Hey there, I’m Ashfaq.
I’m a software engineer from Hyderabad. I’ve been writing code for a living since 2019, and I still get a kick out of building something and watching it work. This blog is where I’ll write about that, and about everything else I care about. Here’s a bit about me, so you know who’s on the other side.
What I do
I’m a Senior Software Engineer at Confluent, on the Kafka Connect team. I build connectors, the pieces that move data in and out of Kafka. My work is mostly on the object storage connectors for Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage, and on the HTTP connectors that can talk to almost any API.
It’s plumbing, honestly. When it works, nobody notices, and that’s exactly the point. I wrote more about it in What I actually do as a Kafka Connect engineer.
How I got here
I started as an intern at OpenText in 2019, writing automated tests, and stayed on for almost three years. I tested products, built test suites, worked on a desktop capture app, and got to kick off the iOS version of a product before anyone else had joined it. That job taught me how real software gets built, shipped and supported.
Then came almost three years at AWS Fintech. The finance teams there modelled big deals in huge Excel sheets, by hand. My team turned that into an automated system, and I worked across the whole thing: the frontend, the APIs and the data pipelines feeding it. Watching a slow, error-prone process become a few clicks was one of the most satisfying things I’ve worked on.
In 2025 I moved to Confluent, and I’ve been deep in Kafka ever since.
Giving back
I learned data structures and algorithms at Smart Interviews, and it’s a big part of why I got my first job. So in 2021 I went back as a mentor. I gave up my weekends to help students in live sessions and answer their questions on WhatsApp. More than 120 students later, it’s still something I’m proud of.
Outside of work
- The gym. I train regularly. It’s the one hour of the day where I’m not thinking about code.
- Boxing. Not as often as I’d like, but nothing clears my head faster.
- PS5. My favourite way to switch off.
- Food. I’m a proper foodie, always looking for the next good place to eat.
- Cars and gadgets. I’ll happily talk about either for hours.
What to expect here
Anything I find interesting. Some posts will be about software and the things I learn at work. Others will be about cars, gadgets, food, fitness or whatever’s on my mind that week. No fixed schedule, just honest writing when I have something worth sharing.
If you want to say hi, you’ll find me on LinkedIn, or you can drop me a message through my site.
Thanks for reading.
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Senior Software Engineer at Confluent, based in Hyderabad. I write about building software and what I learn along the way. More about me