Building ReadQuest: A Scalable Book Summary Platform with FastAPI, MongoDB, and React - ReadQuest.Site

In today’s fast-paced world, reading often takes a back seat, even for those who genuinely enjoy it. With ReadQuest, I wanted to solve this problem by creating a platform that simplifies reading while making it more interactive and engaging. What started as a simple idea to summarize books evolved into a full-fledged AI-powered book discovery platform with personalized recommendations, a click-to-define feature, and a seamless user experience powered by modern web technologies.

In this blog, I’ll give you a glimpse of the journey behind ReadQuest’s development and how I integrated automated testing with pytest into its CI/CD pipelines to ensure reliability at scale. For a more detailed, step-by-step breakdown of the platform's features and development phases, check out my in-depth Hashnode doc here.

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What is ReadQuest?

ReadQuest is a book discovery platform built to help readers learn key concepts from books quickly and intuitively. It features:

• Personalized Recommendations: Using collaborative filtering to suggest books tailored to user preferences.

• Interactive Click-to-Define Feature: Users can click on words within book summaries to instantly see definitions.

• Modern Design: Built with React, it includes infinite scrolling, prefetching, and a clean, responsive UI.

• Gamification: A QuestCoins reward system encourages consistent reading habits.

The platform currently serves over 1,000 daily users and has been optimized for performance and scalability.

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Key Technologies Behind ReadQuest

• Backend: FastAPI for building high-performance APIs.

• Database: MongoDB to manage user data, book metadata, and recommendations.

• Frontend: React for a dynamic, interactive user interface.

• Deployment: CI/CD pipelines on Render and Vercel for automated testing, staging, and deployment.

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Integrating Automated Testing with Pytest

When building a platform like ReadQuest, reliability is critical. Each update to the platform—whether a new feature or a bug fix—needs to be rigorously tested to ensure a seamless user experience. That’s where pytest comes in.

Why Pytest?

Pytest is a robust and user-friendly testing framework that simplifies writing and executing tests for Python applications. For ReadQuest, it plays a crucial role in ensuring that:

• API endpoints function as expected.

• Core features like recommendations and click-to-define work reliably.

• Changes don’t introduce regressions or break existing functionality.

How Pytest is Integrated into CI/CD Pipelines

I configured the CI/CD pipelines on Render and Vercel to automatically run pytest tests during every deployment. Here’s how it works:

1. Trigger on Push or Pull Request: Each code push or pull request triggers the pipeline.

2. Install Dependencies: The pipeline installs Python packages, including pytest and testing tools like httpx for FastAPI.

3. Run Tests: Pytest executes all test cases, ensuring 90%+ coverage for critical endpoints.

4. Deploy if Successful: If all tests pass, the platform is deployed to staging or production.

This integration ensures that every deployment is reliable and bug-free, maintaining a smooth experience for ReadQuest’s users.

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Overcoming Challenges

Building and scaling ReadQuest wasn’t without its hurdles:

• Optimizing Performance: Infinite scrolling and prefetching with React required fine-tuning to balance user experience and server load.

• Recommendation System: Implementing collaborative filtering with MongoDB to deliver personalized suggestions at scale.

• Testing Coverage: Writing comprehensive tests for a growing codebase to achieve high coverage without slowing down the pipeline.

Each challenge taught me valuable lessons about designing scalable, user-centric platforms.

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The Result

After months of development and iterations, ReadQuest has grown into a platform that serves thousands of users with:

• Personalized book recommendations.

• Interactive features to enhance learning.

• A scalable backend and a modern, engaging frontend.

For a more detailed breakdown of how each feature was implemented, the challenges faced, and the technical solutions, check out the full Hashnode doc for ReadQuest.