whoami

નમસ્તે.

I'm Nikhar Savaliya, a software engineer from Gujarat, India. I was born in the small, beautiful town of Amreli and grew up in Surat, where I completed my Bachelor's in Computer Science.

What is this website

Right now, I'm brushing up on core CS fundamentals and diving deeper into topics like Linux and Cloud. I would document everything in hours-long blogs, one blog per topic. Each blog contains all the knowledge I have or add along the way.

My coding journey

Just before the beginning of my degree program, I started learning the C Language. It was really just the excitement of learning my first programming language. Since C was part of the curriculum, I thought, 'Why not start there?' I didn't really know what programming was at the time. I recall watching tutorials online, installing VS Code, and adding the Code Runner extension, all so I could run my first C program. Back then, I had no idea about shells, compilers, or how computers actually executed code - all I knew was the syntax of an old language and a single button that made it run.

At this point, I figured out what really kept me hooked - problem solving. I started solving challenges on CodeChef and CodeForces and joined weekly competitions. After a while, I discovered a whole new side of programming. Everything I knew before suddenly felt kind of useless or at least that's what I thought back then. I started learning JavaScript, then React.js, and eventually the full stack. Those were curious times. I had to go deep into technologies I never would have touched if I only stuck to DSA problems.

I built small CRUD projects and started filling up my github and slowly shaping my profile. I didn't really get the point of contributing to something I'd probably never use. But later, I ended up contributing to a small project whose Icons API I was using - I needed an icon that wasn't there, so I just added it.

Not long after, I discovered Vim - courtesy of The Primeagen. Vim on WSL is sh*t so I switched to Linux full-time, did a couple of live streams where I wrote bash scripts to automate parts of my blog workflow, and honestly - it was just pure fun.

I started with a couple of internships. The first was a one-month remote program with 10 interns. We learned React.js, Express.js, and MongoDB CRUD for three weeks. Then we had one week to build a project. I made a simple online book archive. You could upload books and see them in a library. My mentor liked the idea. Maybe it was because I used cloud storage, at that level, I don't think he expected any of us to have any idea 'bout cloud storage.

In January 2025, I started full-time as an intern, working on internal software. At first, everything was exciting. After a while, writing simple CRUD got repetitive. I switched to another internship with more learning opportunities. In just three months, I learned more than I had in four years of college.