CodePulse

A full-stack competitive programming dashboard that unifies LeetCode, Codeforces, CodeChef, and AtCoder into a single platform — track ratings, sync submissions, and monitor upcoming contests.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Architecture
• Tech Stack
• CodeChef API
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• API Reference
• Project Structure
• Roadmap
• Author

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Overview

Competitive programmers typically juggle 4–5 platforms simultaneously — tracking ratings in separate tabs, missing contest announcements, and having no unified view of their progress. CodePulse solves this.

It aggregates submissions, ratings, contest schedules, and activity heatmaps from multiple platforms into one clean dashboard. Built with a microservice approach — including a custom-built CodeChef scraper API (since CodeChef has no official public API) deployed separately on Railway with Redis caching.

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Features

• Unified Dashboard — Total solved count, difficulty breakdown, rating trends, and activity heatmap across all platforms
• Platform Sync — Pull accepted submissions, rating history, and streaks from LeetCode, Codeforces, and CodeChef
• Contest Calendar — Aggregates upcoming contests from all platforms with live countdowns
• Problem Tracker — Manually log problems with status, difficulty, platform, tags, and notes
• Custom CodeChef API — Self-built REST API with Cheerio scraping + Redis caching since CodeChef has no public API
• Auth System — JWT access tokens + refresh tokens, CSRF protection, role-based route guards
• Profile Management — Manage platform handles, college info, and visibility settings

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Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Next.js 14 Frontend             │
│         (TypeScript · Tailwind · Recharts)   │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
                  │ Axios (REST)
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────────────┐
│           Express.js Backend API             │
│     Controllers → Services → MongoDB        │
└──────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ├──── LeetCode GraphQL API
       ├──── Codeforces REST API
       ├──── AtCoder (contest aggregator)
       │
       └──── CodeChef Scraper API (microservice)
                      │
              ┌───────▼────────┐
              │  Redis Cache   │
              │  (ioredis)     │
              └───────┬────────┘
                      │ cache miss
              ┌───────▼────────┐
              │ Axios + Cheerio│
              │ (HTML scraping)│
              └────────────────┘

Sync Flow: User triggers sync → sync.controller.js → platform service → normalize data → upsert MongoDB → return stats

CodeChef Flow: API request → check Redis cache → HIT: return cached JSON / MISS: scrape CodeChef → parse → cache → return

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Next.js 14, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Recharts, Axios
Backend	Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, Mongoose, JWT, bcrypt
CodeChef API	Node.js, Express.js, Axios, Cheerio, Redis (ioredis)
Database	MongoDB Atlas
Cache	Redis (Railway)
Deployment	Railway (CodeChef API)
Auth	JWT (access + refresh tokens), CSRF tokens

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CodeChef API

A standalone microservice built from scratch because CodeChef has no official public API.

Why a separate service?

• CodeChef does not expose a public REST API
• Built a dedicated scraper service using Axios + Cheerio
• Redis caching (10 min TTL) prevents redundant scraping and improves response time by ~90% on cache hits
• Deployed independently on Railway — decoupled from the main backend

Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/user/:username	Fetch CodeChef user stats
DELETE	/cache/:username	Invalidate cache for a user

Sample Response

{
  "success": true,
  "fromCache": false,
  "data": {
    "username": "unknown",
    "currentRating": 1451,
    "highestRating": 1453,
    "stars": "2★",
    "rank": "2 star",
    "country": "India",
    "institution": "N/A",
    "NumberOfContest": 12,
    "totalSolved": 50,
    "ratingHistory": [
      {
        "contestName": "Starters 100",
        "rating": 1451,
        "rank": 1200,
        "date": "2024-01-15"
      }
    ],
    "submissionCalendar": "{\"1705276800\": 2}"
  }
}

Caching Strategy

Request → Redis GET
            │
     ┌──────┴──────┐
   HIT            MISS
     │               │
  Return          Scrape CodeChef
  cached    →    Parse HTML (Cheerio)
  JSON       →   Redis SETEX (10 min)
             →   Return JSON

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18
• MongoDB URI (Atlas or local)
• Redis instance (local or Railway)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Neel092/DSA_Tracker
cd DSA_Tracker

2. Backend setup

cd Backend
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

3. Frontend setup

cd Frontend
npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev

4. CodeChef API setup

cd CodeChef-API
npm install
node index.js

Visit http://localhost:3000

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Environment Variables

Backend — .env

PORT=5000
MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=your_refresh_secret_key
NODE_ENV=development
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

Frontend — .env.local

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:5000

CodeChef API — .env

PORT=8080
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

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API Reference

Authentication

POST   /api/auth/register         Register new user
POST   /api/auth/login            Login
POST   /api/auth/logout           Logout
POST   /api/auth/refresh-token    Refresh access token
GET    /api/auth/profile          Get current user
GET    /api/auth/csrf-token       Get CSRF token
PUT    /api/auth/update-profile   Update profile

Problem Tracker

GET    /api/progress              Get all logged problems
POST   /api/progress              Log a new problem
PUT    /api/progress/:id          Update a problem entry
DELETE /api/progress/:id          Delete a problem entry

Platform Sync

POST   /api/sync/leetcode         Sync LeetCode submissions
POST   /api/sync/codeforces       Sync Codeforces submissions
POST   /api/sync/codechef         Sync CodeChef data (via custom API)

Contests

GET    /api/contests/upcoming     Get upcoming contests (all platforms)

CodeChef API (separate service)

GET    /api/user/:username        Get CodeChef user stats
DELETE /cache/:username           Clear user cache

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Project Structure

CodePulse/
│
├── Backend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── config/
│   │   │   └── db.js
│   │   ├── controllers/
│   │   │   ├── auth.controller.js
│   │   │   ├── progress.controller.js
│   │   │   ├── sync.controller.js
│   │   │   └── contest.controller.js
│   │   ├── middleware/
│   │   │   ├── auth.middleware.js
│   │   │   └── csrf.middleware.js
│   │   ├── models/
│   │   │   ├── User.js
│   │   │   └── Progress.js
│   │   ├── routes/
│   │   │   ├── auth.routes.js
│   │   │   ├── progress.routes.js
│   │   │   ├── sync.routes.js
│   │   │   └── contest.routes.js
│   │   └── services/
│   │       ├── leetcode.service.js
│   │       ├── codeforces.service.js
│   │       ├── codechef.service.js
│   │       └── contestAggregator.service.js
│   ├── app.js
│   └── server.js
│
├── Frontend/
│   └── src/
│       ├── app/
│       │   ├── (auth)/
│       │   └── (dashboard)/
│       ├── components/
│       ├── context/
│       ├── hooks/
│       └── lib/

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Roadmap

<<<<<<< HEAD

• Background job queues (webhook-based sync)
• Leaderboard
• Sheet generator & Interview tracker
• Company-specific problem roadmaps =======
• LeetCode sync
• Codeforces sync
• Custom CodeChef scraper API with Redis caching
• Contest calendar aggregator
• JWT auth with refresh tokens
• Problem tracker
• AtCoder sync
• GeeksforGeeks sync
• Background sync jobs (cron-based)
• Leaderboard among friends

7b9b62f (Minor changes in Readme file,Fronted and added docker file)

• Docker + CI/CD pipeline
• Company-specific problem roadmaps

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Author

Neel Patil — CS Engineering Student

GitHub

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