👾 Strange Dev Lab

Strange Dev Lab is a small, focused developer apprenticeship lab.
We build real products with a real team structure – not tutorials, not toy projects.

For 4 months, each cohort works together like a startup team:
PRDs → Design → Backend → Frontend → Review → Deploy → Iterate.

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🚀 What we do

At Strange Dev Lab, we:

• Train a small dev squad (3–4 interns at a time) in a real, production-style environment.
• Build real-world web apps using a modern JavaScript stack:
  • Backend: Express.js
  • Database: PostgreSQL
  • Frontend: Next.js
• Ship live products, hosted and accessible to real users.
• Practice clean Git workflows, code reviews, stand-ups, and sprints like an actual company team.

Every cohort leaves with:

• A deployed application they helped build.
• Visible GitHub contributions they can talk about in interviews.
• Experience working with PRDs, UI/UX handoff, and team processes, similar to real engineering teams.

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🧠 How we work

We keep things simple but serious:

• Small team, big responsibility
  Everyone owns features end-to-end: from reading the spec to shipping and fixing bugs.

• Product-first mindset
  We don’t just write code. We ask: Who is this for? and Does this actually solve a real problem?

• Real rituals

  • Weekly sprint planning and prioritization
  • Frequent stand-ups
  • Code reviews for every PR
  • Demo sessions to present what we’ve built

• Feedback culture
  Mistakes are expected. Hiding them is not. We learn in public, together.

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🧩 Tech stack

Core stack

• 🟦 Backend: Express.js (Node.js)
• 🐘 Database: PostgreSQL
• ⚛️ Frontend: Next.js

Collaboration & tooling

• 🐙 GitHub – repos, issues, pull requests
• 📋 Trello / project board – sprints and tasks
• 💬 Slack – communication, stand-ups, and announcements

We deliberately stick to a lean stack so interns can go deep, not just wide.

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🎯 Who Strange Dev Lab is for

Strange Dev Lab is ideal if you:

• Know the basics of web development (HTML/CSS/JS, some backend or frontend).
• Are tired of only building tutorial-level projects.
• Want to feel what it’s like to work in a real dev team shipping real software.

It’s not for you if you:

• Just want to “collect certificates”.
• Don’t have time to commit weekly.
• Aren’t willing to receive and act on feedback.

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🧭 Our philosophy

• Apprenticeship before titles
  We care more about skills and habits than about calling ourselves a “big company”. The company will grow out of the craft.

• Ownership over busywork
  Interns don’t just “help out” – they own features, write code that matters, and see their work go live.

• Ship > Perfect
  We favor simple, working solutions over endless polishing. We can refactor what exists. We can’t refactor what never shipped.

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💼 Want to join a future cohort?

Cohorts are small and selective. When applications are open:

• We’ll share details in this profile and on our channels.
• You’ll typically go through:
  • A short application form.
  • A small code challenge or portfolio review.
  • A friendly interview focused on how you learn and work, not trick questions.

If you’re reading this and there’s no info yet, we’re probably deep in work with the current cohort. That’s a good sign.

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🧪 Strange, but serious

If that sounds like your kind of strange, you’re in the right place.