Uzair Malik, a self-taught coder aims for IIT, dreams of building full-fledged editing app
Waris Fayaz
Srinagar, Dec 20 (KNO): Thirteen-year-old Uzair Malik from Srinagar’s Eidgah has quietly built a tech portfolio that would make many professionals envious, developing 31 apps, a freelancing platform and multiple AI chatbots while still studying in class 9th.
Uzair, who began coding at the age of eight by watching online tutorials, now works in Flutter and NodeJS and says clients from Canada and the USA are already using his products.
Speaking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Uzair said he has created seven AI chatbots as part of his 31-app journey, alongside School Information System (SIS) platforms for two local schools.
His school apps allow online attendance, fee payment and homework submission, helping institutions manage student records digitally instead of relying on manual registers.
To address everyday problems faced by travellers, Uzair has built cab booking and hotel apps that allow users to book rooms and vehicles directly from their phones. “The platforms are designed for people who either do not own a car or lack time to drive, enabling them to secure transport and accommodation with ease,” he said.
Among his key projects is a freelancing website named Freevance, which he describes as an invite-only platform where users can buy a small key worth 10–20 rupees to apply for jobs that match their skills.
Unlike global freelancing sites that charge 10–20 per cent commission, Uzair said his platform focuses on affordable access for logo designers, graphic artists, web developers and other IT professionals and already has overseas clients posting work.
Malik recalled that he started learning from YouTube tutorials and a friend of his father who guided him initially, before consistently studying coding from a YouTube channel since 2021. Now proficient in modern frameworks, he aims to crack IIT in the future and dreams of building a powerful editing app that can handle tasks usually done through heavy desktop software.
The teenager says his father, Nasrullah Malik, supported him from the beginning, even before fully realising the scale of his work. “My father only came to know of my achievements in 2023 when an acquaintance praised my skills,” he said—(KNO)
