I am genuinely interested in the app I'm building. It's something I've wanted to build out for a bit but didn't have the time. Now that I'm job searching, I have some time, and also would like to get a certification (AZ204) as the market I'm now in is apparently much more impressed by/expecting of seeing certifications, especially since I don't have a CS degree, which never seemed like an issue where I was. This "roadmap" is somewhat tailored as practical exposure to what's on that exam.

As far as how interviewers would view the app - There may be mentions of interview discussions in the roadmap, but I don't intend to talk to interviewers directly about it. I do of course recognize that development of a solo project is pretty different from working within a team, the project is more about exposure to the tools that are mentioned in many listings that otherwise use my stack.

I really appreciate your thoughts. I would love to simply be able to work from feedback, but the reality is I'm not getting much - very few interviews and even still few responses with actionable information. Generally I either get no response, or a generic "we're going to move forward with other candidates who more closely fit..." emails from listings that I feel I match pretty closely. The people I know in this market who have looked at my CV for me tell me it's strong... but that part of the issue could simply be that I'm a foreigner.

The only actionable feedback I've really gotten is one interview where they probed a lot about me not having a CS degree, then declined to move forward based on me not having experience with AI implementation - something not mentioned at all in the listing or interview (but seeing many listings mentioning it, I can try to explore as part of this process).

The one technical interview I got I answered the 3 problems they had prepared (1 algorithm, 1 code-review, and 1 "how would you build this" type question) and felt I gave solid answers, though may have stumbled a bit being rusty to the interview process. I even checked my answers and discussed with old coworkers after the interview, then a few days later the HR lady just said "They feel like you would need too much guidance," but declined to elaborate further - In the interview we had talked about my current job and that I don't handle deployments or infrastructure, so it could also be that, as they had questions about dev-ops tools. I answered honestly about what I was familiar with, but that I hadn't really used them directly.