Fix invalid time_availability handling in recommender.py

[mauliphad76]

Summary [required]

Related Issue [required]

Closes #

Type of Change [required]

• Bug fix — resolves a broken behaviour
• Feature — adds new functionality
• Data — adds new projects to data/projects.json
• Documentation — updates docs, README, or code comments only
• Style — CSS or visual changes only, no logic change
• Refactor — restructures code without changing behaviour
• Test — adds or updates tests

What Was Changed [required]

File	Change made
utils/recommender.py	Added clear_cache() function
tests/test_basic.py	Added test for cache invalidation

How to Test This PR [required]

1. Clone this branch: git checkout your-branch-name
2. Install dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Run the app: python app.py
4. Open http://127.0.0.1:5000 and...
5. Run the tests: python tests/test_basic.py

Expected test output:

27 passed, 0 failed out of 27 tests

Test Results [required]

paste output here

Screenshots (if UI change)

Before	After
screenshot	screenshot

Self-Review Checklist [required]

• I have read CONTRIBUTING.md and followed all guidelines
• My branch name follows the convention: feat/, fix/, docs/, data/, style/, test/
• I have run python tests/test_basic.py and all 27 tests pass
• I have run flake8 . locally and there are no errors
• I have not introduced any print() or console.log() debug statements
• Every new function I wrote has a docstring
• I have not modified files outside the scope of the linked issue
• If I changed the UI, I tested it at 375px (mobile) and 1280px (desktop)
• If I added a project to the dataset, it has all required JSON fields

Notes for Reviewer

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[komalharshita]

Thank you for the contribution.

I reviewed the changes and appreciate the effort to make recommendation scoring more resilient to invalid inputs.

However, this PR handles invalid values by silently returning a score of 0 instead of addressing validation at the input layer. In addition, the change introduces modifications to level and interest matching behavior that are outside the scope of the reported issue.

The PR also does not include regression tests to verify the new behavior, which makes it difficult to validate the fix and prevent future regressions.

Since this change overlaps with other validation-related improvements and lacks accompanying test coverage, I’m closing this pull request.

Thank you for contributing to DevPath.