$ cat about.md

Headshot of Arvind Rathee

about

Hi, I'm Arvind. I'm a frontend-heavy full-stack developer at Daffodil Software, with 4.5+ years of experience, based in Gurugram, India. I build React and TypeScript products, then carry the work through Node.js APIs, MongoDB data flows, integrations, and operational workflows when the feature needs it.

What follows is the longer version: how I got here, what I've been up to, and what I'm doing now.

$ what I optimise for

I optimise for the things you can't see in a screenshot — reliability, real-world performance on the bandwidth visitors actually have, and the kind of code that the next person can change without holding their breath.

I lean pragmatic. Ship the boring proven thing; refactor when the friction is real, not when it's theoretical. "Is this code easy to delete?" tends to be a more useful question than "is this code clever?"

AI tools (Claude Code · Cursor · ChatGPT) are part of the workflow now — I treat them like a fast junior engineer: leverage their throughput, verify their work, never let them ship unattended.

Performance budgets, accessibility, and clean error states aren't nice-to-haves for me — they're part of the deliverable.

$ how I came to be

I grew up in Haryana — a part of India where you don't typically meet engineers until you become one. I picked up programming the way most engineers do: too late to be a prodigy, early enough to make every mistake. The thing that made it click was, of all places, Udacity — in 2018, mid-undergrad, I started reviewing Front End Web Developer Nanodegree projects on the side. Two years of reading other people's code — line by line, writing feedback — was the single most useful exercise of my career.

By the time I finished my M.Tech in 2021 (both degrees at UIET, M.D. University, Rohtak), I knew what kind of engineer I wanted to be. I joined Daffodil Software that November as a fresher and have been here ever since — through MayaMD, HIMS Agroha, Chalo, and now Vimo. The detailed work history is on /resume.

$ what I'm doing

updated 2026-08-03

  1. now · 2024 →

    Vimo — government SaaS modernization across childcare and insurance platforms.

    Designing AI-assisted legacy migration workflows, expanding shared React libraries, strengthening WCAG 2.1 AA behavior, and shipping role-aware product workflows across an Nx monorepo and legacy React applications.

  2. now · 2026 →

    Building rathee.dev in public.

    Treating my own portfolio like a product. Each phase shipped openly so I can write about what I learned along the way.

$ tech stack

Roughly: what I reach for without thinking, what I'm building real things with, and what I'm deliberately leaning into.

  • ● comfort

    ReactTypeScriptRedux ToolkitRTK QueryNx monoreposcomponent librariesaccessibilityClaude CodeCursor

  • ◐ working

    Node.jsExpressMongoDBRedisREST APIsthird-party integrationsVitestJenkins

  • ◌ learning

    system designdistributed systemsAPI designRAG basicsLLM evalsfrontend platform engineering

  • ○ exploring

    LLM agentsvector DBsprompt-pattern librariesKubernetes.NET (later, if a project needs it)Game dev (Unreal · Unity · Roblox)RustWebGPU

$ ways of working

The non-technical half. What I'm good at without a stack name attached.

  • ● strong

    End-to-end ownershipCode reviewMentorshipLegacy modernizationAccessibilityProduction debugging

  • ◌ growing

    ArchitectureCross-functional collaborationTechnical writingPublic speaking

$ cat off-screen.md

The site is tech-themed — but I'm not, entirely. A few less-engineering bits:

  • 📍 where

    From Haryana, based in Gurugram. English · Hindi · a smattering of Punjabi at family functions.

  • 📺 watching

    One Piece (still) · Classroom of the Elite II · Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

  • 📚 reading

    long-form non-fiction · the unsexy bits of engineering.

  • 🎧 listening

    lo-fi while shipping · OSTs (Steins;Gate, Made in Abyss) on a long walk.

  • ☕ habits

    Take ownership of unowned problems · ask "could a script do this?" · enjoy a proper pour-over. Can't sit still for long · won't finish books I don't love · perpetually tinkering with dotfiles.

$ what comes next

Closer term: deepen system design, distributed systems, and practical AI engineering while continuing to ship end-to-end product work. Longer term: more writing, open source, and a small game in Unreal someday.

The full open-ended list — engineering, personal, hobby — lives on /bucket-list with a little story behind each one.

In one line: frontend-heavy full-stack developer who turns complex workflows into reliable React, Node.js, and MongoDB product systems.

/resume — formal version · /bucket-list — wishlist · /contact — say hi.