Step by step

(disclaimer: this project was done as part of an interview process)

Starting, since the specs don't mention if the frontend should be separate from the node server that implements the API or not (as in a SPA), I decided to split the difference and implement a universal/isomorphic frontend, so it supports SSR but once it loads the frontend router handles navigation, thus some of the benefits of both worlds. After some research I decided to bootstrap the necessary setup with https://github.com/jaredpalmer/razzle . I looked into doing the setup from scratch but it looked like too much trouble and out of scope for this exercise. Razzle generated this baseline: https://github.com/jpka/express-react-universal-example/tree/a92172eedbba09753ebb9be02642acd4d90ced07

After that I created a new branch config-and-structure and started doing what it says on the title. Mainly adding linting, Typescript (I always use typescript if I have a choice) and configuring jest with a multiple project setup to test the client, the server and also both in a e2e config (I didn't end up using it much). It took way too much time than anticipated. Razzle is nice but like every webpack wrapper it can be really messy to make it do exactly what you want. -> https://github.com/jpka/express-react-universal-example/commit/875d5422e2b42f2a0a616e3e0af8bf0aa92e8390 , https://github.com/jpka/express-react-universal-example/commit/4191039d7aa4973954eba92de096f7b87626617f

Notes

I did a little bit of testing of different sorts to showcase that I can. I would have liked to do full BDD and cover every feature, at least in integration, but by the end it was taking too much time and I have other obligations
I should have commited more often, on every feature "slice", but when I work alone and as fast as I can, I am already deep into a new thing by the time I remember to do so
There are 0 styles. It's horrible to look at but it's parseable and functional.