5 cool projects to build as a Software Developer when you´re bored

If you’re a bored software developer, here are 5 cool projects you can build to help you kill time while learning new things.

Hardware That Waters Your Plants

Most Software Developers spend a lot of time in web development, when building hardware can be so much more fun!

If you’d like to combine software and hardware, this project should keep you busy for quite some time.

The goal is to automate the process of watering your plants. You simply need an Arduino (or Raspberry Pi), a moisture sensor, and a water pump.

Now all you have to do is write a piece of code that keeps your plants alive for as long as possible.

Pac-Man

There is no better way to understand how games are developed than building Pac-Man in a very simple way.

It’s possible to develop the game with a JavaScript framework like Vue or a library like React. This way, you’ll be able to learn the movement of entities, collision detection, or even get further ahead and add steering behavior to players.

Creating Your Own Trading Algorithm

It’s time to do some real work and have fun while you learn new things. Creating your own trading algorithm is a complex project that requires a lot of finetuning.

First things first, you should start by do some research on trading strategies before you even start building your algorithm.

Once you have figured out your winning strategy, you can use a free stock API  like IEX Cloud to be aware of the current stock prices.

Then just let the algorithm run. You can use a stock simulator and play with virtual cash instead of real money, so you’ll be able to iterate and improve your strategy.

Click here for an in-depth tutorial and go get those riches!

Tetris

Much like Pac-Man, building Tetris is a great way to get into game development.

In this project it is also possible to create an app, using Swift. If you prefer to do it in HTML5, you can do it the same way as in Pac-Man, using JavaScript.

Click here for an in-depth tutorial.

Create a weather app

If you want to get started with building apps, a weather app is a perfect start. This project can be made in Swift.

This way you can learn how to use geolocation, how to interact with an API, and also get some knowledge on how to build an app.

If you are really digging this project, you can also try to make it more dynamic. The app would be much more interesting by adding a text input, so users can search for the location they want to search for.

It’s time to do some real work and have fun while you learn new things. These projects should keep you busy for quite some time. Picke one and just go for it!