StudentSenior

When I entered college, I struggled with things that almost every student faces but no one really solves properly — finding PYQs, joining the right student groups, getting reliable guidance, and connecting with seniors who had already figured things out. That frustration sparked an idea. At the start of my 3rd year, I decided to build StudentSenior — not just as a project, but as a solution I personally needed. I initially built it using React.js, focusing on core functionality. As the platform grew, I realized that discoverability was crucial, so I migrated the entire frontend to Next.js to take advantage of SEO and server-side rendering. On the backend side, the project evolved just as much: Started with JavaScript Migrated to TypeScript for scalability, safety, and long-term maintainability Deployed first on Vercel Then moved to AWS And currently running on Google Cloud for better infrastructure control For media handling: Initially used Cloudinary for PDFs and images Later migrated to AWS S3 + CloudFront for better performance, cost efficiency, and scalability Over time, StudentSenior expanded far beyond its original scope. Today, it includes: Course-based projects Blog systems Certificate-based content Academic calendars and structured student resources This project became my biggest learning experience. The hardest parts weren't features — they were migrations: React → Next.js JavaScript → TypeScript Those transitions taught me how real-world systems evolve and how to refactor, scale, and improve production code without breaking users. And then I took it one step further — I built and published a React Native (Expo) mobile app for StudentSenior on the Play Store. It crossed 500+ downloads and gave me hands-on experience shipping a production mobile app: handling native builds, app store submissions, push notifications, and mobile-specific UX considerations. StudentSenior isn't just a project I built — it's the ecosystem where I learned how to think like an engineer.