Addis Ababa, EthiopiaAddis Ababa University, B.Sc. Software Engineering

Hi, I'm Obssa
Degefu

I'm a Software Engineering student at Addis Ababa University. I build backend and systems software. So far I have built a Git-like version control system in C++, page tracking in the xv6 kernel, the CiviLink government-services platform and several Telegram bots. I've solved 800+ problems on Codeforces and LeetCode. I'm also moving toward AI/ML: I interned at iCog Labs, built a library of classical AI solvers, and I'm working through ML fundamentals in notebook labs.

find 22 in a sorted array
sorted array, look for 22
target = 22  left=0 · right=10
mid = left + ⌊(right − left)/2⌋
a[left] ≤ target ≤ a[right]
  → 2 ≤ 22 ≤ 99 ✓
a[mid] < target ⇒ left = mid + 1
a[mid] > target ⇒ right = mid − 1
a[mid] = target ⇒ found
size 11
O(log n), 4 probes

At a glance

Education

B.S. Software Engineering
Addis Ababa University
3.94 / 4.00 GPA
Expected June 2028

Achievements

800+ algorithmic problems solved on Codeforces & LeetCode
Beats 99.7% of LeetCode users by problems solved (LeetCode profile)
Ranked 9th of 30+ teams in the CodeLeague CP Hackathon

Skills

Languages
  • Python
  • C++
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • C
  • Java
  • Kotlin
  • Dart
Backend & APIs
  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • NestJS
  • JWT
  • Passport.js (OAuth)
  • Joi
  • aiohttp
Frontend
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Redux Toolkit
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Vite
Databases & caching
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB / Mongoose
  • Redis
  • MySQL
  • SQLAlchemy
  • Alembic
  • Supabase
Testing
  • Jest
  • Vitest
  • React Testing Library
  • Supertest
  • pytest
Tools & cloud
  • Git
  • Docker
  • Linux
  • GitHub Actions
  • Postman
  • Render
Mobile
  • Android Compose
  • Flutter
Bots & media
  • aiogram
  • Pyrogram
  • FFmpeg
AI/ML & systems
  • LangGraph
  • NumPy
  • scikit-learn
  • Matplotlib
  • Jupyter
  • Pygame

Featured Projects

CiviLink

Team of 9 · Product owner

Role-based portal for government services (TIN and vital registration).

190+automated tests (Jest, Supertest, Vitest)
  • JWT + RBAC auth, Joi validation, Google OAuth
  • Chapa payments and Supabase storage
  • MERN
  • Supabase
  • Passport.js
  • Jest

MiniGit

A local Git-like version control CLI written from scratch.

6commands: init, commit, branch, checkout, merge, diff
  • Commit history as a DAG with content-addressed storage
  • LCA-based three-way merge with conflict markers
  • C++
  • Data structures
  • File systems

AAU Grade Bot

Live on Telegram

Telegram bot that alerts AAU students when new grades are posted.

~120pytest tests (unit, integration, stress)
  • Credentials encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM
  • Hexagonal architecture documented in 21 ADRs
  • Python
  • aiogram
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis

AI Lab

Learning labs

Object-oriented framework of classical AI search, CSP and game solvers.

~20klines of Python · 22 demo scripts
  • A*, IDA*, simulated annealing, GA, alpha-beta, MCTS
  • Pygame visualizers and automated benchmark reports
  • Python
  • Pygame
  • NumPy
  • Matplotlib

URL Shortener

Live on Render

Link shortener with a React client and a TypeScript API.

3.5Tpossible 7-character Base62 codes
  • Random codes with collision retry
  • Redis cache in front of MongoDB for redirects
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Redis
  • MongoDB

How I build

The pieces I've actually shipped, stacked the way they usually fit together. The handwriting on each block says which projects it came from.

case study

AAU Grade Bot

A Telegram bot that watches the AAU student portal and messages students when new grades appear. Hexagonal core, Redis cron lock, polite cohort scraping, AES-256-GCM credentials, ~120 pytest tests in CI.

Blocks I’ve shipped; the handwriting names the projects

Experience

AI Research & Engineering Intern

Sep 2025 – Dec 2025
iCog Labs · Addis Ababa
  • Analyzed and used the C++ Moses and MORK codebases for Project Moses/AsMoses (Atomese, MeTTa, ComboReduct).
  • Researched and implemented optimization algorithms (BOA, genetic programming, hill climbing) in Python.
  • Developed an AI-agent workflow prototype with LangGraph: conditional routing, human-in-the-loop validation and structured state.
  • C++
  • Python
  • MeTTa
  • LangGraph

Competitive Programming

694 LeetCode solved
309 easy · 331 medium · 54 hard
1091 Codeforces rating
newbie · max 1091 · 6 contests
251 Codeforces solved
top tags: greedy, implementation, math
80 day LeetCode streak
longest streak in 2026

Codeforces · ob22a

profile on Codeforces
Rating after each rated contest
4008001200379May ’25695Jul ’25899Aug ’251062Apr ’261081Jul ’261091Jul ’26

LeetCode · ob22a

profile on LeetCode
694 problems by difficulty · beats 99.7% of users
  • Easy309
  • Medium331
  • Hard54
most-solved topics:ArrayStringHash TableMath