Skip to main content
Intermediate ~18 hours

Custom Background Job Queue

Build a Postgres-backed job queue from scratch — retries, scheduling, idempotency. Teaches durable-queue fundamentals.

TypeScript or PythonPostgreSQLDocker

About this project

Job queues are the unsung backbone of every product. This project teaches the durable-queue pattern by building one from scratch on Postgres: schedule jobs, retry on failure, claim jobs atomically with SELECT FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED, and run a worker pool that scales horizontally. Bonus: build the dashboard. Background jobs + observability is a senior-backend hiring sweet spot.

Why build this in 2026?

AI workflows are largely async — knowing how to build a durable, monitorable queue is core to AI-product backend work.

What you'll ship

  • GitHub repo
Demo: enqueue 10000 jobs and watch them process
Minimal admin dashboard

Sign up to see the full project brief

Full deliverables, success criteria, and AI Career Tutor support — free.

You'll unlock:Complete project brief, AI tutor that knows this project, and progress tracking when you start.

Skills you'll practice

postgresqlrest apissql