3 Coding Projects for Learning or Spicing Up Your Resume

Last Update: 28.04.2020. By Jens in Newsletter

Coding projects are an essential step in learning. I am firm believer then best way to learn something is by doing. So, for developers that means coding, coding, coding. And of course designing :-)

Today I’ll share with you three great projects you can code along and learn. Or build and polish them for your portfolio or resume. Nothing beats a finished real project.

1. A Kanban API with a UI as a Bonus

Building something around Kanban is great for learning new stuff because it is a bit more complex then a traditional todo app, yet still small enough for not being overwhelming. By tuning that a bit with an API, we also can practice building APIs, which involves more than a fest classes and endpoints.

I run a series on that 2 years ago, which is a great starting point for you. Check it out here.

For a resume: It shows that you know Kanban, have invested time into it. Shows that you can build an API including AuthN + AuthZ, etc.

2. A Frontend for a Spreadsheet

Might sound silly but spreadsheet drive many businesses. At one point in your life you will have to start parsing them and import data. Sometimes, it’s a one time shot, sometimes, you develop whole importer which feed on spreadsheets.

Pick a simple spreadsheet and start building a front end web app for it. Or if you don’t have one handy, use my tutorial on how to use Google Sheets as a database.

For a resume: Shows that you can deal with spreadsheet data and the challenges involved aka messy data.

3. Add Payments to One of the Other Projects

Money is everywhere and with it payments, payment providers, payment APiI and all the hassles involved with payment. Pick Stripe, integrate it into one of your coding projects and learn all the side issues that can happen with payments like declined cards, payment flows, involved regulations, etc.

For resume: Shows that you understand and can handle the issues payment brings. There might be also an opportunity as an integrator for specific platforms. Yes, Stripe looks easy and it is to get started but most implementations are for good weather conditions only. Let the issues happen and it might fall apart. And now imagine a business that cannot accept payments or has too much hassle with it…

Of course, if you are in the Spring world or want to enter it, implement them in Spring. Otherwise, use them with a stack choice you want to improve in. And feel free to reply if I should go in-depth with something.