Project Case Study

React Movie Watchlist

A full-stack movie watchlist application with account-based persistence, TMDB integration, editable saved entries, and containerized backend deployment.

Year
2025
Role
Full-Stack Developer
Status
Deployed
Stack
React, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Docker
React Movie Watchlist

Overview

This project started as a fast interview-task build and grew into a complete watchlist workflow with user accounts, external movie metadata, and editable saved entries.

Stack

The repo and README point to a classic full-stack architecture:

  • React front end
  • Node.js and Express API
  • MongoDB persistence
  • Dockerized backend deployment
  • Front-end hosting on Vercel
  • Cloud-run style backend deployment for the API

Functionality

  • Users can create accounts and save watchlist entries to their own profile.
  • The app integrates with TMDB-style movie metadata so saved items are enriched with film information rather than stored as plain text.
  • Watchlist items can be reviewed and edited over time instead of acting as one-off bookmarks.
  • The README also reflects planned UX improvements such as pagination, filtering, and richer watchlist interaction.

Why It Matters

It demonstrates end-to-end delivery: authentication, persistence, third-party API integration, front-end deployment, and a backend that was containerized for real hosting rather than left as a local-only demo.