📚 PrepMate – Full Stack Learning Platform

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PrepMate is a full-stack web application that helps students prepare for technical interviews in a structured and interactive way.
It enables students to:

• 📚 Practice subject-wise questions with subtopic categorization
• 📊 Track learning progress with real-time progress bars
• 📝 Share and explore interview experiences from peers

Built with a modern React + Tailwind + Shadcn UI frontend, and a PostgreSQL + Prisma backend, PrepMate ensures both performance and scalability. Optimized APIs are powered by Redis caching for lightning-fast responses.

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🚀 Features

• 🔐 Authentication & Authorization
  Secure login system with JWT-based authentication and role-based access (User/Admin).

• 📖 Subjects & Subtopics Management
  Organize practice material by subject → subtopic → question.

• ❓ Question Bank

  • Add, update, and delete subject-wise questions.
  • Fast retrieval with Redis caching + invalidation.

• ✅ Progress Tracking

  • Track completion status of each question.
  • Visualize progress through interactive progress bars.

• 📝 Interview Experiences

  • Share real-world interview stories.
  • Public experiences visible upon admin approval.

• ⚡ Optimized APIs with Redis

  • Reduced DB load through caching.
  • Intelligent cache invalidation ensures data consistency.

• 🎨 Modern UI/UX

  • Responsive design using Tailwind CSS.
  • Prebuilt components with Shadcn UI.
  • Smooth animations with Framer Motion.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend → React, Tailwind CSS, Shadcn UI, Framer Motion
• Backend → Node.js, Express.js
• Database → PostgreSQL (Prisma ORM)
• Caching → Redis (Upstash)
• Deployment → Vercel (Frontend + Backend), NeonDB (Postgres), Upstash Redis

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⚡ Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/prepmate.git
   cd prepmate

2. Install dependencies

   npm install
   

3. Configure environment variables Create a .env file in the root with:

    DATABASE_URL=your_postgres_url
    REDIS_URL=your_redis_url
    FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
    JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
   

4. Run Prisma migrations

    npx prisma migrate dev
   

5. Start the backend

   npm run dev
   

6. Start the frontend

   cd frontend
   npm run dev
   

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📊 Caching Strategy

Endpoint	TTL (Time-to-Live)	Invalidation Condition
/subjects	12 hours	On adding a new subject, subtopic, or question
/subtopics/:subject	1 hour	On adding a new subtopic
/questions/:subtopic	15 minutes	On add, update, or delete question
/interview/public	30 minutes	On approve or delete interview experience

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📝 Notes

• Subjects (12h) → Subjects are relatively stable and change less frequently, so a longer TTL reduces redundant database calls.
• Subtopics (1h) → Subtopics may get updated more often than subjects but not as frequently as questions, hence a moderate TTL.
• Questions (15m) → Questions are dynamic and likely to be added, updated, or removed frequently, so the cache is kept short.
• Public Interview Experiences (30m) → These are user-submitted and pending moderation, so a shorter TTL ensures faster reflection of approval or deletion.

🌍 Deployment

🔗Live Link