Hi, I'm Ankan
I don't just build websites — I build experiences people remember. From AI-powered finance apps to real-time study platforms to interactive 3D worlds, every project ships with obsessive attention to detail.
About Me
Who I Am
Experience
4+ Years
Stack
Full Stack
I'm a Software Engineer based in India who believes software should do more than work — it should feel alive. I build across the entire stack, and I don't stop until it's something worth showing off.
When I'm not building, I'm breaking things apart to see how they work — diving into new stacks, reverse-engineering clever UIs, or obsessing over why an animation feels off by 10ms. Great software isn't just functional. It's opinionated.
If you've got something ambitious that needs to exist — let's build it.
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since 2021
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shipped to prod
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students taught
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using my work
Tech Stack
Skills & Technologies
Portfolio
Featured Projects
Virtual Study Group
Study sessions just got a serious upgrade. Video calls, persistent chat, a shared whiteboard, focus radio, live news, AI session summaries, and a semantic Q&A that remembers everything you've ever studied. This isn't a study app. It's your crew's command centre.
Most people have no idea where their money goes. This one does. Link your bank, upload statements, and watch AI categorise every rupee, surface what's bleeding you dry, and coach you back on track. Health scores, spending challenges, bill calendars, split expenses — your money, finally under control.
Not a portfolio. A world. A living cyberpunk city you can actually fly through — take the helicopter, ride the hovercar in FPV, or let the city breathe around you as daylight bleeds into neon night. Seven camera modes, real-time weather, spatial audio, and bloom that hits different after dark. Built because static portfolios are boring.
Journey
Experience & Education
Founding Software Engineer
WorkChessever
Dec 2025 – May 2026 · Remote
- ▸Built the broadcasting platform — chunked HTTP streaming, a hash-based sync worker polling live PGN, and a real-time event bus with zero frontend polling
- ▸Served Swiss, Round-robin, Knockout, and Team tournament formats through a single unified event pipeline
- ▸Engineered a rating-based pre-population strategy with a name-matching algorithm to enrich historical player records across the TWIC database
- ▸Built the complete FIDE tournament calendar (2022–present) for structured historical event coverage
- ▸Overhauled live game streaming resolving deep state sync issues for position, clock, and eval at scale
Software Development Engineer
WorkDrivers4me
July 2024 – Present · Bangalore, India
- ▸Developed D4M's affiliate onboarding product — initiating the B2B business with parent and child affiliates, Redis write-through caching, and DB-backed cache rehydration
- ▸Owned SMS/OTP infrastructure via Gupshup with Redis-based rate limiting for secure mobile verification
- ▸Built B2C/B2B claim insurance flows with Reopen, Reject, multi-revision versioning, and customized deadlines per revision
- ▸Architected the chat support & ticketing system with admin assignment and invite workflows
- ▸Implemented individual, region, and department-based transfer flows for seamless ticket routing
- ▸Added AI features — rectify, translate, and suggestions — directly into the support agent workflow
Software Engineer
WorkDecoverAI
Jan 2024 – June 2024 · Remote
- ▸Created AWS Lambda functions for Cognito user management across signup and cross-org invite flows
- ▸Built file and email analytics APIs powering summaries, filters, and insights on the analytics dashboard
- ▸Implemented production-based file sharing between users within the same organization
- ▸Designed granular file and folder sharing, then locked it down with ProductionACL for attorney-level access control
- ▸Implemented typed tags and answer collections for structured document organization and filtering
B.Tech in Computer Science
EducationInstitute of Engineering and Management
Aug 2019 – July 2023 · Kolkata, India
- ▸Graduated with a 9.1 CGPA in Computer Science and Engineering
- ▸Specialised in Data Structures, Algorithms, Distributed Systems, and Web Technologies
Kind Words
What People Say
Ankan has been working on ChessEver since December 2025. He brings a thoughtful and structured approach to his work, consistently enhancing our product thinking and implementation. He doesn't just execute tickets — he actively contributes ideas that have meaningfully improved how we design, build, and evolve ChessEver as a platform. As a software developer, he combines strong technical execution with deep chess domain knowledge, making him someone I can confidently trust with important responsibilities across the platform.
Ravi Tandon
CEO · DecoverAI
Ankan worked with us on DecoverAI and helped with the backend development. Ankan is super hard working and has an amazing work ethic.
Mahekk Shaikh
Student · University of Waterloo
Ankan's classes have been extremely useful in helping me become more confident solving interview problems. I have been able to gain valuable problem solving skills in a relatively short period of time.
Paramartha Saha
CTO · Drivers4me
Ankan is an exceptional software engineer with strong problem-solving abilities, deep technical expertise, and a proven capability to build scalable, high-quality systems. He consistently demonstrates ownership, adaptability, and excellent collaboration while delivering reliable solutions across complex projects.
Ishan Gupta
Student · University of Toronto
Ankan taught me JavaScript from scratch. I had no prior experience in JavaScript but Ankan's concise teaching of the advanced concepts made it very easy for me to understand and also gave me the confidence that I can continue to learn and grow as a developer. Also, the study material was super informative with detailed codes and explanations.
Beyond Code
Mentorship & Outreach
DSA Mentor · Inaugural Cohort
Amazon Future Engineer
Through Navgurukul, I worked as a DSA mentor for the inaugural cohort of Amazon Future Engineer — a flagship Amazon initiative that gave 68 brilliant female students from underserved backgrounds across India direct internship opportunities at Amazon.
Read the storyTeaching & Tutoring
Algozenith
upGrad
Apna College
AP Tutors
Wiingy
UNSW · UofT · UWaterloo
Topmate
UNSW · UofT · UWaterloo
Navgurukul
Amazon Future Engineer
OnlineStudy4u
760K subs · 350K+ views
Speaking, Podcasts & Community
From hackathon talks and community sessions to resume reviews for students and working professionals alike, and LinkedIn 1:1s with anyone figuring things out — I try to show up where I can.
A few podcast invitations have come my way too — none accepted yet, though one's very much on the horizon.
The Other Board
Off the Keyboard
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I worked with Chessever, where I built their live broadcasting platform, alongside GM Vasif Durarbayli — the youngest player ever to represent Azerbaijan on its Chess Olympiad team. Pattern recognition on the board, pattern recognition in code — turns out they're the same muscle.
Reading List
The Bookshelf
Atomic Habits
James Clear
You don't need willpower. You need a system you can't escape. Motivation fades, discipline cracks — systems are what drag you forward.
The Courage to Be Disliked
Kishimi & Koga
Other people's opinions are noise. Live your story, not their review of it. The moment you stop seeking approval, you become untouchable.
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Getting rich takes luck and skill. Staying rich takes control. People don't lose money chasing returns — they lose it flexing for strangers who wouldn't notice if they disappeared.
The Pragmatic Programmer
Hunt & Thomas
Code rots, abstractions leak, and tools will betray you. The ones who last adapt fast — not the ones who memorised everything once.
The Art of Attack in Chess
Vladimir Vukovic
One sharp sacrifice and the whole position collapses. Attack isn’t chaos — it’s calculated violence, and hesitation is the real blunder.
Ikigai
Héctor García
Most people grind through lives they don't even want. Find the overlap of what you love, what you're great at, what pays, and what matters — or spend your life faking it for an audience that doesn't exist.
Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
Your skull has a RAM limit. Offload everything so your mind can actually think instead of trying to remember.
Rework
Fried & Hansson
Plans are polished procrastination. Nothing matters until you ship. Reality gets shaped only through execution.
The Unfair Advantage
Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba
Success isn't fair—it's leveraged. Stop copying others and start exploiting the advantages you already have. Playing fair in an unfair game just guarantees average results.
Linchpin
Seth Godin
Being replaceable is the real risk. Do work that matters or stay invisible and interchangeable. The system rewards compliance—but only remembers those who stand out.
Terminal
Explore via CLI
Contact
Get In Touch
Let's build something great
I'm currently open to freelance projects and full-time opportunities. Drop me a message and I'll get back to you within 24 hours.