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# Ethan Kim

**Headline:** Software Engineer Intern
**Profession:** Software Engineer Intern
**Location:** Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

## About

Ethan Kim is an early\-career software engineer with experience as a Software Engineer Intern at IBM and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara\. Ethan is focused on building strong backend\-systems expertise early in his career, while remaining open to future product or leadership paths\. He has experience programming in Golang and practical knowledge of distributed\-systems concepts, including failure handling, heartbeats, and state reconciliation across partitioned networks\. Ethan built a Raft implementation in Golang, working through node failures, synchronization challenges, isolated\-node recovery, and a subtle leadership bug\. His approach to engineering combines methodical code walkthroughs and whiteboarding with the practical use of tests and logs to iterate quickly\. Ethan’s distributed\-systems work reflects a failure\-first mindset: reasoning about edge cases and recovery behavior beyond the scenarios covered by tests alone\.

## Highlights

- Worked as a Software Engineer Intern at IBM\.
- Earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara\.
- Built a Raft implementation in Golang\.
- Handled distributed\-systems challenges involving node failures and state synchronization in the Raft implementation\.
- Applied distributed\-systems concepts including failure handling, heartbeats, and state reconciliation in partitioned networks\.
- Reasoned about resilient recovery for isolated nodes and debugged a subtle Raft leadership bug\.
- Used code walkthroughs, whiteboarding, tests, and logs to investigate problems and iterate quickly\.
- Earned a High School Diploma from Newbury Park High School\.

## Experience

- **Software Engineer Intern at IBM** (2026\-05\-01–2026\-07\-01)

## Education

- Bachelor's degree, Computer Science — UC Santa Barbara (2024\-01\-01–2028\-01\-01)
- High School Diploma — Newbury Park High School (2020\-01\-01–2024\-01\-01)

## FAQ

### What does Ethan do?

Ethan Kim is an early\-career software engineer with experience as a Software Engineer Intern at IBM\. He is focused on developing deep backend\-systems expertise\.

### Where has Ethan worked?

Ethan was a Software Engineer Intern at IBM\.

### What is Ethan’s educational background?

Ethan earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara\. He also received a High School Diploma from Newbury Park High School\.

### What programming language does Ethan use?

Ethan has experience programming in Golang, including using it to build a Raft implementation\.

### What distributed\-systems project has Ethan built?

Ethan built a Raft implementation in Golang\. The work involved handling node failures, synchronizing state, and addressing distributed\-systems behavior in partitioned networks\.

### What distributed\-systems concepts has Ethan worked with?

Ethan has practical experience with failure handling, heartbeats, and state reconciliation in partitioned networks\. His work includes reasoning about resilient recovery for isolated nodes and debugging a subtle Raft leadership issue\.

### How does Ethan approach problem solving?

Ethan prefers to step through code and use whiteboarding to reason through problems\. He also recognizes the value of tests and logs for rapid iteration, and he considers edge cases beyond what tests alone cover\.

### What career direction is Ethan pursuing?

Ethan wants to focus deeply on backend systems early in his career, while keeping the door open to product or leadership opportunities in the future\.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www\.linkedin\.com/in/ethan\-kim\-92b1b58a

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