build4–6 hoursAdvanced

Build a Chrome Extension That Fixes Your Pet Peeve

Maps to: Software Engineer · Product Designer · Founder

You're going to build a Chrome extension that fixes something on the web that annoys you every day (a cluttered feed, endless threads, a site that buries what you need) and get it running in real browsers. The skill is subtraction: testing on the real sites, then cutting it to the one behavior actually worth keeping and making that solid. That's real software engineering, shipping code that runs in other people's browsers and doing one thing well, and doing one tells you fast whether building tools that run in the wild is your kind of work.

How this shows up on a resume or college app

I built a Chrome extension that solves [problem], cut it to the one behavior worth keeping after testing on real sites, and got it installed by [N] people. I learned to ship software that runs in real users' browsers every day, and that the discipline is subtraction, not addition.

When you finish, BuildMe drafts your Common App activity description from what you actually built.

Start this project

The plan

1
Step 1
Pick a browser annoyance + sketch the fix
Pick one real thing that bugs you in the browser: cleaning up a feed, summarizing long threads, limiting time on an app, reformatting a site you use daily. Write what the extension does in one line. That's your target.
2
Steps 2–4
Build it (start from a working example)
Build the extension with Manifest V3. The smart move: start from a minimal working example and change ONE thing at a time. Manifest permissions and content scripts confuse everyone at first, so small steps beat big rewrites.
3
Step 5
Test on real sites + cut to the one behavior
Run your extension on the real sites it's meant for. It'll break or annoy in places. Decide the one behavior worth keeping, cut the rest, and make that one thing solid.
4
Step 6
Ship it: sideload to friends (or publish)
Get it into real browsers. Free path: package the unpacked extension and have a few friends sideload it (no fee). Want it public? Publishing to the Chrome Web Store is a one-time $5 developer fee. Capture who's using it.