PrepTracker

PrepTracker

PrepTracker is a fully responsive full-stack AI accountability app that tracks student progress, sends motivational reminders, and provides personalized insights to help CS students stay consistent in their tech interview preparation. I did this project for the Stanford hackathon - Treehacks 2025.

:pancakes: Technology Stack

• TypeScript
• Frontend
  • Next.js
  • Tanstack Query
  • React Hook Form
  • ShadcnUi
  • TailwindCSS
  • Zod
• Backend
  • Node.js
  • Express
  • Firebase Storage
  • Firebase Auth
  • Firebase Functions
  • SendGrid
  • Twilio

:star: Inspiration

As I approach my graduation on May, 2025, I realized I needed to brush up on my skills for upcoming tech interviews. Many computer science students face the same struggle when preparing for exams or interviews—staying motivated, setting clear goals, and tracking progress over time. This led to the creation of PrepTracker, a tool designed to help students manage and track their study goals in a personalized, AI-driven way.

:hammer_and_pick: What it does

PrepTracker allows students to set daily, weekly, and one-time study goals over a span of the start and end date of the goals, track progress via a heatmap dashboard, and receive AI-generated motivational reminders via email. The tool helps students stay on top of their goals, providing a visual representation of their achievements and keeping them engaged throughout their study process.

:european_castle: Architecture

This project is a monorepo where the frontend and backend code reside in the same repository. The Nextjs frontend communicates with the Nodejs backend. Firebase Storage has been used as the database and authentications is implemented using Firebase Authentication. The backend is deployed using Firebase functions, which is basically a serverless framework that lets us automatically run backend code in response to events triggered by HTTPS requests. For personalized reminders, I integrated Meta's Llama 3.2 11B Vision Instruct through OpenRouter to generate AI-driven motivational messages. A cron-job for sending customized emails reminiding students of their goals for the day is also implemented using Firebase Schedule Functions, Twilio and SendGrid. The frontend is deployed using Vercel hosting.

Frontend

Backend

:camera: Screenshots

Login Page

Users can login with traditional email & password or with third party authentication such as Google and Github.

Registration Page

Users can register with traditional email & password.

Forgot password page

Users can reset their password in case they have forgotten it.

Today's Goals

Users can view all their daily, weekly and one time goals for today

Tomorrow's Goals

Users can view all their daily, weekly and one time goals for tomorrow

Next 7 Day's Goals

Users can view all their daily, weekly and one time goals for the next 7 days

Progress Page

Users can view a heatmap of their goals for the current year

:construction: Challenges I faced

One of the key challenges I faced was storing and managing student progress over an extended period, from start to end date. Keeping track of dynamic data across multiple goals and dates proved complex. Additionally, date management and operations were a major hurdle, as the project heavily relied on precise date calculations and dynamic updates. I had to ensure that progress was properly tracked across different goal types, which required careful handling of dates, progress mapping, and synchronization across various components of the app.

:rocket: How to launch

Just click on this link!