𝗠𝘆 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗛𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘

𝗠𝘆 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗛𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘

I worked as a Laravel developer for two years. I felt stuck. I realized I knew the framework but not actual programming.

To fix this, I started learning JavaScript from scratch. I joined the HNG Internship to find a real challenge.

HNG is a remote, intensive program. It gives you real engineering tasks and tight deadlines. There is no hand-holding. It is a sink or swim environment. It forces you to show how you think when things break.

I want to share two specific tasks from my time there.

𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝟭: 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 (𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹)

I used Node.js and raw SQL with better-sqlite3. I built a system to handle job retries.

The problem: I hit a race condition. Two instances would read the same pending job at the same time. This caused duplicate work.

The fix: I used SQLite transactions. I made the status check and the update a single atomic operation. I used the synchronous nature of the library to make the locking reliable.

What I learned: • Concurrency bugs are hard to debug. They do not happen every time. • You must understand your tools deeply. The library feature I thought was a limitation was actually the solution. • Clean code does not prevent state corruption under load.

𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝟮: 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺)

I handled the backend for a candidate assessment feature.

The problems: • Naming mismatches: The frontend wanted snake_case, but my backend sent camelCase. We wasted time debugging undefined fields. • Mid-project changes: The product managers changed the requirements halfway through. This forced a complete redesign of the data model. • Testing struggles: I struggled with end-to-end tests. Watching my tests fail was frustrating, but fixing them taught me more than passing them.

What I learned: • Use a shared, written API contract before coding starts. • Spec changes mid-build are expensive. • Tests are not just about green checkmarks. They tell you exactly where your logic fails.

These tasks were not complex algorithms. They were difficult because they forced me to grow. I left a worse engineer than when I started, and I came out better.

HNG does not protect you from hard problems. That is why it works.

Source: https://dev.to/joyigbonekwu/behind-the-green-tests-my-honest-hng-internship-experience-3hn8