Web API Round: Stack Overflow / Quora-like Service

Implement a runnable REST service live in your own framework. The common product is a Stack Overflow / Quora-like question system with create/query and voting-style operations, followed by backend trivia on database, security, networking, and scaling. Requirements Bring your own IDE and framework; candidates used Flask, Spring Boot, and even Python http.server for bootstrapping. Build a small REST service that can run during the interview. Common prompt: Stack Overflow / Quora-like system where users can post questions and query them. Article-voting variants add upvote / downvote behavior. The implementation portion is roughly the first 45 minutes; the rest is backend discussion. Follow-up topics include database schema, indexes, authentication / security, request handling, rate limiting, and simple scaling. Notes The round grades practical framework fluency. Have routing, JSON parsing, request body handling, and response helpers ready before the interview. If using Python without Flask, BaseHTTPRequestHandler is enough for a lightweight GET/POST skeleton, but you must keep indentation and JSON handling clean. Use Thunder Client, curl, Postman, or a similar REST client to demonstrate the service. Preparation Pre-build a minimal service with GET, POST, JSON body parsing, status codes, and in-memory storage. Add one CRUD-style endpoint set and one vote / score endpoint set so you can adapt quickly. Rehearse concise answers for indexes, auth tokens, input validation, rate limiting, and migration from in-memory storage to a database.