Uses

Main machine. 11th Gen i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Still going strong.

UHD IPS panel. Makes everything look better, including my code.

Compact TKL mechanical keyboard. Red switches for long coding sessions.

IntelliJ IDEA for all Java/Spring Boot work; VS Code for frontend. Claude for AI-assisted sessions.

Easy on the eyes during long sessions. The purple hues just work.

With Cascadia Code Nerd Font. WSL2 for the Linux tools I need.

Version control with branching. Always PR-based workflow.

Build tools for Java and frontend projects. Maven for most Spring Boot work, Gradle for newer ones.

API testing and documentation. Collections make sharing integration contracts with teammates easy.

Universal DB GUI. Connects to PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Oracle without switching tools.

Primary database for most projects. Rock-solid, excellent JSON support, and the ecosystem is unbeatable.

For enterprise projects at HCLTech and Infosys. Oracle specifically for legacy ITSM platform work.

Caching layer and session management. The throughput improvement on hot data paths is dramatic.

ORM of choice for all Spring Boot projects. Pair with HikariCP for connection pooling.

Event streaming backbone for distributed systems. Confluent Cloud for fully managed deployments in production.

GUI client for Kafka. Makes inspecting topic offsets, consumer lag, and DLQs far less painful.

Clean abstraction over the Kafka client. Listener containers and error handlers reduce a lot of boilerplate.

Everything runs in containers. Makes environment parity between dev, staging, and prod a solved problem.

K8s for orchestration, Helm for packaging deployments, Lens as the GUI for navigating clusters without memorising kubectl flags.

Primary cloud provider. EKS for managed Kubernetes, S3 for object storage, CloudWatch for basic observability.

Used at HCLTech for deploying ITSM services. Cloud Build for CI/CD pipelines. Solid developer experience.

Infrastructure as code for AWS and GCP. Reproducible environments and no more manual console clicks.

Pipeline tooling depending on the client. GitHub Actions for personal projects; Jenkins and GitLab for enterprise.

Primary APM tool. Traces slow queries and surfaces performance regressions before users report them.

Elasticsearch + Logstash + Kibana for centralised logging across distributed services. Saved hours of log-grepping.

Log aggregation and alerting in enterprise environments. Powerful query language once you get past the syntax.

For all UI design and prototyping. The collaborative features are excellent.

For architecture diagrams and quick sketches. The hand-drawn aesthetic helps in client presentations.

Notes, projects, and knowledge management. My second brain.

Issue tracking for enterprise delivery at Infosys. Not glamorous, but it keeps large teams aligned.

Client communication and team channels at Infosys.

Quick client communication. Not ideal but it's where clients are.

Default hosting for all Next.js projects. Zero-config deployments are genuinely magic.

Postgres + auth + storage for SaaS projects. Great DX and generous free tier.

Transactional email. Much better developer experience than SendGrid.

CI/CD pipelines for all projects. Familiar and free for public repos.

DNS, CDN, and Workers for edge functions when needed.

Following structured courses step by step — building a strong foundation in Full‑Stack development with consistency and discipline.

Reading weekly system design breakdowns with curiosity. I pause, reflect, and connect concepts to real projects. Gaurav Sen’s channel adds practical depth.

Currently reading with a beginner’s mindset. Even though I wish I had read it earlier, I’m applying its timeless lessons to sharpen my craft today.

Actively coding small apps and experimenting with React, Next.js, and Spring Boot — learning by doing, not just watching.

Engaging with developer communities, asking questions, and sharing progress — because collaboration accelerates learning.