📌 CI/CD Deployment Contest – Project Lead Selection

🎯 Objective

This contest is designed to evaluate real-life backend devloyment task.
Based on this task, we will select Project Leads (PL).

Each developer must deploy an application to a VPS using a full CI/CD pipeline.
Deployment must be automatic on every push to the main branch.

📅 Deadline:
From now to 10/01/2026 at 10:00 AM

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🧩 Mandatory Conditions (Very Important)

1. PostgreSQL database is mandatory

   • Application must use PostgreSQL
   • DB must run using Docker

2. Cross-technology deployment

   • Laravel & Python developers → must deploy a Node.js (NestJS) application
   • Node.js developers → must deploy a Python (FastAPI or Django) application

3. CI/CD must be fully automated

   • Firstly it would be manually deploy then the pipeline would be automated
   • Deployment must trigger on push to main branch

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🏗️ Technology Stack (Required)

Each project must use:

• GitHub repository
• Docker & Docker Compose
• VPS (Linux Server)
• CI/CD (GitHub Actions)
• PostgreSQL
• Nginx or Caddy (recommended)
• Environment variables (.env, and .env.production)

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📂 Step-by-Step Tasks (What You Must Complete)

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Step 1: Repository Setup

• Cloning our provided template called PL Contest Template
• Add proper project structure
• Replace template README.md file with:
  • Project description
  • Tech stack
  • Deployment steps
  • Simple CI/CD explanation (optional)

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Step 2: Application Setup

• Setup the assigned backend framework:
  • NestJS
  • or FastAPI / Django
• Create at least:
  • One health check API (/health)
  • One database connection API (/db)
  • 2 endpoint for storing data and retrieving it

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Step 3: PostgreSQL Integration

• Configure PostgreSQL connection
• Use .env for credentials
• Ensure DB connection works inside Docker
• Database data must persist using volumes, and maintain network

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Step 4: Dockerization

You must provide:

1. Dockerfile
2. For prod docker-compose.yaml and dev docker-compose.dev.yaml Or use profileing system or direact file for development and production

Docker Compose must include:

• Application service
• PostgreSQL service
• Network configuration
• Volume for DB persistence

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Step 5: VPS Preparation

On your VPS:

• Install Docker & Docker Compose
• Configure firewall (open required ports)
• Make sure your application has inside ~/projects folder Creadentials Host: User: Password: ``

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Step 6: CI/CD Pipeline Setup

This is the core evaluation part.

Pipeline must:

• Trigger on push to main
• Checkout code
• Build Docker images
• Stop old containers
• Run new containers using Docker Compose
• Handle environment variables securely

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Step 7: Environment Management

• No secrets inside code
• Use:
  • GitHub Secrets
• Separate:
  • Development
  • Production configuration

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Step 8: Deployment Verification

After deployment:

• Application must be accessible via:
  • Public IP or domain
• APIs must return proper response
• PostgreSQL data must persist after container restart

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Step 9: Documentation (Mandatory)

Each developer must submit:

• Repository link
• VPS public IP / domain
• CI/CD config file
• Short explanation:
  • Common issues faced and solutions (Mandetory)

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🧪 Bonus Points (Optional but Strongly Recommended)

• HTTPS (SSL) [if you have domain]
• Reverse proxy setup
• Database migration handling
• Health checks in CI/CD
• Logging & monitoring basics (optional)

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🏆 Evaluation Criteria (PL Selection)

We will evaluate based on:

1. CI/CD correctness
2. Automation level
3. Docker & DB understanding
4. Clean documentation
5. Debugging & problem-solving ability
6. Production readiness mindset

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📚 Reference

You follow and apply concepts from this course:

🔗 CI/CD, Docker, AWS EC2 Full Course (3h 10m) 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRJ_C-sZJB8

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📢 Final Note

This is not a tutorial task, this is a real production-level challenge.
Take it seriously and do it properly.

If anyone faces real blocking issues, you may reach out to me.

Best of luck to everyone.
This contest will define our next Project Leads 🚀