🧠 MERN Education Platform Backend (API-Only)

Robust Node.js backend for a full-fledged education + quiz platform with JWT Auth, role-based dashboards, course management, quiz creation, scoring, leaderboards, and student performance tracking.

✅ Built from scratch using Node.js, Express, and MongoDB, this backend powers student-teacher interaction for an interactive learning platform. Designed for clarity, security, and extensibility.

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🚀 Features

🔐 Auth System

• ✅ Secure JWT-based login & registration
• ✅ Roles: student, teacher
• ✅ Role-based route access (middleware protected)

🎓 Course Management

• 👨‍🏫 Teachers can create, manage their courses
• 👩‍🎓 Students can enroll only via backend-auth

❓ Quiz Engine

• 📝 Teachers can create quizzes:

  • Add any number of questions
  • Associate them with existing courses
  • Control visibility (draft / publish)
  • Set quiz start & end time ⏳

• 🔍 Students can:

  • View only enrolled course quizzes
  • Take quiz once (attempt restriction)
  • Receive immediate scoring
  • Receive certificate if passed threshold criteria 🎓
  • Receive feedback for each answer (correct/wrong)
  • Receive email report after quiz attempt 📧
  • Blocked from accessing quiz outside time window

🏆 Leaderboards

• ✅ Quiz-specific leaderboard
• ✅ Global leaderboard across all quizzes

📊 Student Dashboard

• ✅ View enrolled courses
• ✅ View available quizzes
• ✅ View attempt score history
• ✅ View per-quiz detailed per-question feedback

📈 Teacher Dashboard

• ✅ View all created courses
• ✅ View quizzes with stats (students, attempts)
• ✅ Access any student’s dashboard via dropdown
• ✅ Teachers can monitor individual student entire performance history

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📁 Project Structure

📦 Quiz-App-Backend
├── controllers/
│ ├── authController.js
│ ├── courseController.js
│ ├── quizController.js
│ └── dashboardController.js
├── middleware/
│ ├── authMiddleware.js
│ └── roleMiddleware.js
├── models/
│ ├── User.js
│ ├── Course.js
│ ├── Quiz.js
│ ├── QuizAttempt.js
│ └── Certificate.js
├── routes/
│ ├── authRoutes.js
│ ├── courseRoutes.js
│ ├── quizRoutes.js
│ └── dashboardRoutes.js
├── server.js
├── config/
│ └── db.js
└── utils/
├── tokenUtils.js
└── emailSender.js

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⚙️ Tech Stack

Layer	Tech Used
Language	JavaScript (ES6)
Backend	Node.js + Express
Database	MongoDB + Mongoose ORM
Auth	JWT Tokens
Role Guard	Middleware based restriction
Email	Nodemailer (Gmail SMTP)
Testing	Postman

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🔒 Authentication Flow

/api/auth/register → create account
/api/auth/login    → returns token + user info

🔐 All routes except login/register are protected.
🔐 Student/Teacher routes have role guard.

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🔄 API Overview

Method	Route	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Register as student/teacher
POST	/api/auth/login	Login, returns JWT
POST	/api/courses/:id/enroll	Student enrolls in course
GET	/api/courses	View all courses (by role)
POST	/api/quizzes	Create a quiz (teacher)
GET	/api/quizzes	Get available quizzes (by role)
GET	/api/quizzes/:id	Get specific quiz
POST	/api/quizzes/:quizId/attempt	Submit a quiz
GET	/api/quizzes/:quizId/leaderboard	Quiz leaderboard
GET	/api/leaderboard/global	Global leaderboard
GET	/api/dashboard/student	Student’s own dashboard
GET	/api/dashboard/:id/student	Teacher views any student
GET	/api/quizzes/:id/certificate	Receive Certificate if eligible

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🧪 How to Test

1. Clone the repo and run:

npm install
npm run dev

2. Use Postman to:

   • Register/login as both roles
   • Create course (teacher)
   • Enroll (student)
   • Create quiz (set startTime, endTime, and duration)
   • Attempt quiz (respect time window!)
   • Check leaderboard & dashboard routes
   • Confirm email is received after attempt
   • Confirm cert is generated if passed

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💡 Possible Extensions

• ✅ Draft/Publish quizzes
• ✅ One attempt per student
• ✅ Quiz feedback (per question)
• ✅ Global leaderboard
• ✅ Email report to student after attempt
• ✅ Timed/expiring quizzes ⏳
• 🔜 Tag-based quiz filters
• 🔜 Certificate verification link

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👥 Author

Built by Mehul Khanna

Crafted with ❤️, caffeine, and hundreds of test requests.

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