A full-stack mock interview platform with a Spring Boot API, MongoDB persistence, and a static HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend.

Interview/
├── backend/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── pom.xml
│   └── src/main/
│       ├── java/com/interview/platform/
│       └── resources/application.properties
├── frontend/
│   ├── css/
│   ├── js/
│   │   ├── app.js
│   │   ├── dashboard.js
│   │   └── env.js
│   ├── pages/dashboard.html
│   └── index.html
└── render.yaml

• Java 17
• Maven 3.9+
• MongoDB connection string
• Optional: Node.js, only if you want to serve the static frontend locally

From the repository root:

cd backend
$env:MONGO_URI="mongodb+srv://USER:PASSWORD@HOST/interview_platform"
mvn spring-boot:run

On macOS/Linux, use:

export MONGO_URI="mongodb+srv://USER:PASSWORD@HOST/interview_platform"
mvn spring-boot:run

The API listens on PORT when it is provided by the host, otherwise it defaults to 8080.

For local development, frontend/js/env.js provides the backend base URL used by all frontend API helpers:

window.INTERVIEW_API_BASE = "https://interview-platform-api-iv6x.onrender.com";

You can open frontend/index.html directly in a browser, or serve the folder:

npx serve frontend

If your backend runs somewhere else, update frontend/js/env.js locally or override window.INTERVIEW_API_BASE before loading app.js and dashboard.js. Application code should continue to call APIs through window.INTERVIEW_API_BASE, not a hardcoded backend host.

During Render deployment, the frontend build command writes frontend/js/env.js with the deployed backend URL.

This repository includes a Render Blueprint in render.yaml.

It creates:

• interview-platform-api: Dockerized Spring Boot Web Service from backend/
• interview-platform-frontend: Static Site from frontend/

1. Push this repository to GitHub.
2. In Render, choose New + then Blueprint.
3. Connect the GitHub repository.
4. Render will detect render.yaml and create both services.
5. Set MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET, the SendGrid variables, and the Cloudinary variables on interview-platform-api.
6. Deploy the blueprint.
7. After the first deployment, confirm:
   • Backend health: https://<api-service>.onrender.com/api/health
   • Frontend: https://<frontend-service>.onrender.com
8. If you rename services or use custom domains, update CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN_PATTERNS on the backend to include the frontend origin.

1. Render builds the backend with backend/Dockerfile.
2. The Docker build caches Maven dependencies, packages the Spring Boot jar, and runs it on a slim Java 17 runtime image as a non-root user.
3. Render provides PORT; Spring Boot binds through server.port=${PORT:8080}.
4. Render builds the static frontend from frontend/.
5. The frontend build writes js/env.js with the complete backend base URL from INTERVIEW_API_BASE.
6. Browser requests go from the static frontend to the deployed backend through window.INTERVIEW_API_BASE.
7. Spring CORS allows configured frontend origins through CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN_PATTERNS.

Build the backend:

cd backend
mvn clean package

Build the backend Docker image:

cd backend
docker build -t interview-platform-api .

Run the Docker image locally:

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 `
  -e MONGO_URI="mongodb+srv://USER:PASSWORD@HOST/interview_platform" `
  interview-platform-api

Use backslashes instead of backticks on macOS/Linux.

users now stores profile/discovery fields (company, currentRole, bio, avatarUrl, language, yearsExperience, averageRating, reviewCount, completedInterviews, priceCents, availability, favoriteInterviewerIds, isVerified, createdAt, lastLogin) and passwordHash instead of plain passwords.

sessions now includes booking fields (interviewType, durationMinutes, meetingLink, meetingStatus, status, createdAt, updatedAt) and indexed interviewer/time/status lookups to prevent double booking.

New collections: refresh_tokens, verification_otps, password_reset_tokens, and notifications. OTP/reset/token collections use TTL indexes through expiresAt.

The frontend remains vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript. index.html is the public SaaS landing page plus auth, OTP, and reset flows. pages/dashboard.html is a role-aware workspace. js/dashboard.js owns API access, token refresh, discovery search, booking state, session actions, feedback submission, notifications, and mobile navigation. css/style.css contains shared design tokens and responsive layouts.

Create a SendGrid API key with Mail Send permission, verify the sender used by SENDGRID_FROM_EMAIL, then set SENDGRID_API_KEY, SENDGRID_FROM_EMAIL, and FRONTEND_URL in Render. When SendGrid is not configured, the backend logs skipped emails instead of failing local development.