About Online Exam Portal project -> The ExamMaster

🚀 Building My Online Exam Portal: A Developer’s Journey (Work in Progress!) 🎓
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been deeply engaged in building an Online Exam Portal — a platform crafted to simplify exam creation, participation, and result tracking for students and admins.
💡 The Vision:
To create a full-stack application where:
🧑‍🎓 Students can take objective & subjective exams, see instant results, and track their history
🧑‍💼 Admins can create exams, view submissions, and manage everything in a streamlined dashboard
🛠️ The Tech Stack Evolution:
Choosing the right stack was the hardest part.
Initially, I explored Firebase and Supabase for their real-time capabilities and plug-and-play setup. However, I quickly hit walls:
🔐 Authentication quirks and limitations in customization
📦 Difficulty modeling data for scalable exam structures
📉 Too much reliance on vendor-specific architecture
This led to multiple revisions and eventually a complete pivot toward a more flexible and developer-controlled stack:
Frontend: React.js + Vite ⚛️
Backend: Node.js + Express.js 🚂
Database: MongoDB (left Firebase & Supabase behind!) 🍃
State Management: Redux Toolkit 💾
UI Library: Material UI (for sleek, responsive design) 🎨
🔑 Core Features So Far:
✅ Secure authentication with role-based access (student/admin)
✅ Objective & Subjective exam creation
✅ Real-time exam participation and scoring
✅ Detailed performance insights and analytics
✅ Exam history tracking (locally and persistently)
⚠️ Challenges I Faced:
Tech Stack Paralysis: Picking between ease (Firebase) vs. flexibility (MongoDB & custom backend)
Auth Integration: Handling secure, custom login flows was harder than anticipated
Data Migration: Shifting from Supabase/Firebase to MongoDB was painful, but 100% worth it
State Syncing: Redux taught me a lot about clean state management across complex UI flows
⏳ Still a Work in Progress!
I’m refining UI/UX, adding advanced features (like scheduling & result analysis), and aiming for a polished MVP soon.
This has been an advantageous learning experience, and I’m excited to keep pushing forward!
🔗 https://github.com/Siddharth2k14/online-exam-portal
Let’s connect if you’re building something similar, interested in collaborating, or just want to nerd out over dev stuff 😄