Simple Tech Assessment @ Remotely

This is assessment consists on the creation of a data model and a backend service. My solution, developed using Laravel (PHP), VueJS (JavaScript), and MySQL, allows fund managers to manually view and update fund records.

Additionally, I addressed the challenge of handling duplicate records.

Plus, I added a simple frontend to make it look good.

Requirements: PHP >= 8.1 is required, and you need to have a created database. Also, dont forget to update your composer.

Overview

Given that this application was developed using Laravel, you can clone this repository and install it on your local machine. To do this, navigate to the installation section. Running the application locally offers the advantage of executing some custom commands and unit tests that I have implemented.

Installation

Follow these steps to set up and run this Laravel application:

1. Clone the Repository: git clone https://github.com/douglas-soriano/simple-tech-assessment.git .

2. Install Composer Dependencies: composer install

3. Create Environment File: cp .env.example .env

Configure the DB variables: DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD.

4. Refresh Application: php artisan app:refresh

All migrations, seeders, keys and dummy data will be taken place.

6. Start the Development Server: php artisan serve

7. Access the API Endpoints: http://localhost:8000/api

API Endpoints

1. Get Potential Duplicates

• Description: Retrieve a list of potentially duplicated funds.
• Endpoint: /api/funds/potential-duplicates
• Method: GET
• Parameters:
  • None

2. Get List of Funds

• Description: Retrieve a list of funds based on specified parameters.
• Endpoint: /api/funds
• Method: GET
• Parameters:
  • name (optional): Filter funds by name.
  • start_year (optional): Filter funds by start year.
  • fund_manager_id (optional): Filter funds by fund manager ID.
  • fund_manager_name (optional): Filter funds by fund manager name.

3. Get Fund Details

• Description: Retrieve details of a specific fund.
• Endpoint: /api/funds/{fund_id}
• Method: GET
• Parameters:
  • fund_id (required): ID of the fund to retrieve details.

4. Update Fund Information

• Description: Update information for a specific fund.
• Endpoint: /api/funds/{fund_id}
• Method: PUT
• Parameters:
  • fund_id (required): ID of the fund to update.
  • name (optional): New name for the fund.
  • start_year (optional): New start year for the fund.
  • fund_manager_id (optional): New fund manager ID for the fund.
  • aliases (optional): Array of new aliases for the fund. ['alias1', 'alias2']

Tests and Commands

In order to run our Unit Tests for all the endpoints on this application, simple use the following command:

php artisan test

It will erase all the database data and generate some records for testing purpose.

You can also populate the database with dummy data using the following command:

php artisan dummy:populate 1000

TECHNICAL INFORMATIONS

Events

Everytime a fund is updated we run a duplicate test to see if the same manager has another fund with the same name or alias. If so, an event is emitted and you can check this code at:

1. Check for duplicates on fund update. app/Http/Controllers/API/FundController.php

2. Throw event if it has a potential duplicated fund. app/Events/DuplicateFundWarning.php

3. Listen to the event and do something. - We're just logging the duplicate for now. app/Listeners/DuplicateFundWarningListener.php

Also we can check for potential duplicates by calling the API endpoint:

/api/funds/potential-duplicates

There's room for improvement, but for a test assessment, it should work just fine, even with large databases.

Scalability

- How will your application work as the data set grows increasingly larger?

Laravel Framework: I've been using Laravel for large applications for years now, and I love it.

Table INDEX: For this application, I carefully selected all the INDEXES on each table in the database to speed up our queries.

Laravel Eager Loading: I've applied it to every database query to ensure that we don't have multiple queries being unnecessarily called.

- How will your application work as the # of concurrent users grows increasingly larger?

Rate Limiting: I use rate limiting on API endpoints to prevent abuse and protect against potential DDoS attacks.

Input Validation: I've utilized Laravel's validation features to validate and sanitize input data, preventing SQL injection and other security vulnerabilities.

Optimized Query Parameters: I've designed API endpoints to accept optimized query parameters, allowing clients to request only the necessary data.