Debashish NayakBuilding clean & accessible experiences. Excited for what’s next!

👋 Hi there! I'm a Frontend Engineer with 6 years of experience crafting accessible, scalable, and user-focused web solutions. Known for a meticulous approach, strong collaboration, and a keen eye for detail in both design and architecture. My journey began with web development projects during my time at IIT Roorkee, evolving into a full-fledged passion and career. Now returning with renewed focus and adaptability after a personal hiatus.

When I reflect on my path in software development, it feels like yesterday when I was trying to figure out what a DOM was. My journey officially began at HackerRank, where I've had the privilege of growing from an intern to a Senior Software Engineer.

The Beginning: Intern Days (Jun - Aug 2018)

Fresh out of college with a Metallurgical Engineering degree (yes, you read that right), I stepped into HackerRank as an intern. With more enthusiasm than experience, I was handed their internal UIKit to revitalize. I still remember the mix of excitement and terror when I realized I would be working on components used by other developers.

During these three months, I built my first Toast notification component and created a React wrapper for CKEditor - not earth-shattering work, but it was my work. I also got my first taste of developer tooling by setting up linting configurations that would later become standards across the organization. Looking back, what seemed like simple tasks laid the foundation for what would become core strengths in my career.

Oh, and I once built an entire intern website overnight because our CTO Hari bet I couldn't do it. Spoiler: I did. ✌️

Finding My Footing: SDE-I (Aug 2018 - Jun 2020)

As a full-time engineer, I was thrown into the deep end with the migration of HackerRank's Screen product from Backbone.js to React. This was my first experience with a large-scale migration, and it taught me more about application architecture than any course ever could.

During this time, I developed a passion for theming and dark mode implementation. What started as "Hey, can you look into adding a dark theme?" turned into leading organization-wide initiatives on standardizing our component library and ensuring theme consistency across products.

One of my proudest achievements during this period was convincing the team to move away from jQuery. I remember making a presentation with far too many animated slides showcasing vanilla JavaScript alternatives. It wasn't just about following trends - it was about building a more maintainable codebase that would scale with our needs.

Growing Responsibilities: SDE-II (Jul 2020 - Dec 2021)

As I moved into a more senior role, the pandemic hit, and our priorities shifted. Remote work became the norm, and our platform needed to adapt to support remote hiring processes. This led to my work on proctoring solutions and improving communication between components in our platform.

This was also when I first dove deep into accessibility. What started as a compliance requirement became a personal mission. I led the effort to make HackerRank Screen accessible according to WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards - a journey that transformed how I view software development. Working with Deque Systems on our first accessibility audit opened my eyes to the importance of inclusive design.

The transition from polling architecture to WebSockets for our long-running tasks was another highlight - seeing real-time updates flow in smoothly during high-stress testing scenarios was immensely satisfying.

Leading and Mentoring: Senior Engineer (Jan 2022 - Apr 2024)

My final role at HackerRank allowed me to focus on three areas I'm passionate about: accessibility, developer experience, and mentorship.

I led accessibility improvements for over 6,200 problem descriptions, fixing issues in content that had been generated through WYSIWYG editors. This meant creating systems to identify, categorize, and fix problems at scale - work that directly impacted thousands of candidates using our platform.

Customizing VSCode for our platform needs and standardizing iframe communication using Penpal allowed me to improve the developer experience both internally and for candidates using our platform.

Perhaps most rewarding was mentoring younger engineers. Seeing them grow from struggling with basic React concepts to confidently shipping features gave me a sense of purpose beyond my own contributions.

Rather than just listing responsibilities, I want to highlight specific projects that represent my approach to problem-solving and the impact of my work.

Accessibility Champion

Making the Web Work for Everyone

Accessibility wasn't originally my area of expertise - it became one out of necessity and grew into a passion. My work in this area spans:

• Screen Reader Compatibility: Revamping our entire application to work seamlessly with screen readers, including complex components like code editors and timed assessments.
• Keyboard Navigation: Implementing intuitive keyboard shortcuts and focus management across applications.
• Content Remediation: Creating automated tools to fix accessibility issues in over 2,200 problem descriptions, focusing on table structures, image alt text, and proper heading hierarchies.
• Building for 400% Zoom: Redesigning layouts to support users who need high magnification, ensuring functionality remained accessible at all zoom levels.

The most rewarding moment was watching a Deque Systems accessibility tester navigate our platform at incredible speed using only a screen reader. It drove home that accessibility isn't about compliance - it's about people.

Read more about the journey with a11y

Developer Tooling Craftsman

Smoothing the Development Experience

I've always believed that good developer tools make for better products. My work in this area includes:

• VSCode Customization: Adapting the open-source VSCode editor to fit HackerRank's needs, from visual themes to specialized plugins for testing code.
• Cross-Frame Communication: Standardizing messaging between iframes using Penpal, solving complex communication problems between our main application and embedded editors.
• Testing Infrastructure: Migrating our test suite from Karma to Jest, reducing test run times and improving reliability.
• Error Tracking: Implementing specialized instrumentation to collect performance metrics and error logs from embedded IDEs, giving us insights into candidate experience issues.

UI Systems Architect

Building Foundations for Consistent Experiences

Creating cohesive UI systems has been a thread throughout my career:

• Dark Mode Implementation: Leading the effort to add dark theme support across our products, starting from basic component theming to a complete system supporting user preferences.
• Component Library Evolution: Revitalizing HackerRank's internal UIKit with modern design components and creating interactive playgrounds for documentation.
• Design System Integration: Working closely with designers to implement consistent patterns across applications while maintaining flexibility for different contexts.

Platform & Performance improvements

Making Things Fast When It Matters Most

Performance optimization became crucial as our platform scaled to handle high-stakes testing scenarios:

• WebSocket Migration: Transitioning from polling to WebSockets for real-time updates during test execution, reducing latency and server load during peak usage.
• Responsive Design for All Devices: Implementing adaptive layouts that work across devices and accessibility settings without sacrificing functionality.

Mentor and Collaborator

Growing Together

Some of my most meaningful work hasn't been about code at all:

• Engineering Mentorship: Guiding junior engineers from onboarding through to owning significant features, providing technical guidance and career advice.
• Hiring Process Improvements: Collaborating with content creators to develop interview questions that better reflect real-world engineering challenges.
• Cross-Team Initiatives: Leading projects that required coordination between engineering, product, and design teams, such as the integration of behavioral assessments alongside technical evaluations.

Throughout all these projects, my approach has remained consistent: focus on the user experience, build for inclusivity, optimize for maintainability, and always keep learning.

Programming Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, HTML, CSS, Sass

Frameworks & Libraries: React, Redux, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Formik

Accessibility: Implemented WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance for inclusive, accessible designs.

Performance Optimization: Improved real-time responsiveness with WebSocket migration, optimized collaboration in web IDEs, instrumented performance metrics, and enhanced UI reflow for accessibility.

IDE Customization & Embedding: Experience working with and customizing web IDEs like che-theia, JupyterLab and openvscode-server for embedded development workflows.

Testing Expertise: Strong focus on unit and snapshot testing using Jest and React Testing Library.

CI/CD Contributions: Developed pipelines for automated testing, code quality enforcement, and coverage reporting.

Professional Strengths: Detail-oriented, adaptable, and pragmatic team player who values precision, thoughtful collaboration, and continuous learning.

Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) Mentorship Student

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore · Feb 2013

In this highly competitive and esteemed scholarship examination administered during my 11th standard academic year, I earned the distinction of achieving the 317th rank among the vast pool of applicants.

HackGPT'23

Annual Hackathon at HackerRank · May 2023

Octane'22

Annual Hackathon at HackerRank · May 2022

Bachelor's Degree in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee · 2014-2018