🏆 Capstone
LESSON 32 OF 32
Final Project — MERN App
Everything, Together, Deployed
This is the course in one project: a MongoDB-backed, Express + Node API, a React frontend, deployed live and shareable with a URL — this is your portfolio piece.
🏆 Capstone Checklist — Full MERN Application
Pick your own idea (task manager, blog, marketplace, booking app) — the requirements below apply regardless of theme.
- Backend: Express REST API with full CRUD for at least one resource
- Backend: MongoDB + Mongoose for persistent storage
- Backend: JWT authentication — register, login, protected routes
- Frontend: React app with React Router (at least 3 routes)
- Frontend: useState/useEffect for data fetching and UI state
- Frontend: A working login/register flow that stores the JWT and attaches it to requests
- Frontend: Responsive layout — usable on mobile, tablet, and desktop
- Deployment: Frontend live on Vercel, backend live on Railway, database on MongoDB Atlas
- Deployment: CORS configured correctly between the two live domains
- Quality: No console errors on the deployed site; environment variables used for all secrets
- Documentation: A README with the live URL, tech stack, and setup instructions
Stretch goal: Add pagination or search to your main data list, and a loading/error state for every fetch.
✅
This is the whole course, applied
Every lesson from 1 to 31 feeds directly into this build — HTML/CSS for structure, JavaScript fundamentals for logic, React for the UI, Express/MongoDB/JWT for the backend, and Git/Vercel/Railway to ship it. Once deployed, put the live link on your resume.