Backend Practice API

This project is a personal backend refresher build created as I prepare to start my journey as a Junior Software Developer next week. I built it to strengthen my fundamentals in backend development before stepping into real-world work.

The goal was simple: practice the core building blocks of a backend application from scratch using modern tools and clean project structure.

What this project covers

This API demonstrates several backend fundamentals, including:

• Building a REST API with Express and TypeScript
• Creating reusable route and controller structure
• Implementing authentication with JWT and password hashing
• Validating request data with Zod
• Working with PostgreSQL through Prisma ORM
• Designing relational data models for users, movies, and watchlists
• Handling errors and environment configuration cleanly

Features

• User signup, login, and logout
• JWT-based authentication
• Movie creation and retrieval
• Movie removal for authorized users
• Watchlist management for users
• Prisma-powered database access with relational models

Tech stack

• TypeScript
• Node.js
• Express
• Prisma ORM
• PostgreSQL
• JWT
• bcryptjs
• Zod

Project structure

src/
  controllers/     # Request handlers
  routes/          # API routes
  middleware/      # Auth, validation, and error handling
  validators/      # Input validation schemas
  config/          # Database configuration
prisma/
  schema.prisma    # Database schema and models
  seed.ts          # Seed script for initial data

Getting started

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Create your environment file

Create a .env file in the project root with the following values:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<database>
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
NODE_ENV=development

3. Run Prisma migrations

npx prisma migrate dev

4. Seed the database

npm run seed:movies

5. Start the development server

npm run dev

The server will run on:

http://localhost:5001

API overview

Auth

• POST /auth/signup
• POST /auth/login
• POST /auth/logout

Movies

• GET /movies
• POST /movies
• DELETE /movies/:movieId

Watchlist

• POST /watchlist
• GET /watchlist
• DELETE /watchlist/:movieId

Why I built this

This project is part of my personal preparation before starting work as a junior developer. It helped me refresh my understanding of backend concepts, improve my confidence with full-stack-style API development, and build something practical that I can talk about in interviews and on GitHub.

What I learned

Through this project, I strengthened my understanding of:

• API design
• Authentication flow
• Data modeling
• Database integration
• Error handling
• Clean code structure for backend systems

Next steps

Some ideas for improving this project further:

• Add unit and integration tests
• Add API documentation with Swagger
• Improve input validation and error responses
• Add role-based access control
• Deploy the API to a cloud service

License

This project is for learning and personal development purposes.