Case Study

CivicsTests

Full-stack U.S. civics preparation platform

I built CivicsTests as a production web platform that turns official civics source data into a location-aware study experience with durable auth, deployment, and data workflows.

CivicsTests interface

Problem

Civics test preparation depends on federal, state, and local answers that change over time. Static study material ages quickly, and users need a guided experience that adapts to their location.

My Role

Founder and developer across product design, application architecture, implementation, database modeling, deployment, and operational maintenance.

Architecture

Official Government Sources
Sync Jobs + Normalization
Prisma Data Layer
Next.js App Router
Learner Experience

Stack

Next.js, TypeScript, Prisma, NextAuth.js, Tailwind CSS

Database

SQLite for local development, PostgreSQL for production

Deployment

Dockerized application with idempotent migration startup behavior

Challenge

Keeping location-aware content accurate as source data changes

Decision

Normalize official sources into a location-aware relational model behind one application

Tradeoff

Use Prisma portability to keep local SQLite workflows aligned with production PostgreSQL

Next.js TypeScript Prisma PostgreSQL Docker NextAuth.js