Me-API Playground (Backend Assessment - Track A)

Live URLs

• Backend API: https://me-api-playground-ql1p.onrender.com
• API Docs (Swagger): https://me-api-playground-ql1p.onrender.com/docs
• Frontend: https://blackiron007.github.io/me-api-playground/

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Overview

This project is a minimal backend and frontend playground that stores my candidate profile in a database and exposes it via a REST API. It demonstrates backend fundamentals such as API design, database modeling, query filtering, and frontend consumption.

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Tech Stack

• Backend: FastAPI (Python)
• Database: SQLite (via SQLAlchemy ORM)
• Frontend: Plain HTML + JavaScript (Fetch API)
• Hosting: Render (Backend), Static HTML (Frontend)

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Architecture Overview

• The frontend consumes the backend via REST APIs.
• The backend handles validation, filtering, and database access.
• SQLite is used for simplicity and reproducibility.

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Database Schema

The database consists of two main tables:

profile

Stores basic candidate information.

CREATE TABLE profile (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT,
    email TEXT,
    education TEXT,
    github TEXT,
    linkedin TEXT,
    portfolio TEXT
);

projects

Stores project details.

CREATE TABLE projects (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    title TEXT,
    description TEXT,
    skills TEXT,
    link TEXT
);

Note: Project skills are stored as a comma-separated string for simplicity. This is a conscious trade-off to reduce schema complexity within the assessment scope.

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API Endpoints

Health Check

GET /health

Returns 200 OK if the service is live.

Profile

GET /profile

Fetches or updates the candidate profile.

Projects

GET /projects
GET /projects?skill=python

Returns all projects or filters projects by skill.

Search

GET /search?q=keyword

Performs a simple substring search across project title, description, and skills.

Top Skills

GET /skills/top

Returns skills ranked by frequency across projects.

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Frontend

The frontend is a minimal HTML page that:

• Displays the candidate profile
• Lists projects
• Allows filtering projects by skill

It communicates with the backend using the Fetch API and demonstrates CORS-enabled API consumption.

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Local Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone <repo-url>
cd me-api-playground

2. Create virtual environment

python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows
source venv/bin/activate  # macOS/Linux

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Seed the database

python -m app.seed

5. Run the backend

uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Open:

API docs: http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs

Frontend: Open frontend/index.html in browser

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Deployment

• Backend is deployed on Render.
• Frontend is a static HTML page that consumes the hosted API.
• Environment variables are used for configuration in production.
• The application automatically seeds initial data on startup if the database is empty. This ensures compatibility with free-tier hosting environments.

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Sample API Calls

curl /health
curl /projects?skill=python
curl /search?q=api

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Known Limitations & Trade-offs

• SQLite is used instead of PostgreSQL for faster setup and reproducibility.
• Skills are stored as comma-separated values rather than a normalized join table.
• No authentication is implemented for write operations.
• Search uses basic substring matching (no full-text search).
• Frontend is intentionally minimal and unstyled.
• These decisions were made to keep the scope small while maintaining a production-minded structure.

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Remarks

• If extended further, this project could include:
• Authentication for write operations
• Pagination for project listing
• Proper skill normalization
• Full-text search
• CI/CD and automated tests

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