What's Your Ulam?
Core Full-Stack Foundation
The Concept
A demonstration project showcasing my early full-stack development skills—building a complete social platform from authentication to deployment. This project proved my ability to handle both frontend and backend architecture in a single application.
The Challenge
As my first major full-stack project, the challenge was to build a complete social application from scratch. This meant designing a scalable backend architecture, creating an intuitive frontend, implementing secure authentication, handling media uploads, and deploying a production-ready application. It required balancing multiple technologies and learning production deployment best practices.
The Solution
Built a full-stack social media platform from scratch using Vue.js and Node.js. Implemented secure authentication with JWT, designed a RESTful API architecture, handled media uploads with cloud storage, and created a responsive frontend. This project demonstrated my ability to integrate frontend and backend seamlessly and deploy a complete application.
Impact & Results
- •Successfully built and deployed a complete full-stack application
- •Implemented secure JWT authentication with no security breaches
- •Designed RESTful API with 6+ endpoints for social interactions
- •Built responsive frontend using Vue.js and Quasar Framework
- •Implemented media upload system with image compression
- •Created reusable components for posts, comments, and interactions
The Challenge
Creating a social platform from scratch requires careful consideration of architecture, security, and scalability. The platform needed to handle user authentication, media uploads, real-time interactions, and personalized content feeds. Additionally, it had to perform well on mobile devices where most users would access the platform. This was my first major full-stack project, requiring mastery of both frontend and backend technologies.
Full-Stack Engineering
Built a robust social ecosystem featuring secure user authentication with JWT tokens, comprehensive CRUD operations for posts and recipes, interactive commenting system, and a personalized bookmarking feature. Implemented user profiles with follower/following relationships, like and share functionality, and a discovery feed algorithm. Designed a MySQL database schema optimized for social interactions and content retrieval.
Backend Architecture
Developed a RESTful API using Node.js and Express.js with modular route structure. Implemented middleware for authentication, error handling, and request validation. Created efficient database queries with proper indexing for optimal performance. Built a media upload system with image compression and cloud storage integration. Implemented rate limiting and security best practices to prevent abuse.
Frontend & Backend Integration
Spearheaded the 'handshake' between the frontend and backend, ensuring seamless data synchronization and media upload handling using RESTful principles. Built with Vue.js and Quasar Framework for a responsive, mobile-first experience. Implemented state management for user authentication and data caching. Created reusable components for posts, comments, and user interactions. Optimized bundle size and implemented lazy loading for better performance.
Key Features
User authentication and profiles • Recipe posting with images • Interactive comments and replies • Like and bookmark system • User following and activity feed • Search and discovery • Recipe categories and tags • Mobile-responsive design • Image upload and optimization • Real-time notifications
Lessons Learned
This project was my foundation in full-stack development. I learned the importance of proper API design, database normalization, and security best practices. Managing both frontend and backend gave me a holistic understanding of web application architecture. The experience taught me about performance optimization, error handling, and user experience design. Most importantly, it proved I could build and deploy a complete application from concept to production.
Project Gallery
Role
Full-Stack Developer