Recently, I faced a challenge: completing a technical test for a Junior position while trying to regain my confidence after a layoff. In my case, I hadn't opened VS Code in a while, and coding had become a stressful process.
In this video, I document the construction of my "Books and Authors" CRUD, from the 7-step planning phase to the final deploy. It was an intense process that changed my relationship with the act of coding.
Tech stack used in the project:
React + TypeScript: My go-to choice. To me, if you’re using TS, it should be well-typed — no any to "quickly solve" problems.
Zustand: For global state management.
Ant Design: A component library I had never used before, but it proved to be very comprehensive.
Docker: As I mention in the video, Docker is almost an "institution." I took on the challenge of configuring the environment from scratch.
LocalForage(IndexedDB): Since the test required client-side persistence without a real backend, this was the strategy to ensure data integrity.
The Process and Reflections:
I divided the development into phases: infra setup, data layer, global state, and finally, the CRUDs. I thought a lot about UX. As a frontend developer, I felt it was only right to give extra attention to the design. Thinking about a project and how to improve it, taking my time and learning at every stage—this restored my confidence. Not that I’m the most confident person in the world, but at least now I can feel that way and move on to do other cool things.
Beyond the code, the video reflects on the conscious use of AI in development (focusing on understanding what is being written, not just copying and pasting) and how part of my "coding block" came from excessive AI use — coding had become only the stressful part.
Regardless of the outcome of this application, the biggest win was breaking the inertia. This little CRUD saved me, and I loved building it.
Getting back to the pleasure of being in silence, letting your mind think, and seeing things take shape on the screen is priceless.
Thanks to everyone who read this far. The full video is on YouTube (in the video, I develop some interesting ideas; if you’re also feeling blocked with your code, I think this might bring you some light, just as making it did for me).
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