Surya Sree Bathini - Rookie of the Month April 2026

1) Let’s start with you!

Tell us a bit about yourself – your background, current role, and what excites you most in the world of tech.

I have a background in Computer Science and Data Science, with a UG degree in CSE from IIIT and a Diploma in Data Science from IIT Madras. Currently, I work as a Software Developer and AI/ML Engineer at Hexacluster Corp, where I build software solutions and work on machine learning applications.

What excites me most in tech today is Artificial Intelligence. It’s one of the fastest-growing fields and has the potential to transform many industries, which motivates me to keep learning and building AI-driven solutions.

2) Why PostgreSQL? What inspired you to explore or switch to PostgreSQL?

I was introduced to PostgreSQL through my work at Hexacluster Corp, where we began migrating several proprietary databases, such as Oracle, to open-source PostgreSQL. Working on these migrations helped me understand database systems more deeply, and PostgreSQL was the first database I worked with extensively.

What inspired me to continue exploring PostgreSQL is its open-source nature, strong community support, and powerful features. Over time, I became very comfortable with its concepts and capabilities, which made it my preferred database to work with.

3) What are you working on with PostgreSQL right now?

Share the cool stuff you’re building, learning, or solving using PostgreSQL.

At Hexacluster Corp, I work on database migration and modernization projects where we help move systems from proprietary databases like Oracle to PostgreSQL. Recently, I’ve been involved in migration workflows, compatibility checks, and understanding how PostgreSQL can support different database workloads. It’s been interesting to see how flexible PostgreSQL is when handling migrations from many different database systems.

4) What’s been your biggest learning or challenge on this journey?

A lesson, mistake, or an aha moment, we’d love to hear about it!

One of the biggest learning experiences has been working on database migrations from proprietary systems like Oracle to PostgreSQL. Each database has its own quirks, syntax differences, and features, so ensuring compatibility and performance can be challenging. Through this process, I’ve learned a lot about PostgreSQL internals and how flexible it is. Extensions to support other databses’ compatibility was one of the coolest things I thought when I first learned about them.

5) Your wisdom to rookies like yourself?

PostgreSQL is one of the easiest and most powerful databases to start with. It supports almost everything you’d expect from modern OLTP databases, and the community keeps adding amazing features. From traditional workloads to newer areas like vector databases and AI integrations, PostgreSQL keeps evolving. Since it’s open source and backed by a strong community, it’s a great place for anyone to start learning databases.

6) Finally, describe your PostgreSQL journey in one word.

Yep, just one!

MyDB

7) Who or what has influenced your PostgreSQL learning the most?

A mentor, a community, a course, a project, tell us what or who helped you grow.

My company, Hexacluster Corp, has had the biggest influence on my PostgreSQL learning. We have many senior engineers with 20+ years of database experience, especially in PostgreSQL. From day one, I started working with tools like psql and learning PostgreSQL fundamentals from people who work with it every day. Being surrounded by experts has accelerated my learning a lot.

8) What’s one PostgreSQL concept or feature you finally understood and felt proud of?

That lightbulb moment when something clicked, we all have one!

One feature I recently explored deeply was PostgreSQL’s modern authentication mechanism, OAuth 2.0 Authentication. While learning about newer authentication integrations, I started understanding how login handshakes, token exchanges, and secure authentication flows work with PostgreSQL. That moment of understanding how the whole process works behind the scenes felt like a real breakthrough for me.