What a portfolio project should prove

Hiring managers rarely need another to-do app. They need evidence that you can take an ambiguous problem, make trade-offs and leave the code understandable to the next person.

A useful project brief

• One clear user and one painful moment. Say who is stuck and why the current alternative is bad.
• One constraint that forced a decision: offline access, a slow network, an accessibility requirement or a low budget.
• One test or measurement that proves the result. A screenshot is not evidence; a test, a query plan or a measured interaction is.

Write a short decision log next to the repository. Explain why you chose the data model, what you rejected and what you would do with another week. That document is often more valuable than another feature.