Introduction
I talked with my friend Faith, a senior engineer I admire, about feeling stagnant at work. We agreed we should take charge of our careers instead of waiting for the "perfect" project to learn something new.
That talk inspired me to focus on one-day builds: small MVPs to sharpen my skills for a flagship project. I picked an e-commerce site for its complexity and learning potential, and aimed to try new tech, especially AWS, for a coming certification exam.
Developing an e-commerce site from scratch is a major commitment; that's why I decided to focus on features commonly found in e-commerce websites for my one-day builds, such as payment checkout.
1. Architecture Overview
The solution uses a frontend built with Vite (a build tool), TypeScript (TS), and React, and a backend built with the Serverless Framework (a toolkit for deploying serverless applications).
The checkout flow starts after the user clicks “checkout” and is ready to pay.
2. Key Implementation Details
For this one-day build, I wanted to learn Stripe integration and testing. I chose a lean backend with AWS Lambda, a serverless compute service that runs code in response to events without server management.
With Lambda, you can develop in AWS Cloud9, an online cloud IDE, or upload zipped code to AWS.
I dislike these because the backend isn't in your repo and you can't run or debug locally.
To solve this, I used the Serverless Framework, a tool for defining backend functions and infrastructure as code (using configuration files rather than manual setup). It integrates with Lambda and other AWS resources, supports local testing and ensures your backend code lives in version control (such as Git) alongside your frontend.
3. Testing & Debugging
Stripe provides test cards to mimic full payment flows, including successes, failures, and edge cases like expired cards or insufficient funds. This helps validate your app before launch. You can also test declined payments to ensure your UI responds clearly and helpfully.
4. Lessons Learned
Integrating payments into an app using Stripe or similar tools is more straightforward than I had imagined. The main lesson is that handling payments yourself requires strict adherence to PCI DSS rules, which cover the secure storage, transmission, and processing of credit card data.
If you send raw card data to your backend, you must handle encryption, server security, and access monitoring, among other tasks. This shows the extra effort needed without Stripe.
Stripe's Custom Components or Hosted Checkout reduces your PCI burden and simplifies compliance.
For a seamless checkout, use Stripe Elements and customize them to fit your app’s look.
5. Conclusion
If you feel stagnant, try upskilling and building a portfolio. Sprint tasks won’t always be satisfying.
By challenging yourself, you may learn skills that help you transition to new jobs or projects within your company.
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