Baxter
A financial literacy platform built during the NSE Financial Literacy Hackathon. I led backend development — specifically the registration and login system — delivering secure, production-ready auth under full hackathon time pressure.
The Problem
Building secure authentication in a hackathon environment means making fast, high-quality engineering decisions without the luxury of iteration. The system needed proper password hashing, session management, and input validation — not a rushed implementation that would fall apart under scrutiny. Doing that well while the clock is running and a team is depending on your output is a real test of fundamentals.
The Solution
// what I learned
Hackathons compress the entire software development lifecycle into hours. The engineers who perform well are the ones with strong fundamentals — not the ones who know the most tricks. I learned to prioritize ruthlessly, communicate clearly with teammates under pressure, and resist the urge to over-engineer when shipping fast is the goal. It also validated that solid auth is always worth doing right, regardless of timeline.
