💡 What should an experienced software engineer do after failing a LeetCode job interview..

💡 What should an experienced software engineer do after failing a LeetCode job interview for a large company where he could have worked on an audiobook app if accepted?

Well, should probably go "back to school”, and, re-learn Depth First Search, revisit tree traversal algorithms, and solve every problem on LeetCode and HackerRank - so that next time, you can recognize the pattern and solve a similar problem in 20 minutes!

Or… you could build and publish your own audiobook app!

🚀 Meet Run & Read – your ultimate text-to-speech player that transforms EPUB, PDF books, or any plain text into an audiobook using built-in Apple and Google TTS engines, as well as high-quality open-source TTS models from Hugging Face or online services like Deepgram.

It’s free to download and use - give it a try!

For a long time, I had the idea of a simple reading app - basically, a useful interface for the built-in Android and iOS TTS engines, that would give users full and easy control over their listening experience. I knew there were plenty of similar apps, but most were either too complex or too expensive. The sheer amount of competition held me back for a long time. But, ironically, failing a job interview gave me the push I needed. Now, Run & Read is available to users, and it works exactly as I imagined - except it could benefit from better voices.

It began as a pure text-to-speech on-device player, but I have also been working on adding more natural open-source voices and integrating a tool that converts text into audio (MP3) using online TTS SDKs like Zyphra, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs. Additionally, I am incorporating local open-source tools running on a personal computer or in the cloud, such as Zonos and Kokoro-TTS with Audio-MLX. The audio is played in the app just like text-to-speech, with the same playback controls, bookmarking, and other features.

I personally use it every time I run on a treadmill or a trail, and even when I cook or drive. I’ve bought too many paper and electronic books that I wanted to read but never had time to sit down with - now, finally, I can read while literally running or running chores!

Download, try it out, and let me know your thoughts!
🍏 App Store
🤖 Google Play

An open-source repository for experiments on producing audiobooks at home.

🐙 Github Text To Speech Experiments

Full MP3/RANDR Pipeline Instructions:

Produce audiobook on your computer
👉It only takes a few hours to produce your own audiobook on a MacBook Pro M1 (32GB).

🔥 How You Can Get Involved:
1. Star the repo, explore, and contribute!
2. Download the app, give it a try, and share your thoughts!
3. Spread the word to anyone who might find this useful.

🚀 Follow me on LinkedIn and Medium! And support Ran&Read lunch here on PH!