Software engineer at CARFAX. I build things on my own time.https://waqarkalim.comhttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/how-holiday-optimizer-plans-your-time-offhttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/how-holiday-optimizer-plans-your-time-offThe small dynamic program behind it, why the holiday calendar is harder than the algorithm, and what happened when the press found it.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/lichess-puzzle-databasehttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/lichess-puzzle-databaseDownload the Lichess puzzle CSV, stream it in TypeScript, pull out mate-in-2 puzzles by theme and rating, and check every solution with chess.js.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/youtube-api-upload-quotahttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/youtube-api-upload-quotaSince June 2026, uploads have their own quota: 100 a day. What each call costs now, why older answers say six, and how to work out your real limit.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/spot-the-checkmatehttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/spot-the-checkmateAutomated mate-in-N puzzle Shorts on YouTube: positions from the Lichess database, rendered with Remotion on AWS Lambda.Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/beaconchesshttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/beaconchessA chess coach that explains every move in plain English, with Stockfish and Maia-2 running locally in your browser.Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/holiday-optimizerhttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/holiday-optimizerA free PTO planner that lines your leave days up with public holidays and weekends to get the longest possible breaks.Sun, 15 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/aws-cloud-resume-challengehttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/aws-cloud-resume-challengeThis site: Astro on S3 + CloudFront, with a Lambda + DynamoDB view counter, provisioned by Terraform via GitLab CI.Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/javascript-using-the-spread-operatorhttps://waqarkalim.com/blog/javascript-using-the-spread-operatorA simplified look at how to use the Spread Operator (…) in JavaScript: in function calls, arrays and objects, and why the copies it makes are shallow.Fri, 18 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/shopify-front-end-developer-challengehttps://waqarkalim.com/projects/shopify-front-end-developer-challengeA React and TypeScript app for browsing and liking images from NASA's API, built for Shopify's 2022 front-end internship challenge.Sun, 12 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT