Job Applicants System

The Job Applicants System is a scalable web application designed for managing information about job candidates. It consists of a back-end service with API endpoints and a front-end application that integrates seamlessly with the back-end via these APIs.

Leveraging an event-driven architecture with RabbitMQ, the system is built to handle large volumes of candidate data, designed to eventually support tens of thousands of records.

The project follows a layered architecture approach, emphasizing modularity, maintainability, and scalability to meet both current and future needs in candidate management.

Prerequisites

Before setting up and running the Job Applicants System, ensure you have the following installed and configured:

• Node.js and npm (for running the front-end application)
• RabbitMQ (for event-driven communication)
• Database (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and connection url provided
• Docker

Installation

If you don't have RabbitMQ installed, you can use the public Docker image by running this command

docker run -it --rm --name rabbitmq -p 5672:5672 -p 15672:15672 rabbitmq:3.9-management

Then in your backend env file you will replace the RABBITMQ_URL with :

amqp://guest:guest@localhost:5672

Follow these steps to install and run the Job Applicants System:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/MN-987/job-applicants-system.git

2. Install dependencies in front end and backend by running npm install in each folder :

npm install

3. Running the Backend and Frontend:

   • Backend:

     • Navigate to the backend directory.
     • Then run this command npm start
     • Copy the URL of the backend service.

   • Frontend:

     • Navigate to the frontend directory.
     • Then run this command npm run dev
     • Copy the URL of the frontend application.

   • Environment Variables:

     • Create a .env file in both the backend and frontend directories (if not already present).
     • Use the .envexample file as a template.
     • Paste the respective URLs into the .env files for FRONTEND_URL (frontend) and VITE_REACT_APP_backend_URL (backend).

4. Migrate Database

   Note: Here, I used Prisma Client with PostgreSQL. You can configure Prisma or any other ORM of your choice.
   It is Importand then to Implement the interface present in the reposotiry layer

   npx prisma migrate dev --name init

5. To run test write this command in each directory :

npm run test

Usage

Send a POST request using the frontend or Postman to /api/v1/apply with the following JSON object in the request body:

{
    "type": "candidate_application",
    "data": {
        "firstName": "ali",
        "lastName": "Doe",
        "phoneNumber": "123-456-7890",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "bestCallTime": "9am-11am",
        "linkedInUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndoe",
        "githubUrl": "https://github.com/johndoe",
        "comment": "Experienced full-stack developer with expertise in Node.js and React."
    }
}

Note:

if yor enocounter error while testing with jest in the Frontend you need to hardocde the url in the axios instance present in the config file in the service folder
e.g replace baseURL: import.meta.env.VITE_REACT_APP_backend_URL with
baseURL:'http://localhost:5000/api/'
or process.env.REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL

Total Hours spend on the task : 8 hours

List of ways for improvement:

• Making a Docker image from the app for easy deployments and in case we want to make this project work as a microservice since I followed an event-driven approach with the help of rabbitmq and queues.

• Implement the app using clean architecture so that we can change the modules used without changing the business logic.

• Implementing a Notification Service which will send an email to the candidate after saving the data in the database.

• Implement Redis caching: Right now the caching is done with local storage because there are no GET endpoints, but if we want to add one, then it is better to use Redis as a caching layer between the DB and the website.

• Implement rate limiting to prevent DDoS attacks and submitting the form more than one time.

• By default, Prisma prevents SQL injection, but it is better to add another layer of protection by making regex validation and also preventing XSS.

• Implementing JWT authentication: Right now, the website is vulnerable to IDOR. Any user can change the email to an already existing candidate and change their data. This can be prevented by implementing JWT tokens and authentication logic to validate the users. Also, with the help of OAuth, we can let users first sign in using Google Mail and then fill the form.