Case Study · 2.5 min read

Midtown Tech

Interactive Coding Education Platform

Midtown Tech is an interactive web development learning platform featuring a custom-built, browser-based IDE with real-time code execution, preview, and cloud saving capabilities, built using Next.js.

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Project Overview:

Midtown Tech is an advanced web-based learning platform designed to teach programming and web development concepts (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React) through hands-on experience. Built with Next.js (React/TypeScript), its standout feature is a fully integrated, browser-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This custom IDE provides students with real-time code execution (leveraging technologies like WebContainers), live previews, terminal access, and the ability to save their code progress to the cloud, creating a seamless and powerful learning environment directly within the browser.

Goals & Objectives:

The primary goal was to create a highly interactive and effective online learning experience that goes beyond traditional video tutorials by enabling students to write, run, and debug code directly within the lesson context. Key technical objectives included: engineering a secure and performant browser-based IDE capable of running web technologies, implementing real-time code execution and preview capabilities, developing a system for saving student code and progress in the cloud, structuring comprehensive course content (lessons, modules), and building an intuitive user interface for navigating lessons and interacting with the IDE.

Approach & Process:

  1. Requirements & Design (Concept & Architecture): Defined the core requirements for an interactive learning platform centered around a browser-based IDE. Researched technologies (like WebContainers) for sandboxed code execution. Architected the platform using Next.js, planning the integration between course content delivery, the IDE components, and backend services for code persistence and user management. Designed the user interface for lessons, code editor, preview pane, and terminal.
  2. Development (IDE & Platform Build): Focused heavily on developing the custom browser-based IDE, integrating code editing libraries (like Monaco Editor, if used) and the chosen code execution engine. Built the surrounding platform infrastructure using Next.js, including routing for lessons/modules, state management for user progress, and UI components for content display. Implemented backend functionality or integrated with services (like Firebase/Supabase or custom API) for cloud code saving and user authentication.
  3. Content Creation & Integration: Developed or curated the educational content (lessons, exercises, projects) for the initial courses (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript). Integrated this content seamlessly with the IDE, allowing code examples to be loaded and run directly.
  4. Testing & Iteration (Refinement): Conducted extensive testing of the IDE's performance, security, and compatibility across different browsers. Gathered feedback from early users to refine the learning experience, IDE usability, and content clarity. Iterated on features based on testing and feedback.
  5. Launch & Maintenance (Deployment): Deployed the platform to a hosting provider (e.g., Vercel). Manage ongoing maintenance, including updating dependencies, potentially adding new course content, monitoring performance, and addressing user feedback.

Outcome & Impact:

Midtown Tech successfully delivers a sophisticated, interactive learning environment that significantly enhances the traditional online coding education model. The custom-built IDE demonstrates advanced frontend and potentially backend engineering skills, particularly in integrating complex technologies like browser-based code execution and cloud persistence. The platform serves as a powerful portfolio piece showcasing the ability to design and build complex, full-stack web applications with unique, high-value features, directly applicable to roles requiring expertise in React, Next.js, TypeScript, and modern web technologies.

FAQ

Questions I get a lot.

Why go back for a CS degree if you were already at $170k?

Because the work had already outrun the paperwork, and I was tired of that gap. I’d walked away from two schools already — Baruch didn’t even offer a CS degree, and by BMCC I was already writing production code, so sitting through intro classes for a piece of paper felt backwards. I enrolled at WGU in 2024, kept the full-time engineering job, and finished the B.S. in August 2026. Third school. First degree, eight years later than the “normal” path. I wanted the foundation, and I wanted to close a loop I’d left open twice.

How did you get hired without a degree?

I showed work. The first scripts were for my dad’s business in 2017, automating the data entry that was eating his week. Columbia’s coding bootcamp gave me three months of full-stack JavaScript and a cohort in 2019 — a program that doesn’t even exist anymore. PLNETWORKS hired me in 2020 on a portfolio, not a diploma. After that, each role was about what I’d already shipped: production bugs, HIPAA software, storefronts. The degree came eight years later. It didn’t open the first door.

What actually moved compensation from $75k to $170k?

Two years of shipping at PLNETWORKS, then a move to Cazton that roughly doubled it, then BrightInsight in 2022 — HIPAA-regulated software at $170k. Same skills, different rooms. The market paid for proof. I treated interviews like case studies of work I’d already done, not like a plea for a first chance.

Where are you from, and where are you now?

I was raised in Jamaica, Queens. First thirteen years in an attic. I live in Hell’s Kitchen now. The city didn’t get bigger. I just moved west of the same story.

How do you actually use Cursor and Claude?

As a tutor and a pair, not as a ghostwriter. I still read the diff. I still throw away the parts that look clever and aren’t. The tools make the boring parts faster so I can spend the hours on the decisions that have to be mine.

What would you tell someone learning to code right now?

Build something your family can use. Put it in public. Don’t wait for a school to bless the start. I dropped out twice, then finished. Both of those were the right call at the time.