🐱 I Built a Profile API That Returns Random Cat Facts

#express #showdev #node #api

What I Built

As part of a backend project challenge, I created a RESTful API endpoint /me that returns:

My profile details
A dynamic cat fact
The current UTC timestamp

It uses Node.js and Express, and fetches data from the Cat Facts API

Tech Stack

Node.js
Express.js
Axios
dotenv
Railway (for deployment)

API Endpoint
GET /me

Example response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "user": {
    "email": "kumarrishi9862@gmail.com",
    "name": "Kumar Rishi",
    "stack": "Node.js/Express"
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-10-18T12:34:56.789Z",
  "fact": "Cats have over 20 muscles that control their ears."
}

Live Demo

Visit the live endpoint here:

Live Link

Endpoint:

Expected Response:

How It Works

/me endpoint returns a new response on each request
Fetches a fresh cat fact using Axios from the external API
Adds the current UTC time using new Date().toISOString()
Handles failure of the Cat Facts API gracefully

Error Handling

If the Cat Fact API fails or times out, the endpoint returns a fallback message instead of crashing.

Challenges & Highlights

Managing external API timeouts and errors taught me the importance of graceful degradation in real-world apps.
Handling environment variables securely using dotenv helped me keep sensitive data cleanly separated.
Deploying to Railway was smooth and a great way to quickly get a backend app live and accessible for testing.
Structuring the JSON response to exactly match the required schema pushed me to pay extra attention to detail.

What I Learned