About

I am Desmond Chai, a computer science student at the University of British Columbia. I am passionate about using programming to solve real-world problems.

work

I am currently a software engineering intern at Block, working on GraphQL-backed internal workflows. Previously, I interned at Square and Workstream, where I worked with Go, Python, TypeScript, React, AWS, and Temporal on infrastructure, automation, and internal tools.

Before that, I founded Instant Supply, where I built Python, TypeScript, and Go systems for acquiring limited-edition products at scale, including PS5s, GPUs, and other high-demand goods. Much of the work involved reverse engineering retail APIs, browser fingerprinting, request flows, and anti-bot defenses to make sourcing reliable. The software also automated inventory tracking and resale operations, supporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.

interests

I am interested in backend systems, developer tools, automation, and product-minded engineering.

Fun fact: I am a top ~300 monkeytyper in the world with 218WPM 🤓.

I also worked as a teaching assistant in UBC's computer science department for CPSC 110, an introductory computer science course under Gregor Kiczales. I helped students reason about systematic program design and how a simple set of design recipes can guide the construction of complex programs.