About this challenge

We are excited to see how you build frontend software, but we understand you're probably pretty busy. Instead of asking you to develop something from scratch, please spend 4-6 hours refactoring some of the code in this application. See details on how we evaluate your submission below. Our goal is to see how you improve existing code that you haven't encountered before.

About the application

The application showcases books on the NYTimes Bestsellers lists and allows you to build a collection of saved books.

Running the application

The app is built from create-react-app, so the usual npm start and npm test apply.

You will need a NYTimes Developer account; from there you can create an API key for the Books API by creating a new app and enabling the Books API.

Add your API key to the .env file for REACT_APP_API_KEY to make it available to the application.

Next, in your local environment, run the following:

$ npm install
$ npm start

Note: If you happen to be using NPM v7, which now blocks installs with incompatible peer dependencies, you can add the flag --legacy-peer-deps to the npm install command listed. That will force NPM to use older NPM install behaviors, which will work for this application.

Important notes

• The application is deliberately written to be "not very clean code". It is not representative of good code at Appcues.
• This README is intentionally sparse, so you'll have to read the code to understand how the application works.
• There are some things to avoid right from the get-go.
  • Don't spend the time to remove Redux from the project.
  • We are less concerned about seeing things like code reorganization, styling improvements, or new features.
  • If you believe an improvement can be made on any point above include it in the PR writeup.
• Please keep track of the amount of time you spend working on cleaning this code up. We'll need to know this when you submit your solution because it will help adjust our expectations.

How we evaluate this project

• There are several architectural problems within the app (component structure, data flow, data management, etc). Please choose at least one to work on.
• The code is not DRY. Please reduce duplication in at least one area of the code by introducing an abstraction.
• There are a number of other things you may choose to work on, depending on your available time and interest:
  • Bugs in the code
  • Fixing of inconsistent patterns in the code
  • Addressing areas where best practices are not being followed (in usage of third-party libraries, for example)
• We do value unit tests for newly-added code.
• We do value seeing good development habits and clear communication skills. Treat this PR like you would treat one at work!
• We do value your knowledge and wisdom beyond the time limit provided. Please include a write-up within the PR for what future improvements within the project you would encourage and why.

Submitting your work

• We work in GitHub, so we want to review your code there too. However, please do NOT submit a Pull Request to this repository because it will become visible for other candidates (or even your current employer).

• Instead, please do the following:

  • Create a private repository under your own GitHub account.
  • Commit all of the code from this repository to the main branch in your new private repository as a starting point.
  • Create a new branch in your private repository.
  • Commit your changes and refactoring work to the new branch.
  • Create a Pull Request based on your branch.
  • The pull request should include:
    • a description of what you changed and why
    • how long you spent on the project
    • if you continued to work on the project, what would you focus on next
  • Invite the GitHub user @appcues-interviews as a collaborator on your private repository.

Good luck with the assignment, and we hope you have fun with it!