Over the past two years, I've been a laravel developer. I've been so stuck with this framework that I felt like I didn't know much about actual programming. So, a few months ago, I decided to take a bold step. I started learning Javascript from scratch, and in the process, I heard about HNG. I felt like I needed the challenge, so I joined.
The HNG Internship is a remote, intensive program that throws you into real world engineering work from day one. No holding of hands, no toy projects. You're given tasks, a deadline, and a Slack channel full of people figuring things out alongside you. It's a sink or swim structure, and that's the point. The pressure is designed to surface what you're actually made of as an engineer, and not what you know, but how you think when things break.
I want to write about two tasks from my time there. One I did individually. One I did as part of a team. Both took longer than they should have. Both broke in ways I didn't predict. And both left me better at this job than I was before I started them.
First Task: Retry Engine (Individual Task)
What it was
