Forem: Aakash Kumar

I Had 47 Tabs Open Just to Buy a Monitor. So I Built a Solution.

Aakash Kumar — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:58:34 +0000

We’ve all been there.

You decide it's finally time to upgrade your home office setup. You want a new 4K monitor. Next thing you know, your browser looks like a barcode.

You have 12 tabs open on Amazon, 8 on Best Buy, a handful on Walmart, and a few sketchy eBay listings just for good measure. You're bouncing between tabs, trying to compare refresh rates, shipping costs, and price drops. Maybe you even spin up a Notion board or an Excel spreadsheet just to keep track of it all.

It’s exhausting. Shopping shouldn't feel like a Jira sprint.

I got so frustrated with losing track of products, prices, and open tabs that I decided to scratch my own itch.

Meet CommonCart: the universal browser extension that lets you save, organize, and compare products from any store, all in one local dashboard.

🛑 The "50-Tab" Problem
Before CommonCart, my workflow was terrible. If I wanted to buy a new mechanical keyboard, I had to keep tabs open indefinitely out of fear that I'd lose the link to that one specific Keychron variant on a random site. Bookmarking them cluttered my browser, and adding them to site-specific "Wishlists" meant I had to check 5 different websites to see where it was cheapest.

✨ The Solution: One Cart to Rule Them All
I built CommonCart as a discrete extension that floats on product pages. Instead of leaving a tab open, you just click the "Add to CommonCart" button.

Instantly, the extension scrapes the Title, Image, Price, and Link, and drops it into a unified dashboard.

Here is what I focused on building to make it actually useful:

💰 Real Side-by-Side Comparisons (The Game Changer)
Saving links is great, but comparing them is better. I recently pushed a premium comparison tool. You can select an item from Amazon, one from Best Buy, and one from Target. CommonCart puts them side-by-side and automatically highlights the best deal, even handling different currencies smartly.
🌍 Truly Universal (No Store Left Behind)
A wishlist tool is useless if it only works on three sites. I wrote custom, context-safe parsers for Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Etsy, Home Depot, Flipkart, and more. (Dev note: I recently updated all parsers to utilize the activeTab URL as a fallback, meaning even if the DOM structure changes or the UI block fails, the manual capture still securely grabs the data you need!)
🔒 Local-First & Privacy Focused
As developers, we hate spyware. CommonCart doesn't require an account to start using it. It doesn't track your search history. Your data stays in your browser's local storage. You only track what you explicitly click "Save" on.
🤝 Seamless Sharing for Group Buys & Wishlists
What if you're building a PC part list or creating a birthday wishlist? I wanted sharing to be frictionless without requiring user accounts. I integrated Firebase and a robust REST API for Manifest V3 so you can generate a Share Code (like X7K9P2). Anyone with your code can instantly import and preview your entire collection.

🛠️ What's under the hood?
If you're curious about the tech stack, CommonCart is built heavily entirely around Modern Web standards. Some of the recent technical challenges I tackled included:

Manifest V3 compliance: Navigating the tight restrictions of MV3 for real-time Firebase syncing without relying on persistent background pages.
Theme-Aware Tokens: Building an accessible, high-contrast UI system tailored for users who need it (complete with Ocean, Forest, and High contrast dark modes).
Robust Parsing: Emulating real-world constructor injections in my parsers to handle the messy, ever-changing DOMs of massive e-commerce sites.

Stop Shopping Harder. Shop Smarter.
If you are constantly drowning in tabs while trying to find the best deal on tech, home goods, or gifts, give it a try. It’s 100% free.

Link to Chrome Web Store

I'm actively developing this and would love to hear what the Dev.to community thinks! Let me know if there are any specific stores you want parsed next or features you'd love to see.

Contest Clocker v2 v2.7: Our Journey So Far

Aakash Kumar — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 13:55:09 +0000

Competitive programming is about consistency, preparation, and timing. That's exactly why we built Contest Reminder, a browser extension to help developers never miss another coding contest again. From version 2.0 to the now fully-featured 2.7.7, we’ve evolved fast — and entirely in production.

🔗 Install from Chrome Web Store

🌐 Website

Here’s a look at how we’ve scaled the product in public, added user-loved features, and what’s coming next.

🚀 From Version 2.0 to 2.7.7 Highlights
✅ Core Feature Growth

Multi-Platform Contest Tracking: Started with Codeforces, CodeChef, and LeetCode — now includes AtCoder, HackerRank, and TopCoder.
Calendar Integration: Users can instantly add contests to their Google Calendar or Outlook calendars. Now supports auto-sync via Google Sign-In.
Smart Notifications: Custom reminders at 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day before contests — now with daily challenge reminders too.
LeetCode Daily Challenge Tracking: A new card allows users to view and mark daily problems, featuring auto-reminders and streak retention.
Daily Streaks: Timely nudges to keep users engaged every day.

⚙️ UI & Experience Enhancements

Platform Reordering: Users can choose how platforms appear.
Configurable Layouts: Font size, columns, time formats (12/24h), high contrast, and more.
Advanced Filters: Platform, contest type, duration, and uncategorized contests.
Dark/Light Modes: Minimal, clean glassmorphism design with smooth toggles.
Share Button: Users can copy or share contests easily with others.

⚡ Performance & Reliability

Data Fetch Optimization: Fetch only enabled platforms, use long-lived caches.
Rate Limited Refresh: Prevents API overload by limiting user-triggered refreshes.
Fallback Handling: Clear error states for each platform if down or blocked.

✨ Premium-Ready Infrastructure

Google OAuth integration
Calendar auto-sync behind sign-in
Support and donation prompts via BuyMeACoffee
Email display for signed-in users

🎨 New (upcoming)

Added two stunning themes — Matrix and Batman.
Theme engine refactored for better performance and customizability.
WebP optimization saves 830KB in theme assets!

💬 What’s Next?

Leaderboard & Stats
More Themes (Batman & Matrix etc)
Contest difficulty predictions
More Daily Challenge support
Community requests We’re building for the coding community — your feedback shapes the roadmap.

🌐 Try It Now

Available on the Chrome Web Store
Got suggestions or want to support us? 👉 Join our Discord
Stay consistent. Stay competitive. 💪

🕒 Contest Clocker – Never Miss a Coding Contest Again 🚀

Aakash Kumar — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:48:24 +0000

Are you into competitive programming? Tired of missing contests across Codeforces, LeetCode, and CodeChef?

Contest Clocker is a free, lightweight Chrome Extension that helps you stay on top of upcoming contests with smart reminders, calendar integration, and powerful filtering — all in one click.

🔗 Install from Chrome Web Store

🌐 Website

💡 Why I Built This

As a developer who regularly participates in contests and interview prep, I found myself constantly switching between platforms and forgetting start times.

That’s when I built Contest Clocker – a zero-friction solution to get notified, filter contests, and sync them to your Google Calendar.

⚙️ Core Features (v2.0)

✅ Multi-Platform Support: Codeforces, CodeChef, LeetCode (more coming!)

🔔 Smart Notifications: 15 min / 1 hour / 1 day before contest

📅 Add to Calendar: 1-click Google or Outlook sync

🎯 Advanced Filters: By duration, platform, contest type

🌓 Dark/Light Theme: Beautiful UI with smooth toggle

♿ Accessibility: Font size, high contrast mode, ARIA support

📊 Configurable View: Hide/show columns, compact mode

⚡ Superfast Load: API cached, blazing UI

👨‍💻 Who’s This For?

Competitive programmers tracking multiple sites
Students preparing for interviews (DSA grind!)
ICPC / Kickstart / CodeJam participants
Anyone serious about staying consistent

🧪 Upcoming Ideas

Personal dashboard for contest history
Telegram / WhatsApp daily alerts
Contest difficulty predictions
Auto-sync with Google Calendar every 24 hours (Pro)

🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend: Vite + React
Styling: CSS Modules, Dark/Light toggle via localStorage
Chrome Extension: MV3 + Manifest permissions + popup UI
Google APIs: Calendar sync + OAuth2 scopes
Hosting: Netlify (with HTTPS + custom domain)
Domain: contestclocker.com via Spaceship

🧠 Behind the Scenes

It started as a side project and now has dozens of daily users. I’ve just added a polished UI, more filters, and a polished privacy + domain setup for Google OAuth.

If you're building Chrome Extensions, feel free to check out how I handled domain + SSL + privacy policy to pass Google OAuth verification smoothly.

🤝 Feedback Welcome

Try it out and let me know what you'd love to see added next.

Open to suggestions, bug reports, or even contributions!

👉 Install Contest Clocker

Stay consistent. Stay competitive.

Let Contest Clocker handle the timing — you focus on winning.

Tages: #competitiveprogramming #chromeextension #calendar #javascript #codechef #codeforces #Leetcode #notification #productivity