My Journey to Google Summer of Code 2026

Introduction I’m Prajwal, and this is the story of my journey from a small village in Karnataka to being a Google Summer of Code contributor with the Apache Software Foundation. This is not a tale of overnight success, but one of struggle, perseverance, and the transformative power of open source. I hope my story can guide and inspire students who are on a similar path. Humble Beginnings and a Spark of Interest I come from a small village called Kuppinakeri in Karnataka. My parents are farmers, and I grew up in a humble environment. After scoring 86% in my 10th grade in 2020, I got into Morarji Desai PU college, a government institution that provided free education. This was my first time living in a hostel. My elder brother, Guru Prasanna, who works at Morgan Stanley, has been my guiding light. On his advice, I chose PCMCs (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science) over PCMB. It was here that my love for computer science, particularly C++, began to blossom, thanks to my supportive lecturer, Sanjay sir. ...

May 1, 2026 · 9 min · Prajwal Banakar

BookHaven - A Modern Online Book Store

BookHaven is a comprehensive, full-stack e-commerce application designed for buying and selling books online. It features a robust Spring Boot backend and a dynamic, interactive React frontend, providing a seamless shopping experience for customers and powerful management tools for administrators. Key Features For Customers: Enhanced Home Page, Book Recommendations, Advanced Search, Wishlist, Shopping Cart, Secure Checkout, Order Tracking, Real-time Notifications, and Live Chat with administrators. For Administrators: Comprehensive Admin Dashboard, Order Fulfillment, Customer Insights, Admin Notifications, Live Chat Interface, Inventory Management, and Role-Based Access. Tech Stack Highlights Frontend: React 18, Bootstrap 5, Framer Motion, Axios, React Router, React Stomp Hooks & SockJS. Backend: Java 21, Spring Boot 3.5, Spring Security, Spring WebSocket, Spring Data MongoDB, Maven. For detailed information on features, installation, usage, and project structure, please visit the BookHaven GitHub Repository.

November 30, 2025 · 1 min · Prajwal Banakar