During January 2026, Steiner enhanced the puzzle/puzzletime repository by extending the Employee serializer to include an employed_within_three_months field, enabling the API to surface recent employment status for users. This backend development work, implemented in Ruby on Rails, involved refactoring the boolean type declaration to use a symbol, improving code clarity and maintainability. Steiner also updated the associated serializer tests to ensure the new field was properly validated, focusing on robust test coverage rather than bug fixes. The work demonstrated a methodical approach to evolving the API surface, leveraging Ruby and Rails best practices to improve data transparency.