Recently, I took on a side project that’s been both a technical refresher and a creative outlet: a pathfinding visualizer built with React.
The motivation was simple. I missed building things for the sake of building. Recently in my career, I’ve been more focused on svelte and flutter and I wanted to reconnect with my react foundation. With no time pressure or stakeholder demands, I gave myself the space to explore, iterate, and have fun.
The project itself is a visual tool that lets users see how different pathfinding algorithms work in real time. Think Dijkstra’s, A* etc.
It was a great way to sharpen my JavaScript fundamentals, play with some awesome libraries, revisit hook abstraction and folder architecture, and even brush up on algorithmic thinking.
More than just a technical exercise, this project reminded me why I love software development and particularly frontend: the immediate feedback of building, breaking, and fixing —and the satisfaction of watching an idea come to life on screen.
If you’re curious, you can check it out or have a look at the code here
⚠️ Due to some CSS hacks I used with linear gradients, it does not render correctly on firefox. Tested on chromium and safari
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