Kunj Hirapara

Intern → Full-time, Feb 2025 – present

• •Cut redundant API calls from 15–16 per page to a single request on initial render by lifting shared state into React Context, reducing server load and eliminating repeat fetches across page navigations.
• •Built an admin dashboard (MySQL + Prisma ORM) for banner uploads and dynamic content management, with role-based access control governing which routes each user type can reach.
• •Implemented JWT-based session authentication with admin-controlled session revocation, allowing admins to invalidate a user's active session on demand.
• •Integrated a rich-text blog editor (Jodit React) into the Next.js application, resolving SSR hydration mismatches and keeping editor content synced to controlled form state.
• •Handled blog image lifecycle end to end: backend writes uploads to the frontend's static image directory, the editor loads them by URL for live preview, and post HTML is parsed on edit/delete to remove orphaned images and prevent storage bloat.

Commit, Real-Time Technical Interview Platform | GitHub • Live

Next.js 16, TypeScript, React, Convex, Clerk, Stream (Video SDK), Monaco Editor, Tailwind/shadcn, Docker

• •Built a full-stack interview platform with live video calls, screen sharing, and recordings (Stream SDK), paired with a synchronized in-browser Monaco code editor for real-time interviewer/candidate collaboration.
• •Implemented Clerk authentication with role-based access control across five roles (candidate, interviewer, recruiter, developer, admin), including token-based email invitations and custom permission definitions gating scheduling, feedback, and admin operations.
• •Designed a structured feedback system with weighted competency scoring, shared/private notes, and pass/reject/hold decisions, backed by an audit log and an admin dashboard for managing interviews, teams, and roles.
• •Engineered production-grade reliability on Convex: idempotent webhook processing (Svix), a retrying background-job queue with dead-lettering, in-app and email notifications (Nodemailer), and a scheduled backup sidecar running automated data exports with disaster-recovery tracking.

Natours, Full-Stack MERN Application | GitHub • Live

Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, Mongoose, JWT, Stripe, Pug, JavaScript

• •Extended a tour-booking API (Node.js, Express, MongoDB) with an original Favorite Tours feature: data model, protected routes, and UI built on top of a backend foundation course.
• •Implemented JWT authentication with role-based access control across four roles (regular user, guide, lead guide, admin), gating tour, booking, and review operations by permission.
• •Deployed live on a self-managed Linux VPS behind an Nginx reverse proxy with SSL.

E-commerce, Full-Stack PHP Shopping Platform | GitHub • Live

PHP, MySQL, JavaScript (ES6), jQuery/AJAX, Bootstrap 5, Docker, Nginx, MySQL 8

• •Built a full-stack e-commerce platform with a customer storefront and admin panel: product catalog with multi-facet filtering, cart, wishlist, product comparison, multi-step checkout with coupons, and a 30-day return workflow, backed by an AJAX API layer using PDO/MySQLi prepared statements for SQL-injection safety.
• •Hardened authentication and sessions with Argon2id/bcrypt hashing and automatic migration of legacy MD5 passwords, plus HTTP-only + SameSite=Strict cookies, idle timeout, session-ID regeneration, and User-Agent validation against hijacking.
• •Containerized into a multi-service Docker stack (php-fpm, Nginx, MySQL 8) and deployed to a self-managed Linux VPS behind Nginx Proxy Manager with TLS, exposing only ports 80/443/22 while keeping app and database on a private network.