Dawg Social
Dawg Social
Dawg Social was my first major project during school—a collaborative effort where I had the opportunity to lead the development team while contributing to both the front-end and back-end. This project not only challenged my technical abilities but also shaped the way I approach problem-solving, communication, and software design.
🚀 Project Overview
Dawg Social was designed as a social networking platform tailored for students, allowing users to:
- Create profiles and log in securely
- Post updates and share content
- Interact with others through likes and comments
- Friend Requests and reposts
As the team lead, I was responsible for organizing sprints, assigning tasks, and ensuring integration between front-end and back-end components.
🛠️ Tech Stack Used
Here’s a breakdown of the tools and technologies we used to bring Dawg Social to life:
Front-End:
- HTML/CSS – Building responsive UI elements
Back-End:
- Django/Python -
Other Tools:
- Git & GitHub – Version control and collaboration
- Postman – API testing and debugging
- MySql - Database Storage
📚 What I Learned
✅ Full-Stack Development
Working across both front-end and back-end gave me a strong appreciation for how everything fits together—from data models to user interfaces.
✅ Leadership & Collaboration
Leading a team taught me the importance of:
- Clear communication
- Delegating tasks based on strengths
- Managing timelines and resolving blockers
✅ RESTful API Design
I gained hands-on experience designing routes and endpoints, setting up DB schemas, and structuring APIs with authentication and validation.
✅ Git Best Practices
Merging branches, resolving conflicts, and maintaining commit hygiene were all key lessons in collaborative coding.
💡 Challenges Faced
- Version control conflicts due to multiple contributors
- Initial confusion in API structure, which required refactoring halfway through the sprint
- User authentication complexity—balancing security and simplicity
- Database Choice started with Postgres but moved to mySql due to speed which required to refactor the entire database
🌱 How This Project Helped Me Grow
- Improved my leadership abilities with being the leader of the group
- Improved my ability to debug and test
- Boosted my confidence in public speaking and presenting technical work during final demos
🔮 What’s Next?
This project sparked my interest in:
- Building more robust, scalable web applications
- Learning advanced frameworks like React or Next.js
🔗 GitHub Repository
🧠 Final Thoughts
Dawg Social was more than just a school project—it was a gateway into full-stack development and team collaboration. I walked away not only with better coding skills but with a stronger sense of leadership and direction for my future in software engineering.