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Task Management System

Task Management System

Section titled “Task Management System”

📖 Introduction

Section titled “📖 Introduction”

A task management system (like Trello, Asana, or Jira) manages projects, tasks, and workflows. It requires: CRUD operations, real-time updates when tasks change, drag-and-drop reordering, role-based permissions, and audit trails.

🤔 Why Do We Need This?

Section titled “🤔 Why Do We Need This?”

Task management combines many challenging patterns:

  • Real-time collaboration — Multiple users see changes instantly
  • Optimistic updates — UI updates before server confirms
  • Position management — Ordering items with drag-and-drop
  • Event sourcing — Full audit trail of all changes

💻 Coding Challenge 1: Task Board API

Section titled “💻 Coding Challenge 1: Task Board API”

Build a REST API for a task board:

  • Boards have lists, lists have cards
  • POST /boards, POST /lists, POST /cards
  • PUT /cards/:id/move — move card between lists
  • GET /boards/:id — returns boards with nested lists and cards
  • Position field determines ordering within a list

💻 Coding Challenge 2: Real-Time Collaboration

Section titled “💻 Coding Challenge 2: Real-Time Collaboration”

Add WebSocket real-time updates:

  • When a card is moved, all board viewers see the update instantly
  • Typing indicators when someone is editing a card title
  • Track who is viewing each board (presence)
  • Handle concurrent edits with last-write-wins or OT

💻 Coding Challenge 3: Audit Trail

Section titled “💻 Coding Challenge 3: Audit Trail”

Add event sourcing for full audit history:

  • Every action stores an event: CARD_CREATED, CARD_MOVED, CARD_ARCHIVED
  • /boards/:id/activity — shows chronological event feed
  • Support undo: revert last N actions
  • Show “User X moved card Y from ‘To Do’ to ‘In Progress’”

📖 Summary

Section titled “📖 Summary”
FeatureTechnologyApproach
REST APIExpressCRUD for boards, lists, cards
Real-timeSocket.IOLive updates on changes
OrderingPosition fieldFloat between adjacent items
AuditEvent storeAppend-only event log
PresenceRedisTrack online users per board

📝 MCQs

Section titled “📝 MCQs”

1. How is card ordering typically implemented in a drag-and-drop task board?

  • A) Array index
  • B) Position field (float between adjacent items) ✅
  • C) Random ordering
  • D) Alphabetically by title

2. What pattern provides a full audit trail in a task management system?

  • A) CRUD
  • B) Event Sourcing ✅
  • C) Caching
  • D) Database triggers

3. How are real-time updates typically delivered to all viewers of a board?

  • A) HTTP polling
  • B) WebSocket broadcasting to room members ✅
  • C) Server-Sent Events per user
  • D) Email notifications

4. What problem does optimistic UI updates solve in collaborative systems?

  • A) Network reliability
  • B) Perceived latency — UI updates before server confirms ✅
  • C) Database performance
  • D) Authentication

5. How would you track which users are currently viewing a board?

  • A) Database table
  • B) Redis set with heartbeat timeout ✅
  • C) Socket.IO rooms
  • D) File system

Answer Key: 1-B, 2-B, 3-B, 4-B, 5-B

🔗 Related Topics

Section titled “🔗 Related Topics”