00Portfolio — 2026Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ChalaGobena

Software Engineer · Full-Stack Web Developer

I build full-stack web applications — from the database schema and the API, to interfaces people can actually use. Currently a software engineering student shipping real projects for real users.

View my work Let's work together

Open to freelance, internships, and software engineering rolesReact · Next.js · TypeScript · Node · FastAPI · PostgreSQL

01Selected work

Projects with a problem behind them,
not just a screenshot.

Each entry opens into a case study: the problem, the decisions, what broke, and what I'd do differently. Live links are real deployments.

SoleFlow storefront home page with a featured sneaker, price, quick-add button, and a strip of related products.

2026

01Commerce

SoleFlow Footwear Store

A sneaker storefront built around fast catalogue scanning, product detail pages, and a cart and wishlist that survive navigation.

Problem: Footwear shoppers compare several pairs at once. If moving between the listing, a product page, and the cart drops their selection or their filter, they leave.
Approach: A Next.js App Router storefront. Category is a URL search parameter, product pages are dynamic routes, and cart and wishlist live in a small global store that persists across navigation.

Next.js
React
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Vercel

Read case study

Live site Source

Jalo Hotel & Resort home page with a gold Book Now call to action, availability search, and a photo of the hotel at dusk.

2026

02Hospitality

Jalo Hotel & Resort

A hotel site for a property in Shashemene, built so a guest can check availability, compare rooms, and reserve directly instead of through an aggregator.

Problem: Regional hotels lose direct bookings because their own sites bury rates, room differences, and the actual booking action under marketing copy.
Approach: A Next.js marketing and booking site. The hero carries check-in, check-out, guests, and room-type inputs; rooms share one card anatomy; the gallery and FAQ are grouped by category; a separate staff portal route exists for the property.

Next.js
React
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Vercel

Read case study

Live site

EthioPath application showing a career-path assessment with progress nodes and category badges.

2026

03AI product

EthioPath AI Pathfinder

A career pathfinder for Ethiopian students and developers: a multi-step technical assessment feeds an AI-guided roadmap of what to learn next.

Problem: Students choosing a technical direction usually get a list of job titles, not a structured view of which skills lead where or where they currently stand.
Approach: A Next.js platform with a step-by-step assessment, persisted answer state so a refresh does not lose progress, a visual roadmap of path nodes, and AI-generated recommendations layered on top of the assessment result.

Next.js
React
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
LLM API

Read case study

Live site

More work

4 projects

02Engineering, not just UI

The interface is the last mile. Most of the work is underneath it.

What I own beyond components: data models, APIs, auth, deployments, and the decisions that keep an app working after launch.

Anatomy of a request

How I think about a typical web app I build — each layer has one job.

Request pathSelect a node to read what each layer is responsible for.

01
Frontend architecture
Typed components with one shared data shape per entity, URL-driven state where it should be shareable, and explicit loading, empty, and error states.
Seen in SoleFlow · Jalo Hotel · this site
02
REST APIs
Endpoints with validated input, honest error shapes, and CORS and environment configuration handled deliberately. FastAPI and Node.
Seen in Portfolio contact API · fastAPI-class · hucms
03
Databases
Relational schemas in PostgreSQL and MySQL. Constraints over conventions; queries I can read back and explain.
Seen in Student-Management-System · hucms
04
Authentication
Session and token flows, protected routes, and permission checks that fail safely.
Seen in Jalo staff portal · Secure-Student-Data-Web-Application
05
API integration
Third-party and LLM APIs called from the server so secrets stay off the client, with output validated before it reaches the UI.
Seen in EthioPath AI · Telegram bots
06
Deployment
Vercel and Netlify deployments, environment-variable boundaries, and build checks before merge.
Seen in Every live project above
07
Performance
Image sizing per breakpoint, deferred off-screen media, no layout shift, reduced-motion support.
Seen in SoleFlow product grid · this site
08
Responsive design
Layouts tested from 320px up. No accidental horizontal scroll; touch targets sized for thumbs.
Seen in All shipped projects

03Stack

Tools I reach for, grouped by where they sit.

No percentage bars. These are the technologies I've shipped with — each one appears in at least one project on this page.

Frontend

Where most of my shipped work lives: component systems, routing, state, responsive layout, and motion that stays out of the way.

React
Next.js
TypeScript
JavaScript
Tailwind CSS
Framer Motion
HTML & CSS

Backend

REST endpoints, validation, authentication, and the unglamorous parts: error shapes, environment config, CORS.

Node.js
FastAPI
Python
Java
REST API design
Authentication

Database

Relational modelling first. Constraints over conventions; queries I can explain.

PostgreSQL
MySQL
SQL & schema design
Supabase

Tools

Version control, design handoff, deployment.

Git
GitHub
Figma
Vercel / Netlify
Linux

04About

A student who ships, based in Addis Ababa.

Download résumé

Based in: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Timezone: GMT+3
Status: Open to freelance, internships, and software engineering roles

I'm a software engineering student at Haramaya University and a self-taught full-stack developer. I started with HTML and CSS, got hooked on the moment a page does something, and have been building end-to-end web apps since.

What I care about is the whole thing working: a schema that fits the domain, an API that's predictable, and a UI that doesn't make people think. Most of the projects on this page started as a real inconvenience — a hotel with no way to book online, students with scattered study material — and turned into something deployed.

I'm looking for freelance work, internships, and junior engineering roles where I can learn from people who have shipped at scale. I write clear commits, ask questions early, and prefer a working demo over a long meeting.

Timeline

2024 — now
Independent product builder · Self-directed, publicly deployed
Commerce, hospitality, dashboard, content, and AI-guided products from idea to live URL. Reusable typed components, route-driven filtering, persistent client state.
2024 — now
Freelance frontend developer · Client sites, dashboards, MVPs
Turning rough briefs into scoped landing pages and dashboards, then refining responsive behaviour, keyboard access, and mobile spacing.
2025
Frontend developer intern · Tech Solutions
Responsive React components and UI fixes from design feedback; code reviews; documented component usage.
2023 — now
Student project lead · Haramaya University
Leading small teams from idea to demo: scoping, splitting implementation, reviewing code, presenting working builds.

Education

B.Sc. Software Engineering

Haramaya University, Ethiopia

2023 — expected 2028

Data Structures & Algorithms
Database Systems
Web Programming
Software Engineering
Object-Oriented Programming
Computer Networks

Certificates

Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals
Udacity
2025
Programming Fundamentals
Udacity
2025
Web Programming
Hucisa
2024

05Open source

The code is public. Go read it.

Most recently pushed public repositories, fetched from GitHub and refreshed daily.

github.com/CHAL7777

06Contact

Have something worth building?

Freelance projects, internships, or a junior engineering role — tell me what you're working on. I read everything and reply from my own inbox.

Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (GMT+3). Happy to work across timezones.

ChalaGobena

Software Engineer · Full-Stack Web Developer

I build full-stack web applications — from the database schema and the API, to interfaces people can actually use. Currently a software engineering student shipping real projects for real users.

View my work Let's work together