Testing and R&D at Guap

This report details my first Co-op work term at Guap, a Canadian fintech startup, which I completed during the Fall 2025 semester. It highlights both the technical work I contributed and how the experience helped me grow as a software engineer in a real-world environment.

During the first half of the term, I worked on research and development for Guap’s ATM platform, exploring alternative ATM providers and building test prototypes to evaluate their technical fit. In the second half, I focused on improving the reliability of Guap’s mobile app by building automated tests and integrating them into the development workflow.

Throughout the term, I strengthened both technical and foundational skills, including collaborating with a small engineering team, communicating technical ideas clearly, and adapting to real-world software development practices.

Guap is a Canadian-founded, US-based fintech startup focused on building infrastructure that connects cash-based systems with digital financial services. The company operates in the areas of financial technology, distributed systems, and software engineering, with an emphasis on creating reliable and accessible tools for moving between physical cash and digital currencies.

Guap’s work combines backend services, mobile application development, and integrations with physical financial hardware such as ATMs, with active physical infrastructure deployed in the Caribbean.

As a startup with a small, distributed engineering team of six people spanning four different countries, the team works closely across roles, allowing developers to contribute to both research-oriented projects and production systems. In addition to technical work, I also gained exposure to startup operations such as marketing and financial planning, providing broader insight into how engineering decisions interact with business priorities.

This environment offers opportunities to work with modern development tools, collaborate directly with other engineers, and gain exposure to the full lifecycle of real-world software systems, from early planning to deployment and maintenance.

During my work term at Guap, I worked as a Software Engineering Intern supporting the design, testing, and evaluation of the Guap StableTeller platform. The StableTeller is a kiosk-based system that enables users to convert physical cash into digital value and vice versa, providing access to digital financial services for cash-reliant and unbanked users.

My role focused primarily on research and development for ATM hardware integration and automated testing for the accompanying mobile wallet app. One of the most interesting aspects of my role was working on early-stage research and engineering validation rather than only production feature development.

During the first half of the term, I evaluated alternative ATM providers, such as Genmega, by building TypeScript-based prototypes and mock test harnesses to simulate cash deposit and withdrawal workflows. This work required understanding device-level behaviour, designing testable abstractions, and evaluating technical trade-offs.I learned TypeScript entirely on the job and applied it directly to this research work.

In the second half of the term, I shifted focus to mobile wallet app testing and quality infrastructure. I built automated tests using Jest, React Native testing tools, and Maestro. I integrated these tests into a continuous integration pipeline using GitHub and GitHub Actions, which I also learned on the job. This work improved test reliability and reduced the need for manual testing during development.

Throughout the term, I collaborated closely with the engineering team using Slack for communication and Trello for task planning, tools I was already familiar with from CIS*3250 (Software Design III). Most of the technical skills required for the role, including hardware-oriented testing, mobile test automation, and CI pipeline development, were learned on the job.

The position required working independently, communicating technical findings clearly, and adapting to real-world software development practices.

My first Co-op work term at Guap offered a practical look at how software teams operate. By working on both independent research for the ATM platform and automated testing for the accompanying mobile wallet app, I learned how to balance different types of engineering tasks while contributing to the team's goals.

The most valuable part of the experience was taking ownership of specific technical challenges. Navigating R&D and building quality infrastructure showed me the importance of creating reliable systems that actually hold up in a real-world setting.

I'm leaving this term with a lot more confidence in React Native Testing, TypeScript, and CI/CD, and a better understanding of what it takes to be a useful member of a software team.