Choose your portfolio projects
Build a focused portfolio, then choose from detailed backend and systems project briefs.
This page helps you choose work you can finish, explain, and show. The plan gives you three existing builds and one optional tool. The new SDE-2 project briefs are a menu for later, not extra deadlines.
A focused portfolio
Use Ledgerline as the main backend project. Add either Logsmith or one project from the SDE-2 project menu if you want a second systems example. Use Shiplane to show deployment and operations. Keep Faultline optional, because its failure tests overlap with Ledgerline.
You do not need to build every project on this page. Two finished systems with clear design notes, tests, demos, and measured results are enough to start applying. Add another project only when it fills a gap in the roles you are targeting.
Ledgerline: payments ledger
Show transaction safety, idempotency, reconciliation, and careful testing.
Logsmith: append-only event log
Show disk I/O, crash recovery, consumer offsets, and delivery trade-offs.
Shiplane: deployment and operations
Show CI, deployment, health checks, rollback, and a service runbook.
Faultline: optional fault testing
Add repeatable failure tests after the core systems work is complete.
SDE-2 project options
Compare queues, shorteners, caches, search, workflows, and other detailed systems briefs.
What to publish
For each finished project, give a reviewer a clear path from setup to evidence:
- A short description of the problem and the feature set you actually built
- One command to run the project and one demo path
- A diagram that matches the current implementation
- Tests for normal behavior and important failure cases
- Measured results with hardware, workload, and limits
- One design note explaining a trade-off and what you would change next
Do not write performance, uptime, incident, or scale claims before you measure them. Keep planned work separate from completed work.
Project selection rule
Choose one project idea only after you review current job descriptions. Prefer a project that demonstrates a skill your finished work does not already show. Put a time limit on the first version, then stop adding features when the demo and design discussion are strong.
Choose depth over project count
The project menu contains options, not a checklist. Pick one project at a time and finish its tests, demo, and design write-up before starting another.