The first week of my #100DaysOfCode challenge has been an exciting whirlwind of coding, learning, and working on meaningful projects. Alongside diving into core concepts, I’ve been participating in a hackathon and working on a personal project that I’m really passionate about. Here’s a recap of my week.

A little digress. Before diving into this transformative coding adventure, I knew that success wouldn't come from spontaneity alone. My approach was deliberate, methodical, and rooted in careful preparation. Understanding that #100DaysOfCode is more than just a hashtag; it's a commitment to personal growth and continuous learning. I took the time to lay a solid foundation.

My preparation began with introspection. I asked myself critical questions:

• What are my coding goals?
• Where do I want to be at the end of these 100 days?
• What skills do I want to master?

This wasn't just a casual challenge; it was a roadmap to my future as a developer.

The internet became my ally in this preparation. I spent considerable time researching, reading articles, and gathering insights from developers who had successfully completed the #100DaysOfCode challenge. One particular article stood out to me; it broke down how to effectively participate in #100DaysOfCode, offering a structured approach to maximize learning and productivity. It emphasized the importance of setting daily intentions, staying consistent, and documenting progress, which has since become my guiding framework for this adventure. Armed with this knowledge and a solid plan, I felt confident and excited to start this journey with purpose and clarity.

You can checkout the resource here

Let's now dive into my week 1 highlights

Hackathon Highlights: SocialFi Rewards

This week, I’ve been actively contributing to a Hackathon, and our project is called

SocialFi Rewards
The platform connects businesses, brands, and service providers with individuals to facilitate social media engagement tasks in exchange for financial rewards.

My Role: Backend Development

As the backend developer for the project, my focus has been on:

• I developed APIs to handle core functionalities such as user registration, task creation, and reward distribution.
• I set up and optimized our database to efficiently store user profiles, task details, and financial transactions.
• Implemented secure authentication mechanisms (e.g., JWTs) to ensure data privacy and user trust.

Challenges

• Balancing the Hackathon deadlines with other commitments has been a challenge (time constraint)
• Ensuring that our API can handle simultaneous requests efficiently was tricky but rewarding. A lot of debugging but I am enjoying every bit of it

What I have learned so far in week 1

This experience has taught me the importance of collaboration and how to quickly adapt to new tools and frameworks in a high-pressure environment. It’s been an incredible opportunity to grow both technically and personally.

Personal Project highlights: Secure Vault

Outside the Hackathon, I’ve also started working on a personal project: Secure Vault. It’s a platform where users can upload and store personal documents securely, with encryption to ensure privacy and protection.

Key Features

• File Upload and Encryption: Users can upload documents, which are encrypted before being stored in the database.
• User Authentication: Implemented secure login and registration features to safeguard access.
• Privacy Controls: Users have full control over who can view or download their documents.

Challenges

• Working with encryption algorithms to ensure files are both secure and accessible took time to get right.
• Planning the architecture to support large file uploads without compromising performance.

Progress So Far

I’ve set up the core backend structure using [Node.js, etc.] and started working on the encryption pipeline. Next week, I’ll focus on building the user interface and integrating the frontend with the backend

What I Learned This Week

This week has been a mix of new learning and applying skills in real-world scenarios:

1. Improved my skills in designing scalable and efficient APIs.
2. Getting an understanding of file encryption and secure storage methods.
3. Working with a team during the Hackathon reinforced the value of communication and teamwork.

Feel free to connect with me