StudentConnect

StudentConnect is a peer-to-peer mentorship platform that connects students with suitable mentors based on shared college, branch, current year, and learning goals. It provides a structured and secure way for juniors to seek guidance from experienced seniors.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Spring Boot (Java)
• Database: MySQL
• Authentication: Google OAuth2, Spring Security, Role-Based Access Control
• Architecture: Client-Server, T3 DBMS Architecture
• Design Patterns: Factory, Builder, Strategy
• Other Concepts: DTOs, Loose Coupling, Layered Architecture

Features

• Role-based sign up and login for Students and Mentors
• Matchmaking algorithm based on college, branch, year, goals, and availability
• Role-based access control (RBAC) using Spring Security
• Foreign key cascading updates using MySQL
• Clean and maintainable architecture using DTOs and design patterns
• Email alerts sent to students when a mentor accepts their request

Design Patterns

• Factory Pattern : Handles creation of Student or Mentor objects at runtime based on user type.
• Builder Pattern : Used with Lombok to simplify creation of complex objects.
• Strategy Pattern : Encapsulates match rules like year, branch, and goals into separate modular strategies.

Object-Oriented Principles

This project applies core OOP concepts to ensure clean, maintainable, and scalable code:

• Encapsulation:
  DTOs and service layers hide internal logic and data structures from the outside world, exposing only what's necessary.

• Abstraction:
  Interfaces like MatchStrategy abstract the matching logic; implementations are swappable without changing higher-level code.

• Inheritance:
  Student and Mentor classes inherit from a common abstract User class, promoting reuse and hierarchy.

• Polymorphism:
  Matching strategies and factory objects are chosen at runtime, allowing flexible and dynamic behavior.