Learning by building
A beginning, a few projects, and a place to keep track of the journey.
I’m Apollo, a self-taught developer learning backend engineering. This website is a place to document the projects I build, the questions I run into, and the ideas I want to understand more deeply.
My programming journey started with Python. Since then, I’ve explored some computer science fundamentals through CS50 and begun working with JavaScript, Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL.
Learning through real questions
Building a project gives the concepts somewhere to land. An HTTP status code becomes a decision I have to make. A database constraint becomes something my application needs to handle. A rejected promise becomes a question about where an error will end up.
Two projects featured here are a URL shortener and a GitHub Activity CLI. They are learning projects, each giving me a different set of problems to work through: persistent storage and API behaviour in one, caching and external requests in the other.
Keeping a record
I want to keep track of the reasoning behind the code, including the mistakes. Writing down why something broke, what I misunderstood, and how I worked through it gives me something useful to come back to.
Some posts here will be technical. Others may be reflections on learning or things that catch my interest. I’d like this site to have room for both.
What comes next
For now, I’m focusing on building a stronger foundation in backend engineering. Over time, I want to understand more about the systems underneath the applications I build.
This is the beginning of that record. I’ll keep adding to it as I learn.