4 Coding Projects to Build your Developer Portfolio
A developer’s job is to build. We build applications, products, and services… and then we iterate upon them. Our projects at work never stop evolving, and neither should we.
We learn a lot through the projects we take on at work — but is there also value in taking on personal projects?
The answer is YES.
As a tried-and-true way to build and practice new skills, personal projects are essential for future-proofing any developer’s career. In today's competitive job market, projects are a great way to demonstrate your abilities and stand out from the competition.
Whether you’re showcasing your new skills or interests, projects lead to tangible products you can add to your portfolio and share with other devs and future employers. Sure, you can come out of jobs, courses, or bootcamps with completed projects to show for it, but personal projects are necessary to prove you have the drive to commit, upskill and build an end-to-end development task.
Today, I'll share how you can get started with projects. Then I'll share some of my favorite Projects on the Educative platform, and how you can take advantage of them.
How to Get Started with Projects #
Getting started with projects takes just 3 steps:
Identify the skills you want to strengthen or showcase
Start browsing the web for related projects
Select a project that aligns with your goals and skill level
GitHub has plenty of open source projects that can be a great place to start. And of course, we also have Projects at Educative (nearly 200 setup-free walkthroughs, with more added every week).
That said, taking on personal projects can sometimes feel like a heavy lift. For one, setting up environments and configurations for new technologies can be time-consuming. To add to that, it can be difficult to find projects that strike a balance between providing guidance and independent learning opportunities. While too much hand-holding won't test your skills, too little guidance will leave you losing patience or time seeking help from friends or forums.
When we created Projects at Educative, we wanted to make sure they had a low barrier for entry, with plenty of opportunities for guided — but independent — learning.
That's why we built Projects with:
A development sandbox, so no additional third-party access, downloads, or configurations are needed
Walkthroughs with optional hints, so you can opt for guidance only when you need it
Access to computing resources and storage, to help enable learners with hardware constraints
Let’s talk about some specific Educative Projects that I think you will enjoy.
4 Educative Projects You Should Know About#
We add new Projects to our catalog each week, with topics ranging from popular skills like Data Science and Web Development to niche topics like Quantum Computing.
I just wanted to highlight a few of our recent releases so you can check out the value for yourself:
1. Build a Music Player Application Using Angular #
Who might like it: Web developers and music lovers
Why it’s cool: You'll leverage the Angular framework to create a user-friendly music player that gives listeners the ability to adjust playback speed, favorite tracks, as well as change, pause, and replay tracks. By implementing dependency injections, you'll make several functions, such as those handling audio events.
Level: Beginner
Completion time: ~1 hour
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of Angular, dependency injection, and Material UI
2. Integrate GraphQL to the Ruby on Rails Application#
Who might like it: Developers interested in Ruby or SaaS applications
Why it’s cool: This project will get you hands-on with both GraphQL and Ruby, along with PostgreSQL. In the end, you'll create a bill-splitting application that demonstrates your skills in web frameworks, database design, and GraphQL query writing.
Level: Intermediate
Completion time: ~1 hour
Prerequisites: Good understanding of Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and GraphQL queries and mutations
3. Exploring Geospatial Data Using Geopandas Geoplot and Contextily #
Who might like it: Developers who want to build their data skills
Why it’s cool: This Project gets you hands-on with data analysis and geospatial visualization to make several types of data visualizations. You'll work with useful technologies like GeoPandas, Geoplot, and Contextily to bring data to life in various forms — from basic plots to kernel density maps to other interactive maps.
Level: Intermediate
Completion time: ~1 hour
Prerequisites: Knowledge of Python, Matplotlib, and geospatial data
4. Build an Object Detection Web App with YOLOv8 and Streamlit #
Who might like it: Developers interested in computer vision and ML
Why it’s cool: This Project gets you hands-on with the popular object detection model YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once version 8). You'll leverage Python, the OpenCV computer vision library, and the Streamlit framework. In the end, you'll build a web app that lets you upload a video, detect objects in the video, and provide information about the objects.
Level: Intermediate
Completion time: ~2 hours
Prerequisites: Intermediate Python knowledge, and basics of object detection and image processing
If none of these options sound relevant to you, here are some other popular Projects from our growing catalog:
Try Projects for Free#
There's no better way to apply your skills while boosting your portfolio and career than building real-world projects.
At Educative, you'll find Projects available for all skill levels in both in-demand and specialized technologies. If the Projects I shared weren't useful to you, I'm sure you'll find a Project of interest in our catalog of nearly 200 Projects (with more added every single week).
Access to Projects is included in our Premium subscription. And for a limited time, you can try Educative Premium with a free trial — and access 1,000+ courses, Projects, and Personalized Paths (unique curriculum for your specific goals).
Curious to hear what you think.
As always, happy learning!
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