Introduction
Sometimes, all you need is guidance, consistency, and the courage to put yourself out there.
A few weeks ago, I found myself questioning my progress as a developer. I had spent time learning different technologies, but I still felt stuck and unsure of whether I was moving in the right direction.
Instead of keeping those thoughts to myself, I reached out to my mentor for guidance.
That conversation changed a lot for me.
He offered me three months of mentorship and support to help me work intentionally toward becoming job-ready. One of the biggest pieces of advice he gave me was simple: put yourself out there and build in public.
He encouraged me to stop learning quietly and start sharing my journey—the wins, the mistakes, the projects, the bugs, and the lessons along the way.
As part of that, he challenged me to take on the #100DaysOfCode challenge.
My goal over the next 100 days is to become a better software engineer, build a stronger portfolio, connect with more people in tech, and put myself in a position where opportunities can find me.
It won't be easy, but neither is the career I'm working toward.
"Every line of code is a potential bug."
By: Navin Reddy
Day 1/100 of becoming a better backend-heavy full-stack developer
On the first day of my #100DaysOfCode challenge, I learned how to connect a Spring MVC application to MySQL using Hibernate with the help of a video tutorial. I gained a much better understanding of how data flows between an application and a database.
Along the way, I learned how to:
- Set up Spring MVC and Hibernate dependencies
- Configure a datasource for MySQL
- Create an entity (Alien) and a DAO (AlienDao)
- Insert and retrieve data from MySQL using Spring and Hibernate
Challanges i faced:
1. Challenge 1 Could not autowire. No beans of 'AlienDao' type found.
I spent over 1 hour trying to understand why Spring couldn't find my AlienDao bean.
The issue turned out to be my component scan configuration:
<context:component-scan base-package="com.spider.spring_mvc.controller"/>
Spring was only scanning the controller package, so it did not find the dao package.
Solution:
<context:component-scan base-package="com.spider.spring_mvc"/>
By scanning the root package, Spring was able to detect all my components, including AlienDao.
Autowiring Error
Challenge 2: The old mysql driver class is deprecated
My application did not connect to MySQL, i thought my MySQL did not connect.
After some debugging, I discovered that I was using the deprecated MySQL driver in my servlet file:
com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
The correct driver for newer versions of MySQL Connector/J is:
com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
After updating the datasource configuration, MySQL connected successfully.
Challenge 3: from Alien Error in IntelliJ
I also encountered an IntelliJ warning that marked:
from Alien
as an error.
IntelliJ was showing false errors even though my Hibernate queries ran correctly. This happened because the IDE’s inspections didn’t match the runtime classpath.
I fixed it by disabling IntelliJ's JPQL/HQL inspection in the IDE settings.
IntelliJ JPQL/HQL Inspection Error
The Result
After nearly two hours of debugging, the application finally worked.
I was able to successfully insert and retrieve data from MySQL:
[Alien{aid=101, aname='Spider'}, Alien{aid=102, aname='Prosper'}]
Application Running Successfully
Day 2: Applying What I Learned by Building a Student Management System
I decided to build something on the second day to practice what I had learned on the first day, so I built a simple Student Management System using Spring MVC, Hibernate, JSP, and MySQL on my own. My goal was to see if I truly understood the concepts from the previous day or if I had just followed along with the tutorial.
What i Built
The application allows users to:
- Get student information
- Update or save existing student records
- Delete student records
- Perform full CRUD operations with MySQL using Hibernate
Challanges i faced:
Because of the experience I gained from debugging on Day 1, I was able to avoid many of the mistakes I made earlier. I understood my project structure better, configured my dependencies correctly, and had a clearer idea of how Spring MVC and Hibernate worked together.
However, I still faced one major issue.
When I tried running the application, I kept getting:
HTTP Status 404 – Not Found
Type Status Report
Description The origin server did not find a current representation for the target resource or is not willing to disclose that one exists.
Apache Tomcat/9.0.102"
I spent almost two hours trying to figure out what was wrong. I checked my controller mappings, reviewed my configuration files, and even questioned whether there was something wrong with my code.
In the end, the problem wasn't my code at all.
I had forgotten to add the Student_Management_Api.war artifact to Tomcat's deployment configuration, so the application wasn't being deployed.
After adding the Student_Management_Api.war artifact to Tomcat's deployment settings, everything worked as expected.
By the end of the day, I had successfully built a working Student Management System with full CRUD functionality. More importantly, I realised that the debugging experience from Day 1 had already made me a better problem solver on Day 2.
The result
Student Management System Home Page
This project gave me confidence because it proved that I could learn something one day and apply it to build something of my own the next.
Goals for Next Week
As I continue this #100DaysOfCode journey, my goals for the coming week are to:
- Deepen my understanding of Spring and Spring Boot
- Build more projects without relying heavily on tutorials
- Improve my code structure, documentation, and overall software engineering practices
- Continue my Docker course and begin exploring more modern deployment concepts
- Review and improve my ongoing projects
- Keep sharing my progress, lessons, and challenges publicly
The first few days have already taught me that growth doesn't come from avoiding mistakes—it comes from building, debugging, and showing up consistently.
I'm excited to see where the next 100 days take me.
If you're also learning, building, or trying to grow in tech, I'd love for you to follow along on this journey. Feel free to share your thoughts, leave a comment, and engage with my posts along the way.
Let's learn, build, and grow together.
Connect with me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/onatade-abdulmajeed/
Connect with me on X:
https://x.com/spider337761
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