About Me

Hi, I’m Derek (Yang) Liu.

I’m currently studying for an MSc in Computer Science at University College Dublin, and I’m mainly interested in backend and full-stack software development.

Most of my recent work has been around Java, Spring Boot, React, PostgreSQL and Docker. I enjoy building applications from end to end, but I’m especially interested in what happens behind the interface — how APIs are designed, how data is stored safely, how different services communicate, and how systems behave when something goes wrong.

I usually learn best by building things. Instead of only following tutorials, I like turning what I learn into small projects and then gradually making them more realistic. Recently, I’ve been learning more about distributed systems, asynchronous messaging with RabbitMQ, microservices, API gateways and resilient backend design.

Outside of coding, I enjoy gaming, music, reading, playing piano and learning about things that are not always related to technology. I also like writing notes about topics I’ve recently learned, because explaining something in simple words helps me understand it better.

At the moment, I’m looking for graduate software engineering opportunities where I can keep improving as an engineer, work on real systems, and learn from experienced developers.