: Specify the location of your JSON Schema file(s).
Target Directory: Define the directory where the generated Java source files will be placed.
Package Name: Set the package name for the generated Java classes.
Additional Properties: Control the handling of additional properties in JSON data. -** Annotations**: Choose annotation styles for generated Java types, including support for popular libraries like Jackson, Gson, and more.
Validation: Enable or disable JSR-303/349 annotations for schema rules.
Customization: Incorporate custom annotators and rule factories.
Serialization: Define custom patterns and types for date and time fields. And much more!

Enhanced Developer Productivity

By automating the process of generating Java classes from JSON Schema, the jsonschema2pojo plugin significantly enhances developer productivity. Developers can focus on writing application logic rather than manually creating and maintaining Java classes to match JSON data structures.

Moreover, the plugin helps maintain consistency between the data model and the JSON Schema, reducing the risk of errors and simplifying the maintenance of codebases as JSON structures evolve over time

Getting Started

To start benefiting from the Gradle jsonschema2pojo plugin, follow these steps:

Integration: Add the plugin to your Gradle project as shown in the code examples above.
Configuration: Customize the plugin's behavior by configuring the jsonSchema2Pojo closure in your build.gradle file.
Run: Execute the generateJsonSchema2Pojo task to trigger code generation.
Utilize: Use the generated Java classes in your application to seamlessly work with JSON data.

Conclusion

The Gradle jsonschema2pojo plugin is a valuable addition to the toolkit of Java developers who frequently work with JSON data. Its ability to automate the generation of Java classes from JSON Schema simplifies the development process, enhances code quality, and boosts developer productivity.

By effortlessly bridging the gap between JSON data and Java code, this plugin empowers developers to focus on building robust and feature-rich applications, leaving the heavy lifting of code generation to the tool itself. Give it a try in your next project and experience the convenience it brings to your Java development workflow.