The day finally came to work on this capstone project - section 26. Reading through some comments from fellow students, I noticed that some felt discouraged, saying that this couldn't be done without the knowledge from the following sections. But I didn't think that way. I believed it was totally achievable with what we had already learned!
Sure, there were challenges and moments when I got stuck, but in today's world, learning has never been easier. Whether it's through traditional research or using AI tools, there's more than enough guidance out there to help you complete this project - as long as you focus on learning through hints and suggestions, instead of asking for the final solution.
For me, it was a mix of both methods: I turned to Stack Overflow and online documentation for some JavaScript, while for others, I asked ChatGPT for advice - always aiming to understand the process rather than just getting the answer.
Six months and 47 days later, here I am… just kidding! It took me maybe a week, working a couple of hours each day... Good luck.
This is the capstone project from section 26 of the course — a mini blog built with Node.js and Express. I want to be honest about what I actually did myself and where I used help.
What I built on my own
I set up the Express server, defined all the routes (GET and POST), handled the in-memory data structure for posts, and wired everything together. The core logic — creating, editing, and deleting posts, finding posts by ID, redirecting after form submission — that's all mine. I also wrote the initial EJS templates and got the basic Bootstrap layout working.
Where I got stuck
Honestly, the part that took the most time wasn't the backend — it was making things look decent. I had a working blog, but the UI felt rough. The create form was sitting on the wrong page, and there was no real homepage to speak of.
Sure, there were challenges and moments when I got stuck, but in today's world, learning has never been easier. Whether it's through traditional research or using AI tools, there's more than enough guidance out there — as long as you focus on learning through hints and suggestions, instead of just asking for the final solution.
Where I used AI
For me, it was a mix of both: I turned to Stack Overflow and online documentation for some things, and asked AI for guidance on others — always aiming to understand the process rather than just copy the answer.
Once the core was working, I brought in Claude Code to help with the redesign and cleanup. It restructured the EJS templates, separated the create form into its own /new route, built out the homepage with a hero section and post cards, and wrote a clean CSS stylesheet that works alongside Bootstrap rather than fighting it. It also added a confirmation before deleting posts, and a tag system for categorizing posts.
The distinction I'm proud of: I didn't ask AI to build the blog. I asked it to help me make what I'd already built look and feel better — which I think is closer to how it gets used in real work anyway.
Six months and 47 days later, here I am… just kidding! It took maybe a week, working a couple of hours each day. Good luck.