DSC — Real-time Chat

I wanted a compact, focused chat app that demonstrates real-time messaging, auth, and persisted conversation state—useful for portfolio demos and small-team prototypes.

Frontend: Vite + React with Tailwind for styling, Zustand for local state, and custom hooks for socket/message flows. Backend: Node.js + Express, Socket.IO server for real-time events, JWT for authentication, and MongoDB/Mongoose models for `user`, `message`, and `conversation` persistence. Routes and controllers isolate business logic and SocketIO/server.js handles socket lifecycle.

Real-time synchronization patterns with Socket.IO, designing idempotent message handling, and balancing immediate UI feedback with eventual backend confirmation. Also improved developer DX using Vite and Tailwind for rapid UI iteration.