Pastebin-Lite

A lightweight Pastebin-style web application that allows users to create text pastes and share them via a unique URL. Pastes can optionally expire based on time-to-live (TTL) and/or a maximum view count. Once any configured constraint is exceeded, the paste becomes unavailable.

This project was built to satisfy all functional, API, and robustness requirements defined in the take-home assignment and is designed to pass automated grading tests.

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Features

• Create a paste with arbitrary text content
• Generate a shareable URL for each paste
• View pastes via API or browser
• Optional constraints:
  • Time-based expiry (TTL)
  • View-count limit
• Deterministic time handling for automated tests
• Persistent storage suitable for serverless environments
• Clean error handling with consistent JSON responses

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Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js (App Router)
• Language: TypeScript
• Persistence Layer: Redis (KV-style storage)
• Type Checks : Zod , React Hook form
• Deployment Target: Vercel (or equivalent serverless platform)

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Architecture Overview

• Pastes are stored as JSON objects in Redis with metadata:
  • content
  • created_at
  • expires_at (optional)
  • remaining_views (optional)
• TTL is enforced logically (not relying solely on Redis expiry) to support deterministic testing.
• Each successful fetch decrements remaining_views atomically.
• All unavailable states (missing, expired, view-exceeded) return HTTP 404.

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API Endpoints

Health Check

GET /api/healthz

Returns the application health and verifies access to the persistence layer.

Response

{ "ok": true }

Create a Paste

POST /api/pastes

Request Body

{
  "content": "string",
  "ttl_seconds": 60,
  "max_views": 5
}

Response

{
  "id": "string",
  "url": "https://pastebin-clone.vercel.app/p/<id>"
}

Persistence Layer

Redis is used as the persistence layer to ensure data survives across requests in a serverless environment.

• Reasons for Choosing Redis
• Low latency
• Simple key-value access pattern
• Suitable for ephemeral but persistent data
• Works reliably on Vercel and similar serverless platforms
• No in-memory-only storage is used for paste data.

Running the Project Locally

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• Redis instance (local or remote)

Installation

git clone <repository-url>
cd pastebin-lite

cp .env.example .env

REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3000

bun install
bun dev