Full-Stack Technical Challenge – Auto-Generated Blog (AWS + Docker)

Welcome! This is a technical exercise for a full-stack / DevOps-oriented developer.

You have 1 week from receiving this challenge to complete it.

The goal is to build and deploy a simple auto-generated blog using:

• React (frontend)
• Node.js (backend)
• PostgresSQL (DB)
• Docker
• AWS EC2 + CodeBuild + ECR

❗ Important:

• Deploy only on EC2.
• Do NOT use ECS (not required for the challenge).
• Use free-tier AWS as much as possible.
• AI text generation may use a free API or max $5 on a paid API.

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1. What You Must Submit

At the end of the challenge, send an email to:

📩 hiring@assimetria.com

with the subject:

[Tech Challenge] - <Your Name>

Your email must include three things:

1. Live URL

   • Link to your deployed app running on EC2.

2. Code Repository

   • A link to a public GitHub repo containing:
     • Source code
     • Dockerfiles
     • Infrastructure config (CodeBuild, etc.)
     • Any notes needed to run locally

3. Short Video (30–120 seconds)

   • Briefly introduce yourself
   • Explain what you built
   • Explain your technical decisions
   • Mention what you would improve with more time
   • Any video platform is fine (YouTube unlisted, Loom, Drive, etc.)

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2. Application Requirements

Frontend (React)

• Should display a list of blog articles
• Should display full content when clicking an article
• Built using React, Dockerized

Backend (Node.js)

• Provides endpoints to:
  • List all articles
  • Retrieve a single article
• Generates new articles using one of the AI/text methods below
• Dockerized

Storage

• Your choice:
  • JSON file
  • SQLite
  • Postgres
  • Any simple persistent option on EC2

No constraints here — pick what you’re comfortable with.

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3. AI / Text Generation Options

Your backend must generate articles using one of the following options:

Option A – Free API (Recommended)

You may use any of these:

• HuggingFace Inference API (free models)
• OpenRouter free-tier models
• DeepInfra free-tier
• Replicate free models

→ Easily €0 cost.

Option B – OpenAI (Max ~$5)

You can use OpenAI models, but:

• Use your own API key
• Spend no more than $5

Option C – Local Small Model

You may run an open-source model locally inside the backend container.

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4. Automation Requirements

The system must:

• Automatically generate 1 new article per day
• Already contain at least 3 articles when we check it

You can implement scheduling using:

• A cron job on EC2, or
• A scheduler inside Node.js (e.g. node-cron)

Either is fine as long as it works.

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5. Infrastructure Requirements

This task evaluates your ability to set up real deployment workflows.

AWS Resources

You must use:

• EC2

  • One instance
  • Hosts your dockerized frontend + backend
  • Do NOT use ECS

• ECR

  • Store your Docker images

• CodeBuild

  • Pulls your repo
  • Builds Docker images
  • Pushes images to ECR

Docker

• Both frontend and backend must have separate Dockerfiles
• You can include a docker-compose.yml for local dev

Basic Deployment Flow

One acceptable example:

1. Push code to GitHub
2. CodeBuild:
   • Pulls repo
   • Builds Docker images
   • Pushes to ECR
3. EC2:
   • Pulls and runs the latest images
4. App runs on EC2 public IP

You may automate this or run manually — just explain what you did.

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6. Suggested Folder Structure

.
├── backend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── index.js
│   │   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── services/
│   │   │   ├── aiClient.js
│   │   │   └── articleJob.js
│   │   └── models/
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── README.md
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   ├── pages/
│   │   ├── api/
│   │   │   └── client.js
│   │   └── App.jsx
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── README.md
│
├── infra/
│   ├── buildspec.yml
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   └── scripts/
│       ├── deploy.sh
│       └── init-ec2.sh
│
├── docs/
│   └── ARCHITECTURE.md
│
└── README.md

Feel free to adjust, but keep it clean and documented.

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7. Evaluation Criteria

We look at:

• End-to-end execution
• Working deployment
• Quality and clarity of code
• Docker & AWS understanding
• Clean build pipeline (CodeBuild + ECR)
• Reasonable AI integration
• Clear thinking in your video
• Ability to communicate your decisions

We do not expect perfection.
We expect you to show ownership, reasoning, and autonomy.

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8. Submission Summary

Send everything to:

📩 hiring@assimetria.com

With subject:

[Tech Challenge] - <Your Name>

Include:

• 1. Link to deployed app
• 2. Link to GitHub repo
• 3. Video link (30–120 sec)

Thank you and good luck!