I wanted to understand how modern web applications communicate with external APIs while creating something that was enjoyable to use.
The approach
QuizNow fetches live quiz questions from the Open Trivia Database API, allowing users to choose categories, answer timed questions and receive immediate feedback on their performance.
Features
Live API integration
Category selection
Difficulty selection
Question timer
Score tracking
Responsive design
Play again functionality
Engineering note
My first experience working with APIs
QuizNow introduced me to asynchronous JavaScript. I learned how to fetch data from APIs, work with async/await, handle loading states and manage asynchronous application flow. It also challenged me to think carefully about timers, user interactions and updating the interface as data arrived.
Challenges
Managing quiz timers alongside asynchronous API requests.
Handling HTML entities returned by the API.
Keeping score calculations accurate throughout the quiz.
What I learned
Building applications with APIs requires thinking differently from static websites.
Error handling is just as important as displaying successful results.
Small interaction details significantly improve user experience.
