Choosing a Stack and Project Structure

Which components are necessary for a dispatch-report submission: a browser frontend, web server, database, job queue, containers, or Python?

Consider the following fictional assignment brief:

• Build a local command that you run whenever you need it. It should read shipments.csv, list every shipment whose status is exactly delayed, and write the results to a readable report.

• If the input can’t be read, the command must fail visibly instead of producing an empty report that looks successful.

• Include focused checks and instructions for running the command. Hosting, browser access, saving data between runs, scheduling, and login are not required.

The required data path is short: Read CSV records, select delayed shipments, and write their identifiers and regions. Python can perform every step in one process.

Choose the smallest understandable implementation that preserves the required workflow and makes its behavior easy to inspect.

Justifying each component

The proposed repository includes frontend/, backend/, worker/, infrastructure/, and database migrations. The author also proposes containerization to make the project appear production-ready. Before accepting the proposed architecture, identify the requirement that justifies each runtime component. Identify any reasoning biases reflected in the proposals. Select “none” when no listed bias applies. This does not establish that the component is necessary.

The frontend has no browser task to support. The worker has no scheduled or background task. The database has no requirement to retain records between runs. Hosting infrastructure has no deployment destination. A separate backend server adds a network boundary to a workflow that can execute locally.

Removing these components preserves the customer’s capability: They still invoke a command and receive the requested report. Containers could serve a concrete environment requirement, but appearance alone supplies no such requirement here.

Useful submission qualities include working code, sensible structure, edge-case handling, and a clear explanation of choices. Treat these as guidance, rather than a fixed employer scoring formula.

Choosing a minimal stack

A stack is the set of languages, libraries, and runtime tools used to deliver the application. Choose it against the workflow, assignment constraints, your familiarity, setup burden, and ease of explanation.

For this example, assume you know Python’s csv, argparse, and unittest, ...