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Adekunle Ademola
Adekunle Ademola

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🚀 HNG13 Stage 0 (Backend Track)

#hng #backend #api #node

Hey everyone 👋

I just completed Stage 0 of the HNG13 Internship (Backend track), and it’s been an awesome start already!

For our first task, we were asked to build a Dynamic Profile Endpoint API that returns our personal information along with a random cat fact fetched from an external API. 🐱

💡 What the task was about

The goal was to:

  • Build a simple backend API with Node.js and Express
  • Fetch data from a third-party API (Cat Fact API)
  • Return both static and dynamic JSON data
  • Implement rate limiting for better security and performance
  • Handle errors properly and follow clean API design principles
  • This project tested our understanding of APIs, JSON, error handling, and rate limiting; all essential backend skills.

🧰 Tech Stack

  • Backend: Node.js / Express
  • Rate Limiter: express-rate-limit
  • External API: Cat Fact API

⚙️ Setup Guide

To run the project locally:

Clone the repository 

git clone https://github.com/Jamal-09/hng_stage_0.git
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Navigate into the folder 

cd hng_stage_0
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Install dependencies 

npm install
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Declare environment variables 

PORT=3000
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Start the development server 

node server.js
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🔗 Endpoints

GET /

Returns a welcome message.

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Welcome to my dynamic profile API"
}
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GET /me

Returns my profile information, timestamp, and a random cat fact.

{
  "status": "success",
  "user": {
    "email": "napg.adekunle@gmail.com",
    "name": "Jamal Ademola",
    "stack": "Node.js/Express"
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-10-15T19:35:01.868Z",
  "fact": "A group of cats is called a “clowder.”"
}
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🌐 Live Demo

🧭 Lessons Learned

  • Working with third-party APIs in Express
  • Parsing and returning dynamic JSON responses
  • Implementing rate limiting using middleware
  • Handling errors and API reliability properly

📬 Contact

Built with 💻 & ❤️ by Jamal Ademola

✅ Stage 0 complete!
Excited for the next challenge at #HNG13 🚀

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