Niraj Paudel — Portfolio

Personal portfolio website for Niraj Paudel, Software Engineer & Writer based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Live at: nirajpaudel.com

Stack

• SvelteKit — framework and static site generation
• mdsvex — markdown as Svelte components (powers the Notebook section)
• adapter-static — prerendered static output, deployed to GitHub Pages
• Vite — build tooling
• Custom CSS with CSS variables — no UI framework, no Bootstrap

Project Structure

src/
  routes/
    +page.svelte          # Single-page app, composes all sections
  components/
    Header.svelte         # Fixed nav with NP monogram logo
    Hero.svelte           # Rotating featured writings epigraph
    About.svelte          # Bio + skills colophon
    Experience.svelte     # Work history (tier 1 cards + tier 2 list) + hackathon badge
    Research.svelte       # Academic research projects (AIS)
    Notebook.svelte       # On-site writings + external articles
    Education.svelte      # Education + academic excellence certificate lightbox
    Contact.svelte        # Contact details
    Footer.svelte         # Quote + nav links
    QuizModal.svelte      # A Good Day to Quiz Hard — movie dialogue quiz game
    Seo.svelte            # Head meta tags
  content/
    writings/             # Markdown files with YAML frontmatter (Notebook content)
  lib/
    content.js            # Loads and exports all writings via import.meta.glob
    quizData.js           # 100 movie dialogue questions for the quiz
    stores/
      notebook.js         # openSlug writable store (hero → notebook navigation)
    utils/
      observer.js         # Svelte action for scroll-triggered fade-in animations
  global.css              # CSS custom properties, typography, base styles
static/
  favicon.svg             # SVG favicon (modern browsers)
  favicon.ico             # ICO fallback
  favicon-16.png          # 16×16 PNG
  favicon-32.png          # 32×32 PNG
  favicon-192.png         # Android/PWA
  favicon-512.png         # Android/PWA splash
  apple-touch-icon.png    # iOS home screen
  site.webmanifest        # PWA manifest
  academic_excellence.jpeg # Certificate of Academic Excellence (AIS, Trimester 2 2025)

Sections

Notebook Content

Writings live in src/content/writings/ as Markdown files with YAML frontmatter:

---
title: "The In-Between"
type: reflection        # reflection | parable | technical | essay
date: "2025-01-01"
featured: true
pinned: true            # shows in first 3 by default
excerpt: "..."
---

External articles use externalUrl instead of body content — they render as links in the Notebook list and open in a new tab from the hero epigraph.

Quiz

A Good Day to Quiz Hard — built originally for React Riot 2018, awarded Hacker Favorite by Hackbit. Accessible via the "Play it →" button in the Work section hackathon badge.

• 100 movie dialogue questions, 10 random per game
• 4 multiple choice options per question
• Hints, scoring, Web Audio API sound effects
• GIFs via Tenor API for correct/wrong feedback
• Fully responsive

Commands

npm run dev        # Dev server at localhost:5173
npm run build      # Production build (static prerender)
npm run preview    # Preview production build locally
npm run check      # Svelte + TypeScript validation
npm run deploy     # Build and deploy to GitHub Pages

Design

Warm editorial aesthetic — paper tones, serif headings, monospace labels.

Deployment

Deployed as a static site to GitHub Pages via the gh-pages package.

npm run deploy

This runs vite build (with 8GB Node memory) then pushes the build/ directory to the gh-pages branch.

Contact

Niraj Paudel — [email protected]