Vishakha Singhal

Vishakha SinghalSep 28, 2026

A friend of mine once won ₹2 lakh from a hackathon. He wasn't sitting in college anymore. He was working a full-time job. That made me realise something I had completely forgotten after starting my career: You don't have to stop building just because you have a 9–6. In fact, some of the best projects can come from the problems you notice at work every single day. And you don't necessarily need to quit your job, take a week off, or have a huge team. You can build after work. You can participate solo. You can even find 2–3 colleagues and build together. I recently came across the SerpApi India Hackathon 2026 and thought this could be a good excuse for working professionals who have been postponing that side project. It's fully online and free. → ₹3 lakh+ in total prizes → ₹1 lakh cash for the first prize → Open to working professionals 18+ → Solo or teams of up to 5 → Build using any API available on SerpApi → 1,000 SerpApi credits for every valid submission → No credit card required → Deadline: October 10 If you've had an idea sitting in your notes app for months, maybe it's time to actually build it. Details and registration: https://lnkd.in/gHTrJugM What would you build if you had to turn one of your work problems into a project?

Vishakha SinghalSep 28, 2026

I usually don’t need a reason to buy things for my sister. But somehow, when it comes to buying something for myself, I start doing mental calculations. This time, I was casually checking offers and came across a Dot & Key moisturizer. And immediately thought of my sister. So I bought it for her. Just a simple “I saw this and thought of you” kind of gift. 🫶🏻 I think we sometimes wait for a reason to gift someone something nice. But honestly, the best gifts can be completely random. And this one got even better because I found a 30% discount voucher on Dot & Key on magicpin. A little skincare and a little surprise is a pretty good combination. Now this is her reaction (You can see images) 🥹 And yes, I’ll probably still pretend I had planned the whole thing.

Vishakha SinghalSep 28, 2026

Amazon, Uber & Swiggy engineers are not “smarter” at System Design...👀 . . They just know WHAT to study. Most students waste months watching random videos…but interviews only revolve around a few core concepts. So if I had ONLY 30 days to prepare System Design for interviews…this is the exact roadmap I’d follow: Save this. It’ll help before placements. 👉 WEEK 1 → BUILD THE FOUNDATION Learn these concepts first: • Client-Server Architecture • Latency vs Throughput • Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling • Load Balancers • CAP Theorem • DNS + CDN basics • Monolith vs Microservices Goal: Understand HOW apps like Instagram & Netflix actually work. 👉 WEEK 2 → DATABASES + CACHING This is the heart of System Design. Learn: • SQL vs NoSQL • Indexing • Sharding • Replication • Redis caching • Cache eviction • Rate Limiting Practice: • Design URL Shortener • Design Instagram Feed • Design E-commerce Cart 👉 WEEK 3 → SCALABLE SYSTEMS Now move to real-world architectures. Learn: • Kafka basics • Pub/Sub systems • Async processing • API Gateway • Message Queues • Event-driven architecture Practice: • Design WhatsApp • Design Notification System • Design Food Delivery Tracking 👉 WEEK 4 → INTERVIEW PREPARATION Every single day: • Solve 1 System Design question • Speak your approach loudly • Explain tradeoffs • Think about bottlenecks • Revise architecture patterns Must-do questions: ✓ Design Uber ✓ Design Netflix ✓ Design Twitter/X ✓ Design YouTube 👉 BEST FREE RESOURCES • System Design Primer (GitHub) • ByteByteGo • Gaurav Sen • Hussein Nasser • High Scalability Blog Most people make System Design look complicated. In reality… if your fundamentals are strong, you can crack most interviews with just: Databases + Caching + Scaling concepts. Follow Vishakha Singhal for more. Save this before placement season starts. 🚀