TickBoard

Engineering challenge

A small application becomes a useful platform exercise when its delivery path, runtime boundaries, and operational behavior are documented alongside the code. TickBoard provides a concrete full-stack workload for practicing containerization, API design, infrastructure provisioning, and GitOps delivery.

Architecture & design

• Use a React frontend and Go / Gin API as independently deployable services.
• Persist application data in MongoDB and expose a Swagger-documented API for inspection and integration.
• Package the stack with Docker Compose for local development and describe the Terraform, Kubernetes, and Argo CD path for cluster delivery.
• Place Nginx at the edge for HTTPS and route frontend, API, and database administration paths explicitly.

Implementation

• Built task, user, registration, and authentication flows across the React and Gin services.
• Added JWT-based authentication, Swagger documentation, health checks, and Dockerized local development.
• Documented Terraform infrastructure, Kubernetes manifests, Kustomize overlays, and Argo CD application synchronization.
• Recorded operational boundaries and called out development-only storage and secret handling decisions.

Validation & impact

• The repository documents local startup, API health, Swagger, and production reverse-proxy checks.
• The project is presented as a demonstrable application and deployment exercise; production availability and service-level outcomes are not claimed.

Limitations & next steps

• The documented MongoDB deployment uses emptyDir for development and should be replaced with durable storage for production.
• Secrets, image publishing, ingress, and cluster acceptance still require environment-specific configuration and verification.
• The repository is a small project, so the portfolio value comes from the end-to-end delivery path rather than application complexity.