Hey there! I’m excited to share something I noticed after watching a great blog about tech hiring’s future. The main point? By 2025, cloning apps like Twitter or Instagram won’t impress recruiters. They want fresh, unique projects that show you’re ahead in areas like HFT/DeFi/Web3, AI (LLM Parsers), Full Stack, and Front-End/Design. I used the blog transcript to create this article. It includes nine project ideas to help you improve your job prospects.
Here’s the deal: the blog speaker shared nine projects and issued a challenge. Build one in a month, make it live, and share it on Twitter. Include a link and GitHub repo, and tag them for job connections. How motivating is that? They noted that in their 30% of interview discussions focused on one project. That’s a big part of your interview tied to what you create. I’ve organized everything below with headings, subheadings, and bullet points. This makes it easy for you to choose a project and get started. Let’s dive in.
Why These Projects Are a Game-Changer
Before I dive into the projects, let me tell you why they matter so much. The tech world is evolving fast, and by 2025, it’s going to be a battlefield out there for jobs. Companies won’t care if you can recreate Spotify—they’ve seen it a million times. What they want is someone who can tackle real challenges in emerging fields like blockchain, AI, or scalable systems. These projects aren’t just portfolio fillers; they’re proof you can handle the kind of work that’s in demand.
I love how the speaker put it: one strong project can dominate your interview. Candidates spent 30% of their interview time discussing just one project. That’s wild! It shows how much a unique, impactful project matters. My advice? Choose one of these ideas, commit to building it fully, and make it production-ready. It’s not just about coding; it’s about proving you can deliver something real.
1. HFT, DeFi, and Web3 Projects
Let’s start with some high-octane projects in high-frequency trading (HFT), decentralized finance (DeFi), and Web3. These are hot areas where innovation is king.
Project 1: Sports Betting Platform
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What’s the Idea?: I’m imagining a platform like Probo or Poly Market where users bet on event outcomes—think “Will Bengaluru beat Chennai in the next match?” Users buy “stocks” (e.g., Bengaluru at 60 rupees), and if Bengaluru wins, the stock jumps to 100 rupees; if not, it’s worth 0. It’s all powered by a centralized order book based on supply and demand.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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Order book management
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Asynchronous architecture
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Low-latency system design
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Tech Stack: I’d go with fast languages like Bun, C++, or Rust. Avoid Java or Node.js—market makers hate latency, and this needs to be snappy.
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Why I Love It: This feels like building a mini Zerodha or Binance but with a fun twist. It’s a deep dive into backend wizardry, and you’ll end up with something that could actually be useful.
Project 2: On-Chain Order Book
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What’s the Idea?: Take that sports betting platform and put it on a blockchain like Solana or an Ethereum Layer 2. You’re creating a decentralized exchange (DEX) with an order book, which is tough because blockchains aren’t exactly speed demons.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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Rust programming
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Smart contract development
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Understanding bids, asks, and limit/market orders
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Challenges: Blockchains are slow, and gas fees are a pain. I’d deploy this on a fast, gasless Layer 2 to keep it practical.
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Why I Love It: This is a beast of a project—perfect for anyone obsessed with blockchain. It might not hit product-market fit right away, but the skills you’ll gain are gold for your resume.
2. AI Projects (LLM Parsers)
Next up, let’s talk AI. These projects use large language models (LLMs) to turn user inputs into something actionable—super cool stuff!
Project 3: Cursor for Blender
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What’s the Idea?: Picture a desktop app where you tell Blender (that awesome 3D modeling tool) what to do in plain English—like “Create a scene with mountains.” An LLM figures out the commands and executes them via Blender’s API or MCP server.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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LLM integration
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API scripting
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Desktop app development
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Variants: Start simple with text-to-script, or go big and try converting 2D images to 3D meshes (that’s research-level hard!).
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Why I Love It: Blender’s learning curve is brutal, and this makes it way more approachable. It’s a killer combo of AI and creative tech.
Project 4: Cursor for 2D Animation
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What’s the Idea?: I want to create a website. You type a command, like “Create a client-server animation with a cache miss.” Then, it generates a 2D animation video using Manim or p5.js. The LLM writes the code, and it gets compiled into an MP4.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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LLM code generation
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Animation libraries
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Video rendering
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Extras: Add a video editor UI to stitch scenes together, maybe even toss in voiceovers for educational videos.
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Why I Love It: This could power visualizations like 3Blue1Brown’s YouTube videos. I’m so pumped about this one—I might even build it myself!
Project 5: Same.dev
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What’s the Idea?: A website that clones other sites (like Facebook.com) by scraping their layout and styles, then uses an LLM to generate React code for it.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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Web scraping
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DOM parsing
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LLM multi-prompt workflows
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React code generation
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Extras: Let users remix the cloned site and deploy their own versions.
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Why I Love It: It’s a wild mix of web dev and AI. Imagine showing this off in an interview—it’s a total flex of your skills.
3. Full-Stack Projects
Now, let’s get into some full-stack goodness. These are practical apps with proven use cases.
Project 6: Riverside Clone
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What’s the Idea?: A podcasting platform like Riverside.fm—used by folks like Gary Vee and Mark Zuckerberg. It uses WebRTC for live, low-quality chats, while recording high-quality audio locally and uploading it to an object store like S3.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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WebRTC
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Multi-party uploads
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Object storage
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Reliability engineering
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Challenges: No data loss allowed! I’d also add optional video rendering to merge files into a final podcast.
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Why I Love It: Podcasting is massive, and a reliable tool like this is always in demand. It’s a system design masterclass.
Project 7: Tally Clone
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What’s the Idea? A form builder similar to Google Forms, featuring a sleek, Notion-like interface. It uses slash commands and connects with Google Sheets, Zapier, and more.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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Notion-style UI
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API integrations
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LLM summarization
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Features: Use an LLM to summarize responses or filter leads automatically.
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Why I Love It: This is perfect for businesses doing lead gen or automation. Plus, it’s a fun way to build something intuitive and powerful.
4. Front-End and Design Projects (Bonus)
Finally, some projects for my design engineer friends out there—frontend skills meet stunning visuals.
Project 8: LLM Interface
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What’s the Idea?: A fast, gorgeous UI (think P3) for chatting with multiple LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, etc.), outshining native interfaces like ChatGPT.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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UI/UX design
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LLM API integration
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Performance optimization
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Challenges: Make the UI pop and speed up responses (maybe with frontend tricks or server tweaks).
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Why I Love It: A slick UI can transform an AI tool. This shows you can stand out through design in a crowded space.
Project 9: UI Library
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What’s the Idea?: A custom set of 20+ beautiful UI components—like animated cards with physics—or a full library with a CLI for React/Next.js projects.
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Skills You’ll Need:
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Frontend development
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Animations
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CLI creation
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Storybook integration
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Why I Love It: This screams “hire me” for design engineer roles. Reusable, eye-catching components? Yes, please!
Key Takeaways
Here’s what I want you to walk away with:
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Why These Projects?: They’re tailored to 2025’s hiring trends—HFT/DeFi/Web3, AI, full-stack, and design engineering. Building one proves you’re future-ready.
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Action Plan: Pick one project (don’t overdo it!), build it fully, deploy it with a live link and GitHub repo, and tag the speaker on Twitter for a shot at referrals.
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Speaker’s Offer: They’ll build the most upvoted idea in a video, and top submissions might get job hooks. How awesome is that?
Final Thoughts
I can’t stress this enough: if you want a job in 2025, ditch the clones and build something bold. These nine projects are your chance to shine—to show recruiters you’ve got the skills and creativity to tackle tomorrow’s tech. Spend a month perfecting one, not dabbling in ten. Make it live, share it, and tag the speaker on Twitter—you might just catch someone’s eye.
So, which one’s calling your name? Drop a comment below, and let’s get building together.
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