Forem: Ghazi Khan

System Design for Developers: Learn, Practice & Build Real Skills with IOCombats

Ghazi Khan — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:23:07 +0000

Most developers don’t struggle because of a lack of resources.

They struggle because of lack of structured practice.

You watch tutorials. You understand concepts. But when it’s time to actually design systems or solve real frontend problems, things break down.

That’s exactly the gap I wanted to solve.

So I built two practical learning experiences on IOCombats:

A Frontend Survival Game
A System Design Hub

Both focused on one goal: moving from passive learning to real problem-solving

🚀 Frontend Survival Game (Practice Real Frontend Challenges)

👉 https://iocombats.com/games/frontend-survival

If you're learning frontend development, you’ve probably faced this:

You follow tutorials, but struggle to build things on your own.

The Frontend Survival Game is designed to fix that.

What you get:

Real-world frontend challenges
Constraint-based problem solving
No step-by-step guidance

You don’t just “learn React” or “learn CSS”.

You apply concepts under pressure, just like real-world scenarios.

Who is this for:

Developers preparing for frontend interviews
Self-taught developers stuck in tutorial hell
Engineers who want to improve problem-solving skills

🧠 System Design Hub (Learn System Design the Right Way)

👉 https://iocombats.com/system-design

Learning system design is confusing for most developers.

Content is scattered:

One video explains caching
Another explains scalability
Another explains databases

But there’s no structured path and no place to practice.

The System Design Hub solves this.

📚 Structured System Design Topics

Key system design concepts organized in a clear and practical way:

Load balancing
Caching strategies
Database design (SQL vs NoSQL)
CAP theorem
Sharding & scaling
Message queues

Each topic includes:

Curated high-quality YouTube videos
Focused explanations (no fluff)

This helps you learn system design step by step.

🎯 Why This Matters

If you're preparing for:

System design interviews
Backend engineering roles
Fullstack roles

You need more than videos.

You need:

Structured learning
Real problems
Proof of your thinking

That’s exactly what this platform is built for.

🔄 Continuous Updates

This is not a one-time release.

I’ll keep improving it by:

Adding more system design problems
Curating better learning resources
Expanding frontend challenges

Everything will evolve based on real developer feedback.

🚀 Start Learning & Practicing

If you want to go beyond tutorials and actually build strong skills:

👉 Frontend Survival Game
https://iocombats.com/games/frontend-survival

👉 System Design Hub
https://iocombats.com/system-design

💬 Feedback

If you try it out, I’d love to hear:

What helped you
What’s confusing
What should be improved

The goal is simple:

Help developers become better at building real systems.

Build a Video Call App in Next.js (Without Dealing with WebRTC)

Ghazi Khan — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:44:36 +0000

Adding video calling to a web app sounds straightforward… until you try implementing it yourself.

If you’ve explored WebRTC, you already know the challenges:

Setting up signaling servers
Handling TURN servers for network issues
Managing connections across different environments
Scaling for multiple users

Instead of going through all that, I tried a different approach.

What We’re Building

In this tutorial, we build a simple video meeting app using Next.js.

Features:

Create a meeting
Share a meeting link
Join from multiple users
Start video call with camera and mic controls

Tech Stack

Next.js
React
ZEGOCLOUD Video Call SDK

Why Use ZEGOCLOUD?

ZEGOCLOUD provides prebuilt UI kits and SDKs for video calling.

This means:

No need to manage WebRTC complexity
No need to set up signaling or TURN servers
Faster integration

You can go from zero to a working video call in just a few lines of code.

Full Step-by-Step Tutorial

Watch the complete implementation here:

Use Cases

This setup can be extended to build:

Interview platforms
Online classrooms
Support systems
Collaboration tools

Side Note

I’m also building a platform called IOCombats where frontend engineers can practice UI challenges and prepare for interviews.

This kind of video integration could be useful for mock interviews or collaboration features in the future.

Final Thoughts

If you’re thinking of adding video calling to your app, start with a solution like this.

You’ll save time and can focus more on your product instead of infrastructure.

Let me know what you think. Would you build something like this?

Most developers aren’t rejected for lack of skill but for lack of clarity

Ghazi Khan — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:23:33 +0000

Over the last few months, I’ve had the same conversation with multiple developers:

“I’m applying everywhere, but I’m not getting interview calls.”

Almost every time, the assumption is:

the market is bad
competition is too high
skills aren’t enough

And while the market is competitive, that’s not the full story.

What I’ve consistently seen is this:

Many developers don’t get rejected because they lack skill.
They get filtered out because their profile isn’t clear in the first few seconds.

Recruiters don’t read profiles the way we think they do

As engineers, we like detail.
We explain systems.
We list technologies.
We describe everything we’ve worked on.

Recruiters don’t consume profiles like that.

They scan.

In a very short time, they try to answer a few questions:

What kind of engineer is this?
What problems have they actually worked on?
Can I justify shortlisting this profile?

If those answers aren’t obvious quickly, the profile is skipped — even if the person is genuinely strong.

That’s not a judgment on skill.
It’s a signal problem.

The pattern I kept noticing

I started noticing the same pattern again and again:

Strong resumes, but no clear impact
LinkedIn profiles that list history, not value
GitHub accounts that exist, but don’t tell a story
Good engineers who are “shortlist-ready” on paper, but not “interview-ready” in reality

Most profiles weren’t bad.
They were just unclear.

So I built a simple checklist (not another interview guide)

I didn’t want to create another:

DSA roadmap
System design course
“Crack the interview” guide

Instead, I built a profile readiness checklist that helps answer one question before you apply:

“Is my profile actually ready to convert into interview calls?”

It looks at:

Resume clarity
LinkedIn signals
GitHub and proof of work
Portfolio (if applicable)
Job application strategy
Interview readiness signals
Final sanity checks most people ignore

You go through it honestly, and it generates a readiness snapshot that shows where the real gaps are.

Not to judge but to guide.

What surprised me

What surprised me wasn’t the scores.

It was the patterns.

Some people had:

100% resume and LinkedIn readiness
but 0% interview readiness

Others had:

decent experience
but no proof of impact

In many cases, the issue wasn’t preparation.
It was misplaced effort.

People were optimizing the wrong things.

Why I think this matters

Applying blindly is exhausting.
It kills confidence.
It makes good engineers doubt themselves.

Sometimes, you don’t need more preparation.
You need better signals.

Clarity beats volume.
Signals beat claims.
And small fixes often have a bigger impact than months of grinding.

If you’re currently applying

Before sending another resume, ask yourself:

Can someone understand my impact in 10 seconds?
Is it obvious what kind of problems I’ve worked on?
Do my profile signals match the roles I’m applying for?

If not, pause.
Fix clarity first.
Then apply.

I shared the checklist publicly because I kept seeing the same confusion repeat itself especially among capable engineers.

If it helps you get unstuck, that’s a win.

And if nothing else, I hope this post makes you rethink why profiles get filtered not just how interviews work.

Where this checklist lives

I eventually hosted this checklist on IOCombats, a platform I’m building around real-world interview readiness, not just practice problems.

The idea isn’t to gamify profiles or hand out scores for the sake of it, it’s to help engineers identify what actually blocks progress before spending weeks preparing the wrong things.

If you’re curious, you can find it there.
If not, the core takeaway still stands: clarity beats volume, and signals beat claims.

Built with the same mindset I apply to engineering:
identify the bottleneck before optimizing the system.

— Ghazi

TypeScript 7’s Native Compiler: What It Really Means for Frontend Engineering

Ghazi Khan — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 06:01:25 +0000

TypeScript 7 is the release most teams aren’t ready for but should be.

I’m not exaggerating.

Every few years TypeScript drops a version that quietly forces engineering teams to rethink their entire toolchain.
TypeScript 7 is that release… but louder.

And if your repo depends on legacy module formats, loose typing, or aggressive path aliasing this upgrade is going to expose things.

Here’s the real story developers need to pay attention to 👇

1️⃣ The JavaScript-based compiler is gone

TS6 is the last JS compiler.
TS7 is native.

What does that mean for you?

Faster cold builds
Faster watch mode
Lower memory usage
Cleaner ES module output

Not “slightly faster.”
Teams are seeing 20–50% faster builds and 30–70% faster watch mode.

This is the upgrade React, Next.js, and large monorepos have been begging for.

2️⃣ Legacy module formats? Deleted.

TS7 drops:

AMD
UMD
SystemJS

If your enterprise app still depends on these, it’s migration time.

From now on it’s:

ES Modules (primary)
CommonJS (minimal interop)

This alone is going to break a lot of silently aging frontend systems.

3️⃣ Strict mode is now the DEFAULT

No more “let’s keep strict off to avoid errors.”

TS7 turns it on by default.

If your codebase has:

casual any
weak null checks
messy module boundaries
vague interfaces

You’re going to feel this upgrade.

But long term?
Your codebase gets safer and far more predictable.

4️⃣ Path aliasing is being rewritten

Those deep aliases like:

import Button from '@/components/ui/button';

may need fixes.

TS7 aligns more closely with Node and modern bundlers which is good but configs will need updates.

Long-term benefit:
Cleaner module graphs and fewer broken imports during refactors.

5️⃣ Tooling is going to lag behind

Expect temporary chaos across:
ESLint TypeScript
ts-node
Angular compiler
Vite TypeScript transforms
Storybook loaders
Jest transformers

If you maintain a monorepo or design system, adopt TS7 incrementally, not in one big leap.

My recommended migration path

Start with non-critical packages
Run tsc --strict now and fix the noise early
Remove AMD/UMD/SystemJS before TS7 forces you
Audit aliases
Keep TS6 available during rollout

This is not the upgrade you rush.

The Bigger Picture

TS7 isn’t just a compiler update.
It’s the foundation for the next decade of frontend engineering bigger apps, tighter security, and a world where AI interacts directly with compilers.

A JS compiler hit its ceiling.
A native compiler gives TypeScript space to move.

I broke down all the changes, migration strategy, and real-world benchmarks here:

🔗 Read the full deep-dive:
https://www.iocombats.com/blogs/typescript-7-native-compiler-impact-frontend-engineering

If you’re leading a frontend team, this is the upgrade to prepare for now, not later.

What part of TS7 are you most concerned about — strictness, module formats, or tooling compatibility?

Drop your thoughts below.

5 Advanced React UI Pattern Questions Every Senior Dev Should Be Able to Answer

Ghazi Khan — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 05:40:59 +0000

If you're preparing for senior React interviews especially ones focused on architecture and UI patterns, I’ve put together 5 advanced questions that go way beyond hooks and props.

These aren’t theoretical questions.
Each one includes real-world scenarios, trade-offs, demos, and full code walkthroughs — all available on IOCombats.

Here are 5 advanced UI-pattern-focused React interview questions you can prepare yourself with:

How would you implement a calendar component with event scheduling in React? - IO Combats

Design a full-featured calendar with day/week/month views, event creation, drag-to-resize, recurring events, and conflict detection.

iocombats.com

How would you build a collaborative whiteboard in React? - IO Combats

Design a real-time collaborative whiteboard using canvas, WebSockets/WebRTC, CRDT syncing, undo/redo, and multi-user presence.

iocombats.com

How would you design a modal manager system in React? - IO Combats

Create a global modal manager with stacking, portal rendering, focus trapping, ESC handling, and dynamic modal types.

iocombats.com

How would you design a virtualized list for 100K+ items in React? - IO Combats

Design a high-performance virtualized list capable of rendering 100k+ rows with minimal DOM nodes, supporting variable heights, infinite scroll, and windowing strategies.

iocombats.com

How would you design a drag-and-drop Kanban board in React? - IO Combats

Design a Kanban board with drag-and-drop between columns, persistence, optimistic UI updates, and accessibility considerations.

iocombats.com

🚀 Want more?

I’m dropping new advanced React questions every week — complete with diagrams, code, and real production-level scenarios.

Check them out, practice them, and level up your UI engineering skills.

🚀 70 React Interview Questions — Theory + Real-World Scenarios (Free Resource)

Ghazi Khan — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:14:06 +0000

The collection now features 70 handpicked React interview questions, split into:

Theory questions → Learn concepts like Virtual DOM, Hooks, Rendering, and Context API

Scenario-based questions → Real-world problems like dropdown binding, form validation, and performance optimization

Each question includes:

Detailed explanations 🧠

Code examples 💻
Related videos 🎥
Optional challenges 🧩

🔗 Check it out: https://www.iocombats.com/interview-questions

If you’re preparing for a React developer or frontend engineer interview — this is your go-to resource for 2025.

🧠 Deep Dive: SvelteKit 2.43 Async SSR & Remote Functions Explained

Ghazi Khan — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:02:00 +0000

SvelteKit 2.43 marks a major leap in how we build frontends.

You can now use await inside components with async SSR — collapsing the distance between data and UI.

Key highlights 👇

Async SSR → Use await directly in components for cleaner, faster rendering.
Remote Functions → Bring server logic next to your components.
query.batch() → Combine multiple requests into one call.
Schema-enhanced forms → Smarter validation & consistent data handling.

This release blurs the line between frontend and backend — giving you full-stack power with frontend simplicity.

🔗 Full breakdown: SvelteKit 2.43 Async SSR & Remote Functions Explained

What do you think — are we heading toward a truly async-first web?

🚀 How to Stay Ahead in 2025 as a Frontend Engineer

Ghazi Khan — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 08:40:53 +0000

The frontend world isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating.
What felt cutting-edge last year might already feel outdated today.

So, how do you stay relevant when the landscape keeps shifting beneath your feet?

That’s exactly what I explored in my latest blog: How to Stay Ahead in 2025 as a Frontend Engineer

Here’s a quick preview of the key takeaways 👇

⚙️ 1. Lock down the fundamentals
Master HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and accessibility — they never go out of style.

🧩 2. Pick your stack and go deep
In 2025, depth > breadth. Be exceptional in React, Vue, Svelte, or Qwik — not “okay” at all four.

🤖 3. Use AI as your coding sidekick
From Copilot to ChatGPT to AI-driven QA — automation is here to stay. The trick? Let AI boost your speed, not replace your thinking.

⚡ 4. Make performance your identity
Ship less JS, go edge-first, embrace server components. Speed is your brand now.

🏗️ 5. Think like an architect
Understand micro-frontends, edge functions, and bundler-independent systems — future engineers solve architecture, not just UI.

🧠 6. Add AI/ML literacy
Frontend meets intelligence — model inference, smart UIs, and browser AI are the next frontier.

💬 7. Don’t forget the soft skills
Clear communication, curiosity, adaptability, and documentation — these are what separate good engineers from great ones.

👉 Read the full blog here: https://www.iocombats.com/blogs/how-to-stay-ahead-2025-frontend-engineer

💡 The takeaway:
You don’t have to learn everything — you just have to keep learning faster.

Introducing IO Combats — A Battleground for Frontend Engineers 🧠⚔️

Ghazi Khan — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 19:00:26 +0000

Frontend engineers don’t need another tutorial.

They need real-world practice.
They need challenges.
They need a place to build, showcase, and grow.

That’s exactly why I’m building IO Combats (https://www.iocombats.com) — a platform built for frontend devs to:

✅ Practice UI challenges
✅ Build using any framework of their choice
✅ Get a public developer profile with analytics + project history
✅ Prepare for interviews with curated coding challenges (coming soon)
✅ Discover frontend-focused jobs (coming soon)

🎯 What’s launching first?

UI Challenges
You’ll get clean, professional designs to build — not random Dribbble clones. You can pick any framework you like (React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, plain HTML/CSS — your call).
Shareable Dev Profiles
Every submission gets saved to your personal IO Combats profile.

Whether you're brushing up on skills or prepping for interviews, these challenges are designed to be practical, test your layout skills, responsiveness, and real-world thinking.

You'll be able to:

Showcase your projects

View analytics (completion time, tech used, performance)

Share your profile with hiring managers or on social media

This isn’t just about practice.
It’s about proof of work.

🚀 Why I’m Building This
As a frontend engineer with 11+ years of experience, I’ve seen how hard it is to go beyond tutorials and really practice — the kind of practice that actually matters in interviews or on real projects.

You either end up:

Copy-pasting projects from YouTube

Wasting time on random challenges with no feedback

Or building your own practice setup from scratch

So I thought: why not create one platform that does it right?

🔥 Want to be a Beta Tester?
The first version of IO Combats (with UI Challenges + Dev Profiles) is launching soon.
I’m currently building it in public and dropping a teaser video here and on LinkedIn.

If you’re a frontend dev and this sounds interesting—

👉 Join the waitlist - (https://www.iocombats.com)
👉 Get early access
👉 Help shape the platform with your feedback

🙏 I’d Love Your Feedback
What features would you love to see?

Any pain points you’ve had with coding challenges?

What makes a dev platform actually useful for you?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or DM me on Twitter @ghazikhan205.

Let’s build something valuable for the frontend community.

Demo Video

Announcing Toolifyx’s Regex Tester – Debug Patterns Like a Pro!

Ghazi Khan — Sun, 18 May 2025 15:09:04 +0000

Hey Devs! Regex giving you headaches? As a developer with 11 years of UI expertise, I’ve spent way too many late nights wrestling with regular expressions to validate forms, parse data, or search code. Those online regex tools? Half are slow, and the other half are ad-riddled nightmares.

That’s why I’m pumped to share the Regex Tester, a new addition to Toolifyx.com, designed to make regex debugging fast, intuitive, and pain-free for backend and frontend devs alike!

Why Regex Testing Is Crucial

Regular expressions are a developer’s Swiss Army knife for pattern matching—think email validation, phone number formatting, or log file parsing. But one wrong character can break everything. A good regex tester saves hours of trial-and-error, ensures robust code, and prevents bugs that frustrate users (or your boss!).

How to Use Toolifyx’s Regex Tester

Write Your Pattern: Enter your regex (e.g., ^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$ for emails).
Test Input: Add sample text to see real-time matches highlighted instantly.
Debug with Ease: Get error alerts for invalid syntax and explanations for common patterns.
Use the Cheat Sheet: Access a searchable library of regex snippets (e.g., URLs, dates) to jumpstart your work.
Pro Tip: Pair it with our JSON Formatter to validate API payloads that use regex-based schemas!

What Makes Toolifyx’s Regex Tester Awesome

Lightning-Fast: Real-time matching without the lag of other tools.
No Distractions: Clean UI, built by a dev to keep you focused.
Community-Powered: Suggest new features or regex patterns to make it yours!

Try It Now & Boost Our Product Hunt Campaign

The Regex Tester is live alongside our free tools (JSON Formatter, CSS Generators, and more) at Toolifyx.
Give it a spin: https://toolifyx.com/regex-tester

Toolifyx is on Product Hunt, and I’d love your help to reach more devs! If you find this tool useful, please upvote and comment: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/toolifyx

What regex pattern do you use most, or what’s a feature you’d love in a tester? Share below—I’m listening!

Announcing Toolifyx’s Responsiveness Tester – Test Smarter, Build Better!

Ghazi Khan — Sun, 18 May 2025 15:01:56 +0000

Hey Devs! As a developer with 11 years of UI experience, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve resized browser windows or opened dev tools just to check if a design looks good on mobile, tablet, or desktop.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce the Responsiveness Tester on Toolifyx.com, a new tool to streamline how you test responsive designs, built for frontend devs and UI/UX designers like you!

Why Responsiveness Testing Matters

With over 50% of web traffic coming from mobile devices (yep, it’s 2025!), a non-responsive design can tank your user experience and SEO rankings. Responsiveness testing ensures your site looks pixel-perfect across screen sizes, from a 320px smartphone to a 1920px monitor. It’s not just about aesthetics—it’s about accessibility, performance, and keeping users happy.

How to Test with Toolifyx’s Responsiveness Tester

Enter Your URL: Paste your website or prototype link into the tool.
Choose Devices: Select from preset screen sizes (e.g., iPhone 14, iPad Pro, 13” MacBook) or enter custom dimensions.
Preview Instantly: See real-time renders of your design across multiple devices, side by side.
Tweak and Iterate: Spot issues like misaligned elements or font scaling, then fix them without leaving your workflow.
Pro Tip: Use the tool alongside our CSS Generators (Box Shadow, Gradient, Border Radius) to style responsive components on the fly!

Why Toolifyx’s Tester Stands Out

Fast & Clean: No lag, no ad pop-ups—just a minimalist interface built for speed.
Developer-Friendly: Designed by a dev (me!) to keep you in the coding zone.
Community-Driven: Your feedback shapes future features—want more device presets? Let me know!

Try It Now & Support Our Product Hunt Launch

The Responsiveness Tester joins our free toolkit (JSON Formatter, CSS Generators, and more) at Toolifyx. Check it out here: https://toolifyx.com/responsiveness-tester

I recently launched Toolifyx on Product Hunt, and your support would mean the world! If this tool saves you time, please upvote and comment: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/toolifyx

What’s your biggest responsive design challenge? Drop it below—I’d love to hear your thoughts or tool ideas!

Supercharge your coding with free, fast, and minimalist tools for JSON, CSS, Responsiveness, and Regex.

Ghazi Khan — Wed, 14 May 2025 09:43:12 +0000

Toolifyx is the ultimate free toolkit for developers, designed to solve real coding problems with simplicity and speed. Born from a late-night need for a clean JSON formatter, Toolifyx delivers a growing suite of intuitive tools to boost productivity and creativity for frontend, backend, and UI/UX developers. Whether you’re debugging APIs, styling web interfaces, or testing responsive designs, Toolifyx has you covered.

Current Tools:

JSON Formatter and Validator: Beautify and validate JSON data instantly with syntax highlighting and error detection, perfect for API development and debugging.
CSS Box Shadow Generator: Craft pixel-perfect box shadows with customizable blur, spread, color, and position, complete with real-time previews and clean CSS code.
CSS Border Radius Generator: Create precise rounded corners for buttons, cards, and more, with adjustable radii and instant CSS output.
CSS Gradient Generator: Design vibrant linear and radial gradients with a visual editor, exporting ready-to-use CSS for stunning UI backgrounds.
Responsiveness Tester: Preview your website across multiple screen sizes (mobile, tablet, desktop) to ensure pixel-perfect responsiveness without browser dev tools.
Regex Tester: Build, test, and debug regular expressions with real-time match highlighting, pattern suggestions, and an interactive cheat sheet.

Why Toolifyx?

Free Forever: No paywalls, just ad-supported tools to keep your workflow uninterrupted.
Minimalist & Fast: Clean interfaces and instant results, built for developers by a developer with 11 years of UI expertise.
More Coming Soon: Expect new tools like color converters and API testers, driven by community feedback. Join thousands of developers saving time with Toolifyx. Try it now at https://toolifyx.com and share your feedback to shape our next tools

Target Audience:

Frontend Developers: Building stunning UIs with CSS tools.
Backend Developers: Debugging APIs with JSON and regex tools.
UI/UX Designers: Testing responsiveness and prototyping styles.
Freelancers & Hobbyists: Seeking free, reliable tools for quick tasks.
Tech Educators: Using tools for teaching web development concepts.

Website: https://toolifyx.com
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