Things I've built
DataForge
Certification prep SaaS with practice mode, timed mocks, and a gamified study loop.
- Year
- 2026
- Role
- Solo: product, design & engineering
- Status
- Live · free beta
Watch the demo
The problem
I built the first version to study for the Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer exam, which I passed. Once it worked for me, the interesting question became whether it could work for other people too, so I turned it into a product.
What I built
A React app with a static landing, sign-in through Supabase (Google, GitHub, email or magic link), progress synced across devices, and a 20-question trial that needs no account. It covers practice and block-by-block study, timed mocks weighted like the real exam, a daily challenge, and a gamification layer with XP, ranks, achievements, and boss battles.
How it's built
- A cert-agnostic engine: each certification is a folder with its manifest, domains, and question bank, so adding one doesn't touch the app.
- localStorage is the cache the app reads from. Every key is mirrored to Supabase (debounced, with row-level security per user), and unconfirmed writes are pushed on the next visit.
- Views only present and emit. State lives in hooks and a pure engine covered by Vitest, and question banks ship as lazy-loaded chunks.
- Deploys to Vercel on every push, and also runs fully local or in Docker behind nginx.
Outcomes
- Two Google Cloud certifications live (Professional Data Engineer and Professional Cloud Architect) with 600+ practice questions.
- Used for my own successful PDE exam attempt.
- Public landing, legal pages, and a trial mode that works without signing up.
What's next
More certifications, and a pipeline that generates and validates questions from official documentation, with human review of anything flagged.
Stack
- React
- Vite
- Supabase
- PostgreSQL
- Vitest
- Vercel
- Docker
Next project
X-Ray