The problem UniteX solves

UniteX is built for developers tired of jumping across multiple websites just to find the next big hackathon or tech event. It brings everything together into one clean, developer-friendly platform — so you can spend less time searching and more time building.

What can you do with UniteX?
🔍 Find All Events in One Place
Discover hackathons, coding competitions, and tech conferences from platforms like DevPost, MLH, Eventbrite, and more — all under one roof.

⌨️ Terminal-Like Experience for Devs
Navigate through events using keyboard shortcuts and terminal-style commands — no clicks needed if you don’t want them.

🎯 Filter Smarter, Not Harder
Sort events by tech stack, location, prize pool, or date range — quickly zero in on what matters to you.

📅 Stay Organized
Track deadlines, submission rules, and event schedules so you never miss an opportunity again.

🌐 Find Your People
Join a community of like-minded developers, form teams, and collaborate with ease.

Challenges I ran into

The Bug:
Ran into a ReferenceError: Monitor is not defined when the Desktop component tried to render the Monitor icon — but it wasn’t properly imported.

How I Fixed It:

Cleaned up and organized all icon imports

Set up a centralized icon management system

Enabled TypeScript’s strict mode to catch these issues earlier in the dev cycle

🎨 Terminal Aesthetic vs. Web Usability
The Challenge:
How do you keep the look and feel of an old-school terminal without breaking modern usability or mobile responsiveness?

What I Did:

Crafted custom CSS animations that simulate terminal-like typing and cursor behavior

Used progressive enhancement so touch devices get optimized interactions

Applied CSS Grid + Flexbox to maintain layout integrity across all screen sizes

⚡ Lagging with Large Event Lists
The Issue:
Rendering hundreds of events at once caused noticeable performance drops.

Performance Fixes:

Added virtual scrolling to only render visible items

Introduced debounced search to reduce redundant API hits

Used React.memo and useMemo to prevent unnecessary re-renders during heavy computations

🔄 Complex State Management
The Problem:
Using multiple useState hooks to manage terminal history, current directory, and event data got messy fast.

The Refactor:

Switched to useReducer for more scalable and organized state logic

Built custom hooks to abstract terminal behaviors, making the codebase cleaner, more testable, and easier to reason about