🏆 Contest Tracker

A full-stack MERN-based web application to track upcoming and past coding contests from multiple platforms, featuring Google Calendar integration and secure user authentication.

➡️ View the Live Application

---

📋 About The Project

Contest Tracker solves a common problem for competitive programmers: keeping track of coding contests spread across multiple websites. This application aggregates contest data from Codeforces, LeetCode, HackerEarth, and TopCoder into a single, clean interface. Users can log in with their Google account to save contests, add events directly to their Google Calendar, and find YouTube solutions for past contests automatically.

✨ Key Features

• ✅ Multi-Platform Aggregation: View contests from Codeforces, LeetCode, HackerEarth, and TopCoder.
• ✅ Secure Google OAuth 2.0: Users can sign up and log in securely with their Google account.
• ✅ Google Calendar Integration: Add any upcoming contest to your personal Google Calendar with a single click.
• ✅ Bookmark Contests: Save contests for later and view them in a dedicated bookmarks page.
• ✅ Automated Solution Finder: The backend automatically searches for YouTube video solutions for past contests.
• ✅ "Today's Contests" View: Quickly see all contests happening on the current day.
• ✅ Search & Filter: Easily search for contests by name and filter by platform.
• ✅ Dark/Light Mode: A sleek, modern UI with theme-switching capability.
• ✅ Fully Responsive: Designed to work beautifully on all devices, from desktops to mobile phones.

🛠️ Tech Stack

This project was built using a modern MERN-stack architecture within a monorepo.

• Frontend:

  • React (with Vite)
  • Tailwind CSS
  • React Hooks for State Management
  • Axios for API Calls

• Backend:

  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • MongoDB (with Mongoose)
  • Passport.js for Google OAuth 2.0
  • express-session for Session Management

• APIs:

  • Google Calendar API
  • YouTube Data API

• Deployment:

  • Frontend: Vercel
  • Backend: Render
  • CI/CD pipeline managed from a single GitHub monorepo.

🚀 Getting Started (Local Setup)

To get a local copy up and running, follow these simple steps.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later)
• npm
• Git

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/your-username/contest-tracker.git](https://github.com/your-username/contest-tracker.git)
   cd contest-tracker

2. Setup the Backend (/server):

   • Navigate to the server directory:

     cd server

   • Install NPM packages:

     npm install

   • Create a .env file in the /server directory and add the required environment variables (see below).
   • Start the server:

     node index.js

3. Setup the Frontend (/contest-tracker):

   • From the root directory, navigate to the frontend directory:

     cd contest-tracker

   • Install NPM packages:

     npm install

   • Create a .env file in the /contest-tracker directory and add VITE_API_BASE_URL.
   • Start the client:

     npm run dev

🔑 Environment Variables

You will need to create two .env files for this project to run locally.

1. Backend (/server/.env):

MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
SESSION_SECRET=a_super_secret_random_string
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_google_client_secret
YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_youtube_api_key
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173
GOOGLE_CALLBACK_URL=http://localhost:5000/auth/google/callback