Codeborne

We’re excited to share that Elis Laasik, our UX/UI designer and developer, will be leading workshop at Digit Conference 2025! 🎉 Her workshop, “Functional Prototypes: Why Code Is Your Best UX/UI Design Tool”, explores how coding enhances prototyping—bringing ideas to life faster, improving collaboration, and refining user interactions beyond what static mockups can offer. 🚀 At Codeborne, we believe in building real, working solutions from the start, and prototyping in code is a key part of that mindset. If you’re attending Digit Conference 2025, don’t miss Elis’ session on May 9th at 13:00—no coding skills needed, just curiosity! More details about the workshop in the comments 👇

🚀 Not Only a Java House 2025 – What Has Changed? 🛠️ It’s been four years since we published the original “Not Only a Java House” blog post, and oh, how things have changed! 👀 The technological landscape at Codeborne has evolved significantly, and we're excited to share the highlights from our latest blog post. 👉 TypeScript is thriving, Java is steady, and Kotlin is making waves Andrei: “TypeScript’s rise was inevitable—it reduces bugs and speeds up development. For new projects, it’s my first choice. Kotlin, on the other hand, feels like the TypeScript of JavaScript—modern, elegant, and powerful. But let’s not forget Java; its stability and global popularity make it an enduring choice.” 👉 Klite – Lightweight Kotlin Framework Much like Selenide, Klite was born from our projects. It’s designed to simplify backend development and offers a fast, lightweight alternative to Spring Boot. Interns using Klite with Kotlin have found it as intuitive as Java. 👉 Svelte vs. Vue: The rise of Svelte Anton: “Svelte has surpassed Vue in popularity on our team. It’s closer to native HTML, simpler to learn, and ideal for beginners. Our Svelte component library helped us transition projects from React and Vue, reducing code complexity with AI-assisted migrations.” 👉 Tailwind CSS: The new styling standard Erkki explains how Tailwind has replaced previous CSS approaches at Codeborne: “It integrates seamlessly with modular components, minimizes bloat, and simplifies responsive design. Tailwind speeds up prototyping and reduces reliance on design tools, making iteration faster than ever.” 👉 AI’s growing role in development Mihhail, Vladislav, and Helen dive into how AI is transforming workflows: Vladislav: “AI is my new research buddy, often replacing Google Search for broader, faster answers.” Helen: “From brainstorming UX ideas to debugging and generating code snippets, GPT-based tools are invaluable for design and development.” Mihhail: “AI accelerates problem-solving, offering step-by-step guidance while still leaving room for trial and error.” 💡 Conclusion: Always changing, always learning Technology never stands still, and neither do we. From embracing new tools to refining our workflows, the past four years have been a journey of growth and innovation. 👀 Curious to learn more? Check out the full blog post! Link in the comments 👇

At Codeborne, we thrive on tackling challenges that make a real impact 🧡 Recently, we had the privilege of collaborating with kood/Jõhvi, an innovative coding school, to turn their vision for a student application form prototype into a full-fledged learning platform. ⚡️ 🤝 This project wasn’t just about writing code – it was a shared effort to shape how the next generation learns and grows. With continuous feedback and close teamwork with kood/Jõhvi, we built a platform designed to empower students to focus on learning, collaboration, and creativity. Together, we worked on simplifying user flows, implementing features like group project management and personalized student dashboards, and ensuring every detail aligned with their mission to redefine education. 📚 🎯 The result? A scalable platform that truly reflects their vision. 👀 Curious about the details? Check out the link to our blog in the comments! 👇

Crafting software... and craft beer 🍻😎 Did you know that we’ve brewed six batches of our very own craft beer with the help of small breweries? We sat down with two key players in these projects, Anton and Kaarel, to learn more about this flavorful tradition. 🚀 Where it all started Anton: Back in 2018, a cool place called Tark Bakter opened, and Marek and I supported them through Hooandja. It was the golden age of Estonian craft beer, and the perfect spot for team-building. So, we brewed a session IPA together. The brewing volume there was around 150 liters—great for a team, though not quite industrial scale. 📚 First lessons learned Anton: I remember spending 8 hours in a dark basement on a beautiful sunny May day... But we had a fantastic beer-tasting session, and for many, it was a first-hand experience of the entire brewing process—educational and fun! ⏸️ the break in the brewing Anton: What else but lockdown… Sadly, Tark Bakter had to close its doors. We actively searched for a new place to continue small brewing projects and found Nanopruul. With Nanopruul, we brewed session IPA, Kölsch, oatmeal stout, and our latest, a classic Christmas porter. These projects were led by Kaarel. Kaarel Ratas: Usually, we come in with an idea, and the brewmaster helps fine-tune the recipe based on preferences, available ingredients, and brewing experience. 🎁 The gift of beer Kaarel: We tested the Christmas stout with Toomas, who suggested turning it into a holiday gift for our clients. We created custom packaging and delivered the brews ourselves. Fun fact: last year’s Christmas stouts were highly sought after during our pair programming demo sessions at Digit Conference! 🗼 Enter Tuletorn brewery Anton: A major event in Estonia’s craft beer scene happened recently when Chris, a former Põhjala co-founder, opened his own small brewery, Tuletorn. I suggested a collab, and he was intrigued since he hadn’t done anything like that before. Together, we created Tuletorni Batch no9: a hazy, citrusy pale ale brewed with orange peel and Amarillo hops. 🍊 🧠 What we’ve learned Anton: People can work for eight hours straight when they’re having fun—no time to check phones! Craft beer culture lives strong in our team. Kaarel: Not everyone is interested, but those who jump in become passionate and are ready for the next brew. And yes, after-parties are often inevitable... 🔮 What’s next? Anton: I’d love to brew our next batch at Vaat, one of the most technologically advanced breweries in Estonia—and perhaps beyond! Cheers to more brewing adventures! 🍻

🚀 Interns taking on a mission — building a complete course registration system for Estonian Academy of Arts! 🎨 After completing introductory tasks, the 9th cohort of Software School got its first real project: creating a full course management system for Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) from scratch. Anton, the project lead and Software School mentor, explains: “We’re building a complete course management system, including students, teachers, and administrators. It will handle everything—from course descriptions, announcements, and registrations to payments, instructor management, and more. Since it’s largely independent of other systems, it’s an ideal learning project. At the same time, it’s crucial for the school, with thousands of potential users. This adds real significance and motivates the interns to push their limits.” 🤝 How will we work? “We’ll run the project as we always do at Codeborne. The entire team, including EKA representatives, will participate in weekly iteration meetings (storytelling + demos). This ensures continuous client feedback and a working solution at every step—a key aspect that sets Codeborne apart from many other companies.” 🛫 How’s it going? “The start looks promising. Thanks to solid preparation, the first stories have already been delivered—just like experienced Codeborne developers would do. If the team keeps this pace, we’re confident that a functional solution will be ready by the internship’s end.” 🤔 Why give interns real projects? “Real-world experience is essential. At Codeborne, every full-stack developer takes on multiple roles—product owner, project manager, analyst, full-stack developer, tester, and deployer. This approach ensures the fastest, most effective path to creating valuable software for clients.” 🧩 Tech stack? “The exact stack isn’t the main focus—learning the right approach and structure is. Technologies come and go, but if you’re curious: Kotlin for the backend, Postgres as the database, and Typescript + Svelte on the frontend.” 🧑🏫 What’s the mentor’s role? “My job is to make sure things are done right and that the code is maintainable long-term. With today’s tools like ChatGPT, getting things running is easier, but ensuring long-term sustainability is where I keep a close eye.” ...but this isn’t our first rodeo 🏇 Over the years, Software School interns at Codeborne have built real, live-grade software, including: 🧡 Club Tartu Maraton’s new website 🧡 A monitoring tool for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia 🧡 Codeborne Time Management - Beat (continuously developed by several cohorts) 🧡 Codeborne HR Management 🧡 HIIT Pekk - a workout app

This week, Vali IT! students visited us at Codeborne 🎓 Aho described the work we do at Codeborne and the internship experience here. The visit gave the Vali IT participants a practical look into the everyday work in IT. They also had the chance to see what our current interns—who are also Vali IT alumni—are working on during their internship here. Thank you for visiting us! 🧡

🎓 This week’s Software School story features Anna Brita Ani moving from business IT to software engineering 💼✨ 💭 When did you first dream of becoming an engineer? It all started in high school. I loved my science subjects and we had some amazing teachers who really inspired me. My plan was to jump straight into engineering after A-levels, but my parents asked me to pause and think about it because it's such a long commitment. I decided to take a gap year and study Business IT at TalTech instead, hoping to broaden my horizons – and it worked! I discovered that I enjoyed the field. Funnily enough, I hadn’t written a single line of code before I started university, and I hadn’t originally planned for IT to be my career. 🧡 What brought you to Codeborne? It was a journey of connections. I hadn't even heard of Codeborne before - and a lot of people in IT hadn't either. But through a long chain of introductions, I ended up talking to Aho. He suggested I try their Software School as a starting point, and here I am! 🧡 What has surprised you the most about Codeborne? Pair programming! We did pair programming at university, but it was always on separate computers. Here, everything is on the same shared screen - a whole new level of teamwork and focus. 📚 Software School attracts people from all walks of life. How did you get started? Having studied IT for my university degree, I felt a bit more confident at the start. However, those who came through Vali-IT had stronger front-end skills, which I hadn't focused on much at school. We all had unique strengths and it's been great to learn from each other. 🧩 What's your current project at Software School? This week we started modernising Codeborne's internal HR application. We started by migrating the application from Vue to Svelte, which was an exciting challenge. We also did some heavy refactoring, bug fixing and added new features related to Codeborne's new office in France. We work in three pairs, each working on different features, and there's a lot of collaboration involved. 🧘♀️ What do you do for fun outside of work? I was a professional ballroom dancer for 10 years, and dancing has remained a big part of my life as a hobby ever since. I also enjoy Pilates to stay active and balanced. 💃 We’re glad to be part of Anna Brita's story! 🚀✨

🎓 This week’s software school story features Madli Petuhhov, who transitioned from HR to tech 👩🏼💼📸 🚀 You transitioned from HR to software development. What motivated the shift, and how did you get started? My partner’s successful career switch to IT inspired me to consider a change. HR no longer felt as fulfilling as it once did, so I started exploring broader possibilities. At first, I was nervous—moving from a "soft skills" field to a technical one, especially with limited math experience, seemed daunting. But I was drawn to the problem-solving aspect, so I took the plunge. I began with introductory HTML/CSS courses, which I enjoyed. Then came Vali IT, and now I’m here at Codeborne! My fears about math didn’t hold me back—my spatial reasoning skills and attention to detail have been a huge help in solving challenges. Now, I’m thrilled to be working on Codeborne’s HR management system for the France office—a project that feels familiar yet excitingly new. 📈 You’ve just completed a task on energy price visualization in your 6th week. What did you create, and how did it go? We developed a tool that pulled data from the Elering website and displayed it visually. Users could switch between countries, dates, and languages, and even calculate the cost of charging appliances. It was a two-week task where we partnered with the same teammate. While everyone achieved similar functionality, the designs varied significantly. Overall, it went well! A big takeaway was diving into business logic while learning Svelte and TypeScript from scratch. As the scope expanded step-by-step, we had to prioritize as a demo deadline approached. 📸 Your hobby is photography. Is it just for fun, or do you take on projects too? I mostly enjoy landscape photography for myself, but I occasionally take on projects for friends, capturing their families’ special moments. 🌲 You enjoy hiking in bogs. Do you have a favorite Estonian bog? It depends! This summer, while bog-shoeing in Loosalu bog, I discovered a stunning lake with many small islands. For a quick escape from the city and a refreshing swim, Mukri bog is my favorite. ☀️❄️ Which is more beautiful: summer or winter bogs? Both! Each season has its own unique magic. ✨ What advice would you give to someone considering a career change? Step outside your comfort zone and explore fields you’ve never considered before. You don’t need prior experience in engineering to succeed. For me, the fear of math was the biggest barrier, but it turned out to be just that—a fear. If you’re curious and willing to learn, you can achieve so much! 👋 A warm welcome to Madli! We’re lucky to have you and look forward to seeing you excel in tech.

🌍 Codeborne's Business Geography Founded soon 15 years ago, Codeborne initially focused its operations in Estonia, our country of incorporation. 🇪🇪 However, we soon recognized the value of expanding internationally and actively pursued growth opportunities abroad. Today, over half of our revenue comes from export markets. 🇱🇻🇱🇹🇪🇪 The Baltic states are naturally considered our home base, both by us and our clients. 🇨🇿🇵🇱🇧🇬🇧🇦🇲🇰🇦🇱🇲🇩 In collaboration with some of our partners, we have developed mission-critical systems and gained a deep understanding of the local business and regulatory landscapes in Central and Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania, and Moldova. 🇦🇹🇱🇺🇳🇴🇬🇧🇯🇵🇺🇸🇰🇿 Additionally, our business development efforts have led us to explore markets in other parts of Europe, including Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, and the UK, as well as further afield in Japan, the US, and Kazakhstan. 🇫🇷 Most recently, we expanded by opening an office in Nice, France. Learn about our journey to opening a new office in Nice ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/dNMsnKQM.

🎓 Diving into Liis’ story this week – a shift from marketing to code 👩🏻💻📚 🌎 Where are you from originally? I'm originally from Saaremaa and now I’ll be staying in Tallinn. I've enjoyed traveling around and I’m always looking for new and different experiences. 🕵️♀️ What inspired you to pursue a career in IT? You’ve got a first degree in marketing, right? I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after high school. While studying for my first Bachelor’s degree in marketing, out of many other things, I got to work with the technical side of the website—learning how to read some code and make changes when needed. To understand this, I had to figure out what could be changed and what impact it would have. I enjoy logical tasks and problem-solving. However, IT is such a broad field that I wasn’t sure which direction to go in at first, and after some research, I ended up studying Software Development, which was a great decision. 📱 Were you already working in social media from 2014–2017? Some people didn’t even have Facebook accounts back then! This job was a great chance to put my marketing studies into practice. We needed to understand our customers and how to reach them. It wasn’t just about posting on social media—it was about having a strategy. How can we keep our customers engaged without showing them the same content repeatedly or scaring them away? ⚡️ How's it going with Software School this week? What are you working on at the moment? We’re displaying electricity prices to the end user, which we pull from the Elering database. Along the way, we convert EUR/MWh prices to cents/kWh. We are using Svelte 5 syntax here. 🙋 Is Svelte a new stack for you, or are you already familiar with it? It’s new for me, but I’ve used React in previous projects and see a lot of parallels. As more experienced developers here say, Svelte is easier. 🧡 How did you find Codeborne? While I was in Sweden, I listened to several different podcasts, including Algorütm and Codeborne was one of them that stood out to me. 🚀 Do you feel like you’re off to a good start compared to others who are just getting started? I’d say I definitely feel off to a good start. What I’m hearing from the supervisors aligns with things I’ve learned before. It’s also helpful to revisit some topics to stay sharp. For example, I hadn’t used Java much in the past 2 years, so it’s great to go over the basics. I love learning new things. 👀👀 How many times have you pair-programmed with a different person? I’ve come full circle and have had the chance to work with everyone. It’s not the first time I’ve worked in pairs; I did my thesis together with another person while studying in Sweden, which is typical there. 📚 When you’re not working with technology, what do you do? I like to read in the mornings. Currently, I’m reading a Java book recommended by our supervisors, which I think many of us are reading, also I like to go out and be active. Welcome aboard, Liis! 🚀