Forem: rahoolbenji

Hire remotely: Google docs for tech interviews

rahoolbenji — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:35:56 +0000

Rahool here 👋 I am glad to be a part of dev.to community

1 year ago I wanted to learn how to quit my job as a programmer and code my own salary out of thin air.

I was interviewing a lot of people remotely back then in my day job. Google-docs and collab-edit were the two tools I was using along with telephonic calls or screen sharing.

I thought there should be a dedicated product for taking remote interviews as these tools were not doing justice to the process.

1 year into it, working over weekends, early mornings and late evenings, I built intervue.io 😎
It's not an easy path to follow. The struggle is real.

So today, I am not shying away and asking for help!
If you’ve got a couple of minutes, would you mind letting me know how you find intervue.io as a tool, and would you like to signup and try it out?
I’d appreciate it!

Thanks again for reading this much.

Do not hesitate to reach out to me for any queries. I am just an email away!

13 things you should know if you are a software developer or entrepreneur in 2020! 🔥

rahoolbenji — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:43:23 +0000

13 different things that you can learn today if you want to be a tech
entrepreneur or a better engineer to make an application and ship it to your
customers!

Target audience

Read this if you are:

A tech entrepreneur or want to become one
An Engineer who wants to learn more about packaging and shipping an application end to end
Someone having some tech background and little bit of exposure about how tech works

If you are a beginner, this blog is the right thing to follow to get a direction
to go into.

Its 2020! 🤯

You should be knowing these 13 things, no matter what position you are working
on. Even if you are a fresher or a VP of Engineering in some company or looking
forward to start your own company, these 13 things should form a part of your
skill-set, especially, if you are looking to launch something on the web and
expecting some income out of it.

This post will give you a direction to move into when making a product and
delivering it.

I will upload detailed blogs individually for all 13 topics where you can
learn more in-depth. Till then, keep hustling and follow me for more insights!

Some background:

I learnt all these things from my personal experience while developing
intervue.io 😎

intervue.io is an easier way to take tech interviews
remotely with collaborative code editor and audio/video calling integrated in
the browser itself. It supports 25+ programming languages and gives a curated
question bank/home assignments that can be given to the candidate to test his
knowledge in a practical way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6BPRhYroo8

Ok! Enough of my marketing 😛

Let’s see “The Thirteen”!

1. Developing Frontend using React, Redux, Typescript & Node

What you will learn:

React, redux, node and typescript for writing frontend code
Making a responsive UI

Tech Stack Used

Use React for rendering
Redux for storing the Todos and managing a store to store data on the UI
Typescript for strict typing (optional)
Node for server side rendering (will help in SEO as well)

What you should do:

Make the classic Todo application in Frontend using React, Redux, Node & Typescript.
Follow this starter kit https://github.com/kriasoft/react-starter-kit or find a starter kit that supports typescript as well
Make a User Interface that looks something like this:

React Todo App

The app should be able to

Add todos
List added todos
Use a background image and a small logo in the app
Search from the added todos using the search bar
Fit in all sizes (make it responsive)

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used React, Redux, Typescript and Node to make intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

2. Front-end performance

What you will learn

LCP, TBT, TTI, SI and other Lighthouse v6 scoring parameters and how a browser renders a webpage
Content delivery network and Static storage for Frontend applications
Browser caching
Optimizing images (using webp for chrome)
Minimizing your javascript using code splitting and chunking via Webpack

Tech Stack Used

AWS Cloudfront (CDN) for serving assets (JS, CSS, Images)
Browser caching with Cache-control headers (to cache assets on the browser only)
AWS simple storage service (S3) for storing assets (JS, CSS, Images)
Webpack, it’s various plugins and loaders

What you should do

Google page speed
insights now runs on
Lighthouse V6:

Lighthousev6 scoring calculator

According to the updated calculator, you should:

First host your Todo application developed above on some environment
Then calculate your website score and see the recommendations given by page speed insights
Work on above scoring matrix and recommendations given by page speed insights to improve your score.

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used AWS Cloudfront and S3 for optimizing Frontend performance for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

3. Develop backend using Node, Sequelize and Postgresdb (Use Redis as cache)

What you will learn

Node and Express to make APIs
Middlewares
Models (to make database table schema)
Controllers
Postman tool
Curl request

Tech Stack Used

Node
Express
Sequelize
Postgres
Postman
Curl
CORs

What you should do

Clone the following repo https://github.com/sahat/hackathon-starter
Install sequelize and connect to Postgres instance
Make GET API to get todos
Make POST API to add new todos
Make GET API for todos search basis query parameters
Store Todos in Redis Cache and add Cache eviction policy
Use Postman to hit the APIs and request data from them
Use Curl to do the above thing again
Integrate the APIs with React frontend that you did in the first step (you might get CORs issues), we will solve it via our next step.

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Node Express to make backend microservice for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

4. Setting up nginx & integrate with other services

What you will learn

Setting up Nginx and its configuration (nginx.conf)
Setup domain routing in /etc/hosts
Integrate Frontend to Backend and the database
Routing via Nginx

Tech Stack Used

Nginx
Resolving the CORs issue

Sample nginx routing via nginx.conf

What you should do

Get rid of the CORs error from the last step while integrating frontend with backend
Setup nginx and make nginx.conf file in your machine
Setup routing for frontend and backend services
Frontend and backend should now be on the same domain but different locations
First slash (/) call should go to nginx and it should decide where to route (Frontend or backend)
Once nginx is integrated, complete your API setup
Your Todos should now be directly coming from the postgresdb via APIs to the Frontend and rendered via React

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Nginx to do routing of Frontend, Backend and other micro-services for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

5. Dockerize your application: frontend, nginx, backend, postgres and redis

Now your application is running on local. Time to bundle it so it can be shipped

What you will learn

Docker and Yaml syntax
Making an image for all 4 services for your Todo application
Running all four images as containers on your local to run the application

Tech Stack Used

Docker
Images & Containers
Networking, container port and host port

Sample docker compose file

What you should do

Use Docker to containerise your Frontend application for consistent behaviour across environments
Use Docker to containerise Nginx
Use Docker to containerise Redis
Use Docker to containerise your backend application
Use Docker to containerise Postgres
For the above three make docker-compose.yml and make images for nginx, frontend, backend and postgresdb

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Docker to package intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

6. Jenkins CI/CD in groovy

Now we are done with packaging our Todo application as well, let us now make a
CI/CD pipeline to deploy our project to AWS.

What you will learn

Jenkins CI/CD
Setting up AWS EC2 instances and Security Groups
Deploying docker containers on AWS

Tech Stack Used

Jenkins
AWS EC2
Security Groups in AWS
Groovy to make a pipeline in Jenkins
Deploying Docker containers on AWS EC2 instances to run your application

Jenkins pipelines

What you should do

This one is a little tricky but do not give up and get it done!

Signup to AWS (Amazon web services)
Make an EC2 instance (take a micro instance which comes as free on AWS sign-up).You will have to increase the instance size going ahead, as images and parallel CI/CD pipelines will not fit in micro sized instance
Install Jenkins on it
After Jenkins is setup, expose it to an IP via Security groups
Login to Jenkins and make 4 pipelines (Frontend, backend, nginx, postgres)
Pipelines should clone the project, build it, dockerize it and deploy it on AWS instances (For this setup, you will have to deploy more machines to deploy your docker containers)

We will later comeback and integrate Kubernetes with it to make our deployment
more seamless

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Jenkins CI/CD and Kubernetes to automate deployments for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

7. Kubernetes on AWS

Let us bring in Kubernetes and understand pods, services and deployments and how
docker images can be used for deployments here.

What you will learn

Kubernetes on AWS to make a cluster (master is managed by AWS K8s services only. Hence it comes at a cost)
Pods
Services
Deployments
Cluster

Tech Stack Used

Kubernetes
eksctl to deploy a cluster
kubectl to make a service and do deployments

What you should do

Make a cluster on Kubernetes & use eksctl to bring that up
Your cluster will add some AWS instances on the go (and it comes at a cost). Please verify the same before proceeding with it
Make kubernetes_frontend, kubernetes_backend, kubernetes_redis, kubernetes_postgres yml files
Update nginx and other environment variables to point to Kubernetes deployment names which are much more reliable and you will not have to point to IPs or do a Route53 entry for each service.
Update your CI/CD to run kubectl and deploy images for the above pods

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Jenkins CI/CD and Kubernetes to automate deployments for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

8. Setting up cloudfront with S3

What you will learn

AWS Cloudfront to be used as CDN
AWS S3 to be used as storage for assets
aws-cli or Webpack plugin to upload assets to S3

Tech Stack Used

AWS Cloudfront
AWS S3
AWS CLI
Webpack Plugin to upload assets to S3
Browser Caching headers

What you should do

Setup S3 and integrate aws-cli in your Jenkins CI/CD to upload the build folder to S3. Alternatively use Webpack plugin to upload assets to S3
Setup CDN (AWS Cloudfront) to pick data from S3
Pass cache-control headers for efficient browser caching of assets

Your final pipeline will then look like this.

The “install dependencies and make build” step will make build and also upload
it to S3 when the above instructions are followed

CI/CD pipeline for Jenkins

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I used Jenkins CI/CD and Kubernetes to automate deployments for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

9. Route53 on AWS

What you will learn

Your Todo Application will now open on a domain, fetch assets from CDN and hit backend via nginx to get data from postgres

Tech Stack Used

Route53
Domain and Hosting

What you should do

Buy a domain from AWS or any other domain provider
Install SSL for that domain using certbot (in your nginx service in kubernetes)
Setup nameservers for that domain in your Route53
Configure Route53 on AWS to add CNAME (this will be nginx service)

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I setup Route53 for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

10. Integrating Sentry for end-to-end frontend monitoring

Sentry is used to track run-time performance and
tracking if your users encounter Javascript errors. He can open your application
in different browsers/devices and may encounter errors that you might not have
encountered.

What you will learn

Logging of runtime javascript error and debugging it

Tech Stack Used

Sentry SDK integration
End to End runtime performance monitoring

What you should do

Integrate Sentry SDK in your React frontend
Throw an exception and see if it gets recorded in the sentry dashboard

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I sentry for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

11. Integrating centralized logging with Kibana, fluentd & Kubernetes on AWS

What you will learn

Bunyan and morgan logging in node
Fluentd with Kubernetes to setup centralized logging
Kibana to view logs and trends

Tech Stack Used

Bunyan
Morgan
Fluentd
Kibana

Kibana logging dashboard

What you should do

Use bunyan and morgan to do logging in Node Server, Node Express Backend
Use fluentd to setup centralized logging
Use Kibana to view the logs
Setup alerts in Kibana for any errors in backend services

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I setup logging with Kibana for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

12. GTM/GA integration to closely monitor how customers are using your

application

What you will learn

GTM to manage events and see how your customers are using your application and where they are clicking
GA dashboard to view trends

Tech Stack Used

Google tag manager
Google analytics

What you should do

Integrate google tag manager and make a container inside it
Use the GTM script with that container id in your frontend code
Integrate basic Page view events recommended by GTM
Integrate GA with GTM

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

How I setup GA/GTM with Kibana for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

13. Focused emailing with mixmax and mass emailing with sendy

What you will learn

Sendy for sending out newsletters
Newsletter management
AWS Simple Email Service

Tech Stack Used

Sendy
Newsletter management
AWS Simple email service

What you should do

Make an EC2 instance and setup sendy on it (This will come at a one-time payment)
Active AWS Simple Email Service
Setup Sendy with AWS SES to send newletters to your subscribers
Setup mixmax with your gmail account (A particular plan of mixmax allows you to schedule follow-ups)

Upcoming post (coming soon) ⌛:

Setting up newsletter service and automated follow-ups for intervue.io

Till then learn the basics & follow me for more updates!

Conclusion 🤓

In this article I have discussed 13 things that you should know, each focusing
on a different aspect of product development. Now the choice is all yours:

Do you want to focus on something you already know and go a little bit here and
there to get your product out in the market?

Or, do you want to strengthen your skills by doing a project for a technology
you already have some knowledge in?

Or, will you rely on your favourite framework/library and do all the projects in
2020 with it?

Feel free to leave a comment and don’t forget to follow me for more upcoming
posts!

⭐️ Why you should follow me? ⭐️

rahoolbenji — Thu, 14 May 2020 13:16:37 +0000

An introduction about me, things I have already contributed in my medium stories & otherwise, my upcoming blogs & some fun facts

I am a Tech enthusiast/Entrepreneur/Co-founder at intervue.io

Hello folks!
I am Rahool Benji, Co-founder of intervue.io
It’s an easier way to take tech interviews as it comes with built-in collaborative code editor and integrated audio/video calling.

It looks something like this:

Okay! Enough of my startup marketing :P

✍ What brings me to dev.to?

I am here to contribute & share my learning (technical/non-technical) while developing this SaaS based startup intevue.io

For those of you who do not know what SaaS stands for, it’s basically Software as a service.

You will eventually get to know more about it, once you read the whole blog series (current/upcoming).

Also, I am here to find out people, who would find the product useful, spread out the word, because well, who doesn’t want customers?

Here’s what my technical skill-set looks like!

I can develop softwares using:

Javascript, React, Angular
Node
Golang
Python
AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Groovy

Now the most important part

My blog series (current & upcoming)

The blogs are my personal experiences and are very practical. I am writing this because, when I was going through this phase of developing intervue.io, I did not find any content of this sort. I thought, something like this should exist!!!!

If the blog below is already live, it will be clickable and you can go ahead and read it :D

If it’s not clickable, stay tuned! It will be coming up soon!
I blog about each & every considerable experience of mine! Otherwise I am busy building my startup.

Well! Blogging is also a part of it :D

So, here is the list…

For entrepreneurs (10 parts)

Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 1 (Validate your idea)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 2 (Know your customer)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 3 (Launch MVP and get initial sign-ups)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 4 (Get at-least 1 person to pay you)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 5 (MVP to a product)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 6 (Make it scalable)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 7 (Go mad with marketing)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 8 (Blend in with your schedule)
Selling your startup to first 10 customers — Part 9 (Make it a habit)

For entrepreneurs/engineers (13 parts)

13 things you should know if you are a software developer & entrepreneur in 2020 (contains all the blogs below)
Developing Frontend using React, Redux, Typescript & Node
Frontend performance
Setting up nginx & integrating with other services
Dockerize your application: frontend, nginx, backend, postgres, redis :D Jenkins CI/CD in groovy
Setting up cloudfront with S3
Kubernetes on AWS
Route53 on AWS
Integrating Sentry for end-to-end frontend monitoring
Integrating centralized logging with Kibana, fluentd & Kubernetes on AWS
GTM/GA integration to closely monitor how customers are using your application
Sendgrid integration for Emailing (Mass Emailing & otherwise)

For Engineers/Designers/Entrepreneurs (5 parts)

Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part1 (Ideation, features)
Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part2 (Take Inspiration from already built products that are similar)
Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part3 (Design language and make it reflect everywhere)
Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part4 (Basic elements)
Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part5 (Product journey)
Designing your product yourself as a developer/entrepreneur — Part6 (Design it to complete it)

Misc Blogs for mixed audiences (11 parts)

10 tips for rapid MVP development for startups
Design feature/landing page for your product
Email etiquettes when communicating with potential clients
Building brand awareness for your SaaS based product
Do better SEO
Interviewing a Javascript professional having 1–5 years of experience
10 things you should do to crack your next Javascript interview
5 things to know for cracking your Senior software engineer interview in tech giants
Top 10 integrations that can be used in your tech product
My experience of publishing my product on product hunt
How to keep yourself motivated while developing your startup

This is literally me!
I will be adding more to the list.
For now I will leave you with this note and I will keep updating this space, as I write more!

My social media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rahoolbenji
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rahoolbenji/
Medium: https://medium.com/@rahoolbenji
Dev.to: https://dev.to/rahoolbenji
Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Rahool-Benji
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/rahoolbenji

Stay tuned!