Build an I/O Benchmarking Harness for an Edge Storage Appliance
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Build an I/O Benchmarking Harness for an Edge Storage Appliance. Intermediate challenge in code. Writing production code that solves real engineering problem...
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Build a reproducible fio + iostat + blktrace benchmarking harness for an NVMe appliance and produce an engineering-defensible performance datasheet across 3 workloads.
This is not a coding exercise. It is the work a software engineer does between a Jira ticket and a merged PR. That distinction matters to every hiring manager who has seen candidates solve LeetCode problems and none who have shipped production code under real constraints.
When you finish, you will have something most graduates do not: a real-world deliverable, verified by Ewance, that you can show to a hiring manager and say "I did this. Here is the proof."
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Design fio workloads that match real customer patterns
- Cross-validate user-space latency with kernel-level blktrace
- Identify per-workload bottlenecks across NVMe, filesystem, and CPU
- Communicate benchmark methodology that survives technical scrutiny
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Computer Systems and Organization
Bachelor · Systems
Strong alignment
This challenge maps to Computer Systems and Organization at the Bachelor level. It sharpens the same practical skills your coursework expects — but in a real industry context with actual constraints and deliverables.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Io Benchmarking
Apply io benchmarking to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Fio
Apply fio to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- System Calls
Apply system calls to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Linux Storage
Apply linux storage to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Performance Profiling
Apply performance profiling to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Documentation
Apply documentation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles: