Forem: Jess Lee

What do you want to know about hardware acceleration? Ask the Google team!

Jess Lee — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 21:00:45 +0000

Each week, we collect community questions for the team at Google to answer on their weekly livestream, Google Cloud Live.

The next stream is all about accelerating data science and analytics with GPUs. @greggyb will be joined by special guests Jeff Nelson (Google) and William Hill (NVIDIA) for a live speed benchmark (a 340-million-row data scan 🤯) and a discussion on why "expensive" hardware can often be cheaper in the long run.

Stream Details

📅 When: April 7 at 9am PDT / 12pm EDT
📺 Where:
- We'll be simulcasting this livestream right on the DEV homepage! Subscribe or Get Notified on YouTube

Drop your questions in the comments below. What hardware questions do you have? Are you facing any challenges processing your datasets? They'll answer as many questions as they can during the livestream.

What was your win this week?

Jess Lee — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋

Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?

All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Taking a walk without checking your phone 🌳

Happy Friday!

Join our April Fools Challenge for a chance at TEA-RRIFIC prizes!!!

Jess Lee — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:32:19 +0000

Hello, and let’s get this out of the way right now: this is no joke!!

Tired of building world-changing, hyper-optimized production apps? Sick of reading about clean architecture, scalability, and practicality for a moment? Then we have the perfect challenge for you! It’s time to lean into the chaos of the internet: Welcome to the DEV April Fools Challenge. 🦄

Our Prompt: HTCPCP IYKYK

Your mandate for this challenge is to build something completely useless or silly. We want software that solves zero real-world problems. A CSS-only site that un-centers divs? Great. A volume slider that requires you to shake your phone to turn up the music? Awesome. Your only goal is to make us laugh, scratch our heads, or ask Why on earth did they build this? Make a fool of yourself and have fun with it!

Additional Prize Categories:

Best Google AI Usage: Tell us how you leveraged Google AI for this submission. Did you build with Antigravity, experiment in Google AI Studio, or use the Gemini CLI? Or is there a Google AI product embedded in your build such as the Gemini API or any Google Cloud product such as Cloud Run? Tell us all about your experience!
Best Ode to Larry Masinter: We’re talking teapots and intentional 418s.
Community Favorite: Awarded to one of the most popular submissions based on comments, reactions, overall quality, and final judge discretion.

Judging Criteria and Prizes

All submissions will be judged on the following:

Anti-Value Proposition: How delightfully useless, silly, or over-engineered is this project?
Creativity: Is the concept original or a hilariously bad take on a familiar problem?
Technical Execution: Ironically, building bad software sometimes takes good engineering. Is it functional in its dysfunction?
Writing Quality: Is the submission post clear, and does it tell a funny, compelling story about your project?

Prizes

We’ll select two winners for the overall prompt, and one winner for each additional prize category. Our five total winners will each receive:

A surprise teapot or coffee maker with appropriate fixings (approx. $50 USD value)
DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV Badge

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

How To Participate

Publish a post on DEV using the submission template below. Your post should give us an overview of what you built and a demo of your project.

April Fools Challenge Submission Template

Please review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contest rules such as eligibility requirements.

Important Dates

April 1: April Fools Challenge begins!
April 12 at 11:59pm PT: Submissions Due
April 16: Winners Announced

We can’t wait to see what crazy projects you come up with. Questions about the challenge? Drop them in the comments below.

Good luck!!

A Year of Change and Persistence

Jess Lee — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:01:32 +0000

This marks the ninth year of our WeCoded celebration. While each year has had its highs and lows, this one feels especially noteworthy. We are witnessing a shift in the industry, and for me, it comes with significant professional and personal updates that feel impossible to separate from the work we do here.

For years, we were known as PBJ— @peter, @ben, and Jess. When you build something from the ground up as a trio, your identities become almost synonymous with the company and with each other. This year, that dynamic underwent its biggest shift yet when DEV was acquired by Major League Hacking (MLH). Most startups don’t make it "home" so this was a moment of immense pride that also marked a profound transition. I am moving from a seat where my co-founders and I held the collective weight of every decision we made to being one voice within a larger organization. It’s an exercise in leading through influence rather than direct authority. It is a transition I’m still navigating in a world that feels increasingly volatile to women and underrepresented folks in tech.

Designing a New Interface

This year hasn't just been about professional shifts; it’s been about personal ones, too. I recently started including they/them in my pronouns—a practice my partner and I have used for our children since they were born. We want them to discover who they are on their own timeline without being forced into a societal gender box before they’ve had a chance to explore.

That "box" is something I think about constantly as a developer. We are currently seeing a coordinated, systemic rollback of DEI initiatives across the U.S. tech sector. It’s a choice that feels insidious in its intent. In this climate, a "Man/Woman" radio button on a digital form isn't just a legacy UI choice; it’s a micro-enforcement of a rigid binary.

As developers, we are the architects of the interfaces the world lives in. We have the power to push back by building systems that refuse to force people into categories that don't fit.

A Small Act of Resistance

Visibility creates safety, especially when the broader environment feels restrictive. If you haven't yet, I’d love for you to add your pronouns to your DEV profile. If you’re curious about the "why," pronouns.org is a resource you can check out. It’s a way to signal that DEV remains a sanctuary even when the industry at large feels less certain.

Observing the Work

Amidst the whirlwind of the acquisition, I spent some time as a quiet observer at an MLH hackathon at RIT for Women in Computing. I was there to witness the next generation of engineers.

My new colleague @maria_from_mlh with a winning WiCHacks team

Watching these students work was a stark reminder of what is at stake. They are entering an industry that is statistically hostile to their longevity. We know the numbers: 50% of women leave the tech industry by age 35. Furthermore, during recent restructuring waves, women were laid off at nearly twice the rate of their representation in the workforce.

These students aren't just learning to code; they are learning to survive in a space that historically hasn't made room for them. Seeing their focus at RIT made me even more excited and committed to my work with MLH and DEV. I'm grateful to be part of an organization that can influence our overall tech culture so underrepresented groups aren't pushed out the back door.

Choosing Optimism

I won’t say the future looks "bright." For many of us, it feels like we are holding our breath. But I am hopeful.

I am hopeful because of the room full of curious students at RIT. I am hopeful because, despite the noise, we are still here, still building, and still insisting on our right to be seen.

Here are a few members writing about or building cool stuff that I admire:

Paige BaileyFollow

Keep it simple, make it scale. AI should be about empowering humans, building understanding, and making dreams realities.

Maame Afua A. P. Fordjour Follow

Here to document my coding journey & learn new things :)

Kat CosgroveFollow

Real-life cyborg.

Connie LeungFollow

codebunny20Follow

I'm a trans woman and after I started my transition I started learning python and other code languages and fell down the rabbit hole and now I'm hooked.

Rizèl ScarlettFollow

Staff Developer Advocate at Block; previously at GitHub. I'm interested in Generative AI, AI Dev Tools, Data Privacy, and Responsible AI

To everyone participating in this challenge: thank you for your vulnerability. Your stories are proof that even when things are difficult, we can build together as a community..

The Next DEV Weekend Challenge Launches on April 16 - 20. Mark Your Calendar!

Jess Lee — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:33:31 +0000

We're back with another installment of our newest format: the DEV Weekend Challenge!

If you missed the first one, these are short-form, high-energy challenges designed to fit right into your weekend. We’re giving you the heads-up now so you can clear your schedule!

How It Works

Our challenge prompt will be revealed at launch. You can keep an eye on the DEV Weekend Challenge page or look out for the official announcement post from the DEV Team. From there, you'll have the entire weekend to build, document, and submit your project. That's all there is to it!

Because our community spans every timezone on the planet, we've set the window so that everyone around the world gets at least a full weekend to participate.

Important Dates

Launch Time: Friday, April 16 at 2:00 AM UTC
Submissions Due: Monday, April 20 at 6:59 AM UTC

Here's what that looks like across a few timezones:

Timezone	Launch Time (Local)	Submissions Due (Local)
PDT	Thursday, Apr 16 at 7:00 PM	Sunday, Apr 19 at 11:59 PM
EDT	Thursday, Apr 16 at 10:00 PM	Monday, Apr 20 at 2:59 AM
GMT	Friday, Apr 17 at 2:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 6:59 AM
CEST	Friday, Apr 17 at 4:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 8:59 AM
IST	Friday, Apr 17 at 7:30 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 12:29 PM
JST	Friday, Apr 17 at 11:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 3:59 PM
AEST	Friday, Apr 17 at 12:00 PM	Monday, Apr 20 at 4:59 PM

While the window technically spans more than 48 hours, our goal is to ensure everyone has a full, uninterrupted weekend to work on their project regardless of where they live.

Can't wait?

Join the Notion MCP Challenge happening now through March 29!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Mar 4

Join the Notion MCP Challenge: $1,500 in Prizes!

#notionchallenge #devchallenge #mcp #ai

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Comments 26

3 min read

Also, don't miss your chance to enter the 2026 WeCoded Challenge, in our writing category "Echoes of Experience" or the brand new "Frontend Art" prompt!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Mar 6

Join the 2026 WeCoded Challenge and Celebrate Underrepresented Voices in Tech Through Writing & Frontend Art 🎨!

#devchallenge #wecoded #frontend #career

168

Comments 24

3 min read

We can't wait to see what you build!

What was your win this week!?

Jess Lee — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋

Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?

All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Taking a well deserved day off! 💤💤💤

Happy Friday!

What was your win this week??

Jess Lee — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:41:43 +0000

👋👋👋👋

Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?

All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Finishing the book you have been reading... forever. 📚

Happy Friday!

Congrats to the Winners of Our First DEV Weekend Challenge!

Jess Lee — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:26:57 +0000

It's time!! We are thrilled to announce the winners of our first DEV Weekend Challenge.

The prompt was simple but open-ended: build something for a community you're a part of or care about. What we got back was anything but simple. In just a weekend, participants shipped real, functional apps rooted in genuine personal experience — transit tools, civic platforms, fitness apps, local marketplaces, and more.

Choosing three winners from the submissions we received was genuinely difficult, and we're proud of every participant who shipped something this weekend.

Without further ado, our winners! 🎉

Congratulations To…

TerraRun

@manjunathpatil built TerraRun for the running community around a simple question: once you finish a run, what do you actually own? Run a closed loop, and the enclosed area fills in with your color on a shared public map. That's your territory. Other runners can claim it back. The more you hold, the higher you rank — "Strava meets king-of-the-hill."

DEV Weekend Challenge: Community

Manjunath Patil

Mar 2

TerraRun — A Territory Capture Running App Where Every Loop You Run Becomes Your Turf

#showdev #devchallenge #weekendchallenge

Comments 4

4 min read

UTMACH Rides

@sherman95 built UTMACH Rides, a mobile-first PWA for the 14,000+ students at Universidad Técnica de Machala in Ecuador. Only verified @utmachala.edu.ec emails get in, an important safety feature for this community of students. The app handles the full coordination flow: publishing rides, requesting seats, verifying passengers via WhatsApp, and rating each other after the trip.

DEV Weekend Challenge: Community

Ronald Alejandro Azuero Maldonado

Feb 28

UTMACH Rides -- I Built a Carpooling App So My Classmates Stop Paying $3 for a 10-Minute Ride

#showdev #devchallenge #weekendchallenge #webdev

Comments 3

9 min read

BagichaLink

@soham0047 built BagichaLink (bagicha means "garden" in Hindi/Urdu) for the plant swap community — the "I propagated too many pothos again" crowd. Scan any plant to get an AI identification with care tips tuned to your local weather, post it as Available or Wanted, find AI-matched swap partners nearby, and chat directly to arrange the handoff.

DEV Weekend Challenge: Community

Soham

Mar 1

How I built an AI-powered plant swap community app in a weekend

#showdev #devchallenge #weekendchallenge #ai

Comments 1

5 min read

Prizes

Each of our three winners will receive:

$300 USD
An exclusive DEV Badge
A DEV++ Membership

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

What's Next?

Join the Notion MCP Challenge happening now through March, 29!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Mar 4

Join the Notion MCP Challenge: $1,500 in Prizes!

#notionchallenge #devchallenge #mcp #ai

195

Comments 37

3 min read

Also, don't miss your chance to enter the 2026 WeCoded Challenge, in our writing category "Echoes of Experience" or the brand new "Frontend Art" prompt!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Mar 6

Join the 2026 WeCoded Challenge and Celebrate Underrepresented Voices in Tech Through Writing & Frontend Art 🎨!

#devchallenge #wecoded #frontend #career

209

Comments 30

3 min read

We hope this first Weekend Challenge showed that great things can ship in 48 hours when you're building for something real.

Thank you to everyone who participated. 💚

Congrats to the "Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge" Winners!

Jess Lee — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:31:58 +0000

The results are in! We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge presented by Major League Hacking (MLH).

Choosing our five winners was no easy task. The submissions we received were candid, thoughtful, and packed with genuine insight. From passion-projects to side-hustles, wild-ideas and thoughtful-tools, we were struck by how openly participants shared both the highlights and the friction points of working with Google Gemini. That kind of honesty is what makes a great reflection post, and you all community delivered.

To everyone who submitted: thank you for taking the time to write it all down. We hope putting it into words was as valuable as the building itself.

Without further delay, here are the winners.

Congratulations To…

@jowi00000 built Plante, an automated greenhouse monitor that leverages the Google Gemini API to power two core features: Context-Aware AI Chat and Weekly Pulse Insights. We loved learning about the hardware components and how the team gamified the frontend experience for users.

Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge

Jowi A

Mar 3

From Deadlocks to Green Streaks: Building an AI Greenhouse with Gemini in 36 Hours 🧑‍🌾

#devchallenge #geminireflections #gemini #mlh

Comments 5

5 min read

@francistrdev provided a deep, honest analysis of using Google Gemini for contributing to Forem (the OSS that powers DEV 😄) and vibe coding a project for our Weekend Challenge.

Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge

FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ (っ◔◡◔)っ

Mar 3

I used Google Gemini for the First Time. A Deep Analysis of my Experience so far! ✨

#devchallenge #geminireflections #gemini #bash

Comments 13

11 min read

@astrodeeptej fused NASA data with Gemini to build "CosmoDex", an interactive dashboard for tracking Near Earth Objects. Google Gemini was utilized to generate dynamic, gamified threat assessments and sci-fi lore, a stellar example of making data engaging and accessible!

Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge

deeptej

Mar 3

Fusing NASA Data with AI: How I Built CosmoDex and Won the MLH Data Hackfest!

#discuss #devchallenge #geminireflections #gemini

Comments 9

4 min read

@phalkmin shares their experience of using Gemini CLI as a junior dev. We learn about how they refined their prompting strategy saved two legacy codebases.

Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge

Paulo Henrique

Mar 3

With Gemini CLI, I'm able to keep my pet projects alive and kicking

#devchallenge #geminireflections #gemini

Comments 1

5 min read

@mirshah12 built "ProcSee", an autonomous security investigation system that monitors every process on your machine in real-time. When something looks suspicious, it hands the investigation off to Gemini 3 Pro to write a full forensic report.

Mir Shah

Feb 26

PROCSee -> Turn Your System Into a Crime Scene & let Gemini Become Investigator!

#devchallenge #geminireflections #gemini #ai

Comments 5

9 min read

Prizes

Our five winners will receive:

Raspberry Pi 5 8GB GenAI Kit (Assembled)
DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV Badge

All Participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

What’s next?

Join the Notion MCP Challenge happening now through March, 29!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Mar 4

Join the Notion MCP Challenge: $1,500 in Prizes!

#notionchallenge #devchallenge #mcp #ai

195

Comments 37

3 min read

As always, keep an eye on our challenge page to see what’s launching next, and follow the challenge tag so you don’t miss any announcements:

#devchallenge Follow

This is the official tag for submissions and announcements related to DEV Challenges.

If you want to keep building with Google AI, check out our DEV Education Tracks:

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Feb 17

Introducing Our Next DEV Education Track: "Build Multi-Agent Systems with ADK"

#agents #gemini #ai #buildmultiagents

149

Comments 22

3 min read

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Jul 2 '25

Announcing the First DEV Education Track: "Build Apps with Google AI Studio"

#learngoogleaistudio #ai #deved #gemini

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Comments 95

3 min read

Thank you to everyone who participated! We hope you reflecting on and sharing your projects in this type of challenge motivates you to keep building things that you feel passionate about.

Forem: Jess Lee

Top 7 Featured DEV Posts of the Week

What do you want to know about hardware acceleration? Ask the Google team!

Stream Details

What was your win this week?

Join our April Fools Challenge for a chance at TEA-RRIFIC prizes!!!

Our Prompt: HTCPCP IYKYK

Additional Prize Categories:

Judging Criteria and Prizes

Prizes

How To Participate

Important Dates

A Year of Change and Persistence

Designing a New Interface

A Small Act of Resistance

Observing the Work

Choosing Optimism

Paige BaileyFollow

Maame Afua A. P. Fordjour Follow

Kat CosgroveFollow

Connie LeungFollow

codebunny20Follow

Rizèl ScarlettFollow

Top 7 Featured DEV Posts of the Week

The Next DEV Weekend Challenge Launches on April 16 - 20. Mark Your Calendar!

How It Works

Important Dates

Can't wait?

What was your win this week!?

Top 7 Featured DEV Posts of the Week

What was your win this week??

Congrats to the Winners of Our First DEV Weekend Challenge!

Congratulations To…

TerraRun

UTMACH Rides

BagichaLink

Prizes

What's Next?

Congrats to the "Built with Google Gemini: Writing Challenge" Winners!

Congratulations To…

Prizes

What’s next?

#devchallenge Follow