🐱 Building a Minimal /me Endpoint with Pure Node.js (No Frameworks) - HNG Internship Stage 0

tunde — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 23:26:17 +0000

As part of the HNG Internship Stage 0 backend task, I was asked to build a simple REST API that returns my profile information along with a dynamic cat fact from an external API.

Rather than using Express or any framework, I decided to go bare-metal — using just Node.js’ built-in http module.

This was a fun challenge that made me revisit the basics of how servers, routes, and responses actually work under the hood.

The goal was to create a GET endpoint at /me that returns a JSON response like this:

{
  "status": "success",
  "user": {
    "email": "your@email.com",
    "name": "Your Full Name",
    "stack": "Node.js/Express"
  },
  "timestamp": "current UTC time in ISO 8601 format",
  "fact": "random cat fact from Cat Facts API"
}

Dynamic data for the "fact" field comes from the Cat Facts API

🛠️ Technologies Used

Just the essentials:

🟢 Node.js

💻 Built-in HTTP module

🌐 Native Fetch API (available in Node 18+)

No Express, no frameworks, no extra dependencies, just JavaScript.

🧩 How It Works

1.The server listens for all incoming HTTP requests.

2.If the route matches /me, it:

Fetches a random cat fact from https://catfact.ninja/fact
Builds a structured JSON object containing my profile and the fact
Sends it back with Content-Type: application/json

3.If anything goes wrong (like network errors), it falls back to a default cat fact.

4.Any other route returns a 404 Not Found.

🧪 Live Demo

🌍 Live API:
https://hng13-be-stage-0-production.up.railway.app/me

🧾 GitHub Repository:
https://github.com/tundealabi/hng13-be-stage-0

HNG INTERNSHIP (GOALS)

tunde — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 14:51:22 +0000

#react #vue #nextjs #nuxt #node #typescript

Hi, I am Alabi Akintunde and today marks the beginning of my frontend HNG internship journey.

What is HNG Internship ?

The Hotels Ng Internship is an ambitious attempt to change the way education is done in Africa. It’s the bridge between learning to code, and becoming the best in the world.
It is a long running, large scale virtual internship for people learning to code and design. It focuses on the post-training phase, and creates a virtual work environment for participants.

Goals

Learn as much as I can to be amongst the best developers out there.
To be a finalist (...in the Frontend Stack)!
Improve on my problem-solving skills, efficiency and speed.
Expand my network by connecting with my peers.
Finally, have fun.

Getting started with programming ?

Visit the Mozilla Development Network (MDN) tutorial page

Check out these tutorials that will help you kick-start your programming career:

Learn Figma

Learn GIT

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Learn HTML

Learn Javascript

Learn Node Js

Check out this page
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Ps: Just incase you need information about cars bought, sold and used in Nigeria. Check out carsng website.

DEV Community: tunde