In today’s context of global digitalization, software development has become a subject of major significance affecting every industry across the world. Every company, organization, and institution need a website. Every professional, academic, or social community relies on apps. Digital platforms and ecosystems cover every sphere of social life, whether it’s work, leisure, or interactions with governmental structures. As technologies keep developing exponentially, and their influence on business, infrastructure, and society keeps growing, the craft of software development fascinates minds more and more.
To answer the questions on what lies behind the curtains of software architecture, coding, and all the intricate aspects of technical magic, we interviewed Huzaifa Malik, a software engineering expert in South Asia with extensive experience in websites and apps creation. Malik received an international acclaim as one of the brightest software development talents of his generation after the series of groundbreaking accomplishments in building new-generation apps for BarqApp projects, which brought a change into the industry, and played a role in helping people to get through the COVID lockdown. To find out more about the secret world of software architecture and the role it plays today, let’s dive into Malik’s story.
Hi Huzaifa, thanks for joining us today! Could you tell us more about your work on BarqApp’s projects? How did it all start?
Imagine a matchmaking service, but for parcels; the one that connects those who need to send a package to anywhere in the world with those who plan traveling to the same destination point and happen to have an extra luggage space. That’s what BarqApp has originally been about. It was quite an innovative approach to the delivery industry: think of it as a dating app but for packages and their carriers. The whole concept was truly inspiring. It was something fresh, revolutionary, and creatively challenging to bring to life. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and international tourism was put on hold, our entire model of service faced some obvious tremendous obstacles.
Most of your competitors did not make it through the pandemic. What did you do to stay on top despite all the COVID challenges?
After losing the option of relying on travel, we had to pivot quickly. The transformation of BarqApp’s form of operation wasn’t just a minor shift; it was a complete overhaul into a full-scale logistics and delivery platform. This meant turning our embryonic delivery app, which was still in the incubator and far from ready, into the backbone of our new service model. The first week was fraught with issues: bugs, crashes, performance lags… One challenge was constantly followed by another, even bigger one. It felt like trying to steer a ship through a storm with a broken compass.
However, the strongest need for having a reliable delivery service to get through the lockdown kept us motivated; we realized the social significance of our mission and knew that simply retreating wasn’t in the cards. I immersed myself in the backend, debugging and optimizing at warp speed. By the end of the second week, not only had we addressed the initial problems, the app started actively facilitating orders and managing deliveries, quickly gaining popularity and growing exponentially.
What would you say became the turning point for BarqApp?
I’d say it was the success of this delivery app. It has become our pivot and cornerstone of all our subsequent accomplishments, which gave us so much inspiration and helped to turn BarqApp into first, a full-fledged logistics service with a wide spectrum of functions, and eventually, into an industry leader. It was a rapid and intense transformation, driven by necessity and executed with a mix of tech savvy and sheer determination. This experience showcased our team’s ability to adapt and come up with non-standard creative solutions under pressure, turning a potential service collapse into a robust platform that played a crucial role for millions during the pandemic.
To most people, your field seems filled with technical mysteries and complex algorithms. Could you shed some light on what’s happening behind the scenes of software engineering?
It feels like being a wizard in a world of technology, where your magic wand is a code. As a Senior Software Developer, I get to use this magic to build truly amazing things, for instance, new-generation apps that can bring groceries right to your doorstep when you can’t go out or enable you to chat with a doctor from your living room. The year I was born no one could even imagine that things like that will be possible one day. And here I am now, making this magic happen in the real world, helping millions of people every day, and making their lives better.
Sometimes, software engineers need to turn into digital detectives, diving into a malfunctioning code to track down a sneaky error and fix it. Then our job reminds us of playing a high-tech version of hide and seek, where we need to look for the hidden symbols that cause some irritating flows, like making the products invisible or creating a glitch on a landing page. And these moments are the ones where the most exciting adventures start. We face challenges, think super-fast, and use our coding spells to turn problems into opportunities and make a positive change. It’s more than just fun: it’s thrilling and makes you feel like you have super-powers!
Featured image credit: Nate Grant/Unsplash
