How I Built My Modern Portifilo Website
In the modern tech landscape, a portfolio is more than a resume; it is a live demonstration of an engineer's ability to ship production-grade software. This post provides a technical breakdown of my recently completed portfolio, which focuses on scalability, SEO-friendly architecture, and a seamless CMS experience. Built with Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and TanStack Query, the project prioritizes speed. Key highlights include a custom Markdown CMS, dynamic SEO, and a CI/CD pipeline for deployment.
In the current tech landscape, a portfolio is more than a resume; it is a live demonstration of an engineer's ability to ship production-grade software. I recently completed my personal portfolio, focusing on scalability, SEO-friendly architecture, and a seamless CMS experience. Here is a technical breakdown of the architecture and the strategic decisions behind the build.1. The Architectural Strategy For this project, I chose a modern stack designed for speed and developer experience: Frontend: Next.js (App Router) for Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and optimized image handling. Styling: Tailwind CSS to maintain a design system that is consistent and highly responsive without the overhead of heavy CSS files. State Management & Data Fetching: Tan Stack Query (React Query) to handle server-state and caching efficiently.2. Core Features & Engineering Challenges Custom Markdown CMS Instead of using a third-party platform, I engineered a custom Admin Dashboard (as seen in the preview) to manage content. The Challenge: Creating a rich-text experience that maps to a clean UI. The Solution: I implemented a Markdown-based editor that converts raw text into structured HTML. This allows for lightweight data storage and total control over the blog's typography and code highlighting. Dynamic SEO & Slug Generation To ensure the site is discoverable, I implemented dynamic routing. Each post generates a unique slug (e.g., /blog/building-my-portfolio). By using Next.js Metadata APIs, every page is automatically optimized for search engine crawlers. Responsive & Accessible Design A senior-level project must be accessible. I focused on: Mobile-First approach: Ensuring the dashboard and public views are functional on all devices. Interactive UI: Utilizing Framer Motion for subtle, professional animations that enhance the UX without distracting the user.3. Deployment & DevOps. The site is deployed using a CI/CD pipeline, ensuring that every push to the main branch is automatically tested and deployed. This mirrors a professional production environment where uptime and reliability are paramount. Lessons Learned Building this platform reinforced a core tenet of senior engineering: Choose the right tool for the job, not just the trendiest. By focusing on performance metrics (Lighthouse scores) and clean code architecture, I’ve created a scalable foundation for my future projects.
