Why I Built a Microservice App from Scratch (And What It Taught Me About My Career)
Sorry for the delay! Family vacation pushed me back. I’ll publish two different blogs this Monday to make up for it. Happy New Year!!!
The Origin Story
Finet is my first "real" application. It wasn't for a grade, and it wasn't for a competition. I started development in August 2025 because I knew I had a long way to go to become a software engineer. I had been hearing about microservices and knew they were the future of cloud computing. At this point I had been coding for almost 18 months, and it was time to step it up.
I was ambitious; perhaps a bit naive. I dreamed of a public, fully functional, and profitable stock analysis app built entirely on a microservice architecture. Looking back, I learned more from shooting for this "unattainable" goal than I ever would have by building a simple calculator app or following a step-by-step guide.
I started my CS degree behind other students in raw coding hours, having finished my Associates in high school. This meant I jumped straight into C++ and Java in academia without much time to explore on my own while taking pre-reqs. This project was my way of filling in the holes in my knowledge.
The Tech Stack: Stumbling onto Greatness
I chose Go (Golang) as my main language, mostly because I was studying concurrency in class and Google told me Go was good for that. I am incredibly grateful that my curiosity landed me at Go’s doorstep—it turned out to be a fantastic language for the job, not to mention similar in style to the languages I use in class.
I dove into Go’s net/http standard library. I was
running blind regarding networking, but I managed to build a web
server and started writing the logic for stock analysis.
As the app grew, I realized that though I had been trying to keep things future proof, I was rapidly approaching monolith. To achieve my goal of a microservice architecture, I knew I had to fully implement Docker. It was perfect for replicating an AWS hosting environment locally without burning through my free-tier credits. It was intimidating at first, but eventually, I containerized my databases and the web app.
The Integration Challenge
By late summer, I hit a wall. I was balancing a full course load (in the summer, not something I’d do again soon) and stalled on the stock analysis logic. I decided to reach out for help. I found a friend, Andrew, who had a finance degree and was working toward his CS degree.
Andrew implemented a React frontend and some robust stock analysis code. This drastically improved the "feel" of the app, but it introduced a new challenge: integration. I had never touched React and suddenly had to figure out how to make his frontend talk to my backend.
I spent the following month linking everything up. I added an Nginx container to serve the React components, fully decoupled the stock analysis from the web server, and created API receivers to make the services communicate.
The Career Pivot
Connecting those pieces was exhilarating. I realized that my favorite part of the project wasn't writing the algorithm—it was ensuring cohesion between the services. This is the essence of Cloud Engineering and DevOps.
However, this project also taught me a crucial lesson: Great architects need to be great builders first.
I realized I can't be a master Cloud Architect by May 2026. That role requires deep experience. To understand the puzzle pieces I one day hope to glue together, I need to struggle through being a dedicated Software Engineer first.
What’s Next?
Moving forward, I’m buckling down on the fundamentals to make myself immediately useful in the job market:
- Designing lightweight APIs (hosted 24/7).
- Deepening my knowledge of Data Structures & Algorithms.
- Applying for SWE roles!
Thank you for reading about this journey. I hope it inspires you to tackle a project you aren't quite "ready" for yet. You might fail at your original goal, but the skills you learn along the way are worth every second.