No Hello, World: What real projects are created by students during training

Purpose: Show practical orientation and level of tasks. University education is often criticized for detachment from reality: they say, 4-year-old students write console calculators, and then come to work and see real production. At the PAS department, we broke this stereotype through deep project learning. Already in the second year, laboratory work ceases to be just “tasks from the textbook”. Students unite in teams and create full-fledged commercial products that can be safely put in the portfolio. Example: EdTech platforms Instead of boring library databases, teams design complex marketplaces. For example, full-fledged EdTech solutions for the sale of online courses. In such projects, students: They implement complex business logic (calculation of percentages from sales, management of user roles: authors, students, administrators). Design database architecture (SQL) to store lessons, videos and learning progress. They are developing a modern UI/UX. We encourage the creation of expensive, technological interfaces — dark themes, glass morphism, thoughtful typography. No childish design, just what looks like an expensive startup. Teamwork and roles The development of such platforms is not possible alone. Students try on real roles: someone becomes Team Lead (leads the project), someone goes to Backend (Django, API), someone takes Frontend (React). All work is carried out through version control systems (Git), with task setting and code revision. To the defense of the diploma, our graduates approach with experience, which is usually obtained only on internships in large IT companies.