Why I Built dsa-hub: Solving My Own Problem

Every great project starts with a personal frustration. For me, dsa-hub wasn't just another resume filler; it was a tool I desperately needed.

As I was grinding LeetCode with my friends, we faced a simple but annoying problem: Peer programming was painful. We were juggling Zoom screen shares, Discord snippets, and delayed feedback loops. I wanted something that felt like sitting next to each other, even when we were miles apart.

The Problem: Friction

Practice needs to be frictionless. If setup takes 10 minutes, you're already drained before you solve the first Two Sum.

The Tech: Real-Time is Hard

Building a collaborative editor sounds simple until you hear the acronym CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types). Ensuring that User A's typing doesn't overwrite User B's deletions is a complex distributed systems problem.

I chose Socket.io for the real-time transport because of its reliability and room-based features.

javascript

// A simplified look at the server-side logic
io.on("connection", (socket) => {
    socket.on("join-room", (roomId, userId) => {
        socket.join(roomId);
        socket.to(roomId).emit("user-connected", userId);
    });
 
    socket.on("code-change", (delta) => {
        // Broadcasting changes to everyone else in the room
        socket.broadcast.to(roomId).emit("code-update", delta);
    });
});

The Outcome

After weeks of debugging race conditions and maximizing server uptime on a free tier, we finally shipped.

• Zero Friction: No login required to start a room.
• Integrated Video: Built with WebRTC.
• Outcome: My friends and I successfully used it for our placement prep.

Building dsa-hub taught me that the best products don't always need AI or blockchain. Sometimes, they just need to solve a boring problem really, really well.