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

#node #hng

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: