Challenge — CI/CD Pipeline

Objective

Set up a complete CI/CD pipeline for a full-stack app using GitHub Actions — automated testing on every push, Docker builds, and deployment to Railway and Vercel.

Requirements

CI Pipeline (40 points)

Create .github/workflows/ci.yml that runs on every push and PR:

• Checkout code and set up Node.js 20
• Install dependencies with npm ci
• Run TypeScript type check (tsc --noEmit)
• Run linter (npm run lint)
• Run tests with Vitest
• Start a PostgreSQL service container for integration tests
• Upload test coverage to Codecov (or just collect it)
• Build the app to verify it compiles

CD Pipeline (40 points)

Create .github/workflows/deploy.yml that runs on push to main:

• Run CI checks first (use needs:)
• Build and push Docker image to GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io)
• Deploy to Railway (API)
• Deploy to Vercel (frontend)
• Post deployment status to a Slack channel (or just log it)

Environment Variables (20 points)

• All secrets in GitHub Secrets (not hardcoded)
• env.ts with Zod validation in the Node.js app
• .env.example with all required variables documented
• Different values for test, staging, and production

CI Workflow Template

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    name: Test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_USER: test
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: test
          POSTGRES_DB: testdb
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5
        ports:
          - 5432:5432

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      - run: npm ci

      - name: Type check
        run: npm run type-check

      - name: Lint
        run: npm run lint

      - name: Run tests
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgresql://test:test@localhost:5432/testdb
          JWT_SECRET: test-secret-that-is-at-least-32-characters-long
        run: |
          npx prisma migrate deploy
          npm test -- --coverage

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

CD Workflow Template

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy-api:
    name: Deploy API
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [test]  # from ci.yml

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Deploy to Railway
        uses: bervProject/railway-deploy@main
        with:
          railway_token: ${{ secrets.RAILWAY_TOKEN }}
          service: api

Grading

Criteria	Points
CI workflow runs on push/PR	10
TypeScript type check in CI	10
Tests run with PostgreSQL service	15
Build succeeds in CI	5
CD runs after CI passes	10
Docker image built and pushed	15
Railway deployment configured	10
Vercel deployment configured	10
Secrets in GitHub, not code	10
.env.example documented	5
Total	100

Bonus

• Semantic versioning with semantic-release
• Slack/Discord notifications on deploy
• E2E tests with Playwright in CI
• Staging environment that deploys on PR
• Dependabot for automatic dependency updates