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I’m looking for some advice and recommendations on a technical interview challenge I just received. As you already know, the job market really sucks right now, and I’ve been looking for a job for a long time. This challenge is not exactly in my main area of expertise, but I still want to give it a serious shot.
So here’s the task:
I need to programmatically send disappearing photos on Telegram Web (version A) using only JavaScript inside a Chrome extension. No external libraries, no backend server, no GramJS… everything must be contained inside the extension.
The tricky part is that Telegram Web doesn’t expose disappearing photos in the UI, but the mobile app does. Which means the logic exists somewhere — just not directly visible.
What I’m trying to figure out
I’m not sure which approach would be most effective:
Should I reverse engineer the API from the Android app? Like inspecting network calls, protocol layers, and how disappearing media is sent behind the scenes?
Or should I dig into the Telegram Web version A source code and try to discover the internal service/class/function responsible for sending disappearing media?
Or maybe there's a hidden endpoint or MTProto flag used for secret chats or timed media that I can reproduce manually?
The goal is to find how Telegram sends disappearing photos, and then replicate that logic using pure JS inside a Chrome extension that directly interacts with Telegram Web’s internal functions / services.
What I need from you
If you have any experience with:
Reverse-engineering web apps
Inspecting internal APIs
Understanding MTProto or Telegram’s internal client logic
Chrome extension scripting
Or general tips on how to approach this kind of challenge
I would really appreciate your recommendations.
Thanks in advance — every bit of insight means a lot during this job hunt 🙏
