Hi, my name is

Salvatore Spina

C++ Software Engineer

I craft high-performance, production-grade C++ systems at Amadeus — obsessed with shaving milliseconds and squeezing every cycle. When I'm not optimizing hot paths, you'll find me competing on CodinGame or hunting down countries on GeoGuessr.

View My Work Get In Touch Download CV
~/ portfolio

$ cat about_me.txt

01. About Me

I'm a Software Engineer at Amadeus, focused on building and optimizing the C++ backends that keep airline search and booking running smoothly — fast, reliable, and at scale.

I got my start at 42 Nice , a school with no teachers and no classes — just you, the machine, and a problem to solve. That environment shaped the way I think: dig deep, own the problem, ship it.

Outside of work, I'm a competitive programming enthusiast and an avid GeoGuessr player. I like hard problems, wherever they come from.

What I work with:

Languages

  • C++ (C++17 / C++20)
  • C
  • Python
  • Bash

Performance & Debugging

  • Profiling
  • Benchmarking
  • Valgrind
  • Flame Graphs
  • Google Benchmark

Tooling & Infrastructure

  • Linux Systems
  • Git
  • Jenkins & CI/CD
  • Grafana

Practices

  • Test Driven Development
  • Code Reviews
  • Scrum & Agile
  • Mentoring
  • Interviewing
Salvatore Spina

02. Experience

Software Engineer @ Amadeus

Mar 2023 — Present

France (Hybrid)

  • Co-designed a high-performance C++ backend library powering airline search & booking across multiple carriers at massive scale.
  • Drove performance optimization efforts that cut CPU usage by ~20% and shaved ~15% off response times in production.
  • Profiled and debugged critical paths using Valgrind, flame graphs, and custom benchmarks to eliminate bottlenecks.
  • Tracked down and fixed memory leaks, race conditions, and stability issues — the kind of bugs that wake you up at night.
  • Modernized legacy codebases to C++17/20, making them cleaner, safer, and easier to evolve.
  • Strengthened CI/CD pipelines and monitoring (Jenkins, Grafana) to ship with more confidence.
  • Mentored junior engineers through code reviews and design discussions.

Master's Degree (BAC+5) @ 42 Paris

2021 — 2024

RNCP 7 — IT Architecture Expert

  • Specialisation: Database & Data Development
  • Specialisation: Network & Information Systems

Bachelor's Degree (BAC+3) @ 42 Paris

RNCP 6 — IT Solutions Designer & Developer

  • Specialisation: Applicative Development
  • Specialisation: Web & Mobile Development

Achievements

🏆
Winner — TalentInTech Hackathon 2025

€5,000 prize

🥈
2nd Place — CodinGame Spring Challenge 2024

Global competition

🏅
4th Place — CodinGame Fall Challenge 2022

Global competition

03. Work & Writing

Projects, articles, and things worth sharing

Project

Flag Guesser

Built this to get better at GeoGuessr — ended up learning 195 flags instead. An interactive quiz game with continent filtering, flashcard mode, autocomplete, and procedural sound effects. Zero dependencies, just vibes and vanilla JS.

Flag Guesser gameplay Preview
  • JavaScript
  • HTML/CSS
  • Web Audio API
Article
Nov 2025

How We Won the TalentInTech Hackathon 2025

A behind-the-scenes look at our winning strategy, the tech choices we made under pressure, and what we learned along the way.

TalentInTech Hackathon 2025 Preview
  • Hackathon
  • Strategy
  • Teamwork
Project

Q-Learning Snake

A reinforcement learning project where a snake learns to survive using the Q-learning algorithm. Configurable hyperparameters, saveable models, and a Pygame GUI to watch the AI improve in real time.

Q-Learning Snake gameplay Preview
  • Python
  • Q-Learning
  • Pygame
  • Reinforcement Learning

04. Get In Touch

Whether you have a project in mind, want to talk C++, or just feel like challenging me on GeoGuessr — my inbox is always open.

Say Hello