Every hiring manager has seen the to-do app. These eight portfolio projects will make sure they see something else, usually the exit.
- The Infinite Loop Generator. Showcase your mastery of recursion and resource exhaustion with a program that does nothing but loop forever. Bonus points for a progress bar that never reaches 100%.
- The Self-Destructing Website. Show off your web development skills and your commitment to self-sabotage. The site features a countdown timer that, on reaching zero, erases all content and replaces it with a cryptic error message.
- The Random Number Guesser That Always Guesses Wrong. Demonstrate your grasp of probability with a program that fails to guess a randomly generated number, even after millions of attempts.
- The Useless API Wrapper. Prove your proficiency in API integration with a wrapper for a nonexistent or pointless API. Document every endpoint in excruciating detail, even though they all return error messages.
- The Unplayable Game. Show your game development skills with a game that is impossible to win, understand or even start. Bonus points for cryptic puzzles, unintuitive controls and a nonsensical storyline.
- The Blockchain-Powered To-Do List. Overengineer a simple task list with a blockchain backend. Adding one task should require solving a cryptographic puzzle that consumes enough energy to power a small village.
- The Twitter Bot That Tweets Gibberish. Use Markov chains or other random text generation to produce tweets so incoherent that they attract a cult following of confused users.
- The Emoji-Only Calculator. Take input and output in emoji only. Even the simplest sum should require deciphering a system of symbols and their numerical values.
Attach all eight to one résumé and you will be remembered, by someone, for something.
