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Curriculum/Programming Languages/C# and .NET/Passion Project: ASP.NET Core REST API
360 minIntermediate

Passion Project: ASP.NET Core REST API

After this lesson, you will be able to: Build a production-quality REST API in ASP.NET Core with EF Core, auth, tests, and Swagger, deploy to Azure App Service.

The C# resume project. Demonstrates everything from this subtrack and matches what enterprise C# jobs do day-to-day.

Prerequisites:Testing in C#

Project brief — pick one

Three options; all hit the same skills.

  1. 1

    Option A: Task Tracker API, users + projects + tasks with assignment. (Tests the relationships + queries.)

  2. 2

    Option B: Recipe Book API, recipes + ingredients + ratings + search. (Tests full-text + complex queries.)

  3. 3

    Option C: Habit Tracker API, habits + check-ins + streak calculation. (Tests time-based queries + aggregations.)

Required features

Same for all three options.

  1. 1

    1. ASP.NET Core 8+ minimal API or controllers (your call)

  2. 2

    2. EF Core with Postgres (or SQL Server / SQLite for dev)

  3. 3

    3. At least 3 entities with relationships (one-to-many + many-to-many)

  4. 4

    4. JWT auth, register + login endpoints

  5. 5

    5. Input validation with FluentValidation or DataAnnotations

  6. 6

    6. xUnit tests with at least 70% coverage

  7. 7

    7. Swagger/OpenAPI docs via Swashbuckle

  8. 8

    8. Dockerfile for the app

  9. 9

    9. README with architecture diagram + setup instructions

  10. 10

    10. Deployed to Azure App Service or Railway/Render with HTTPS

Milestones

Order matters.

  1. 1

    Milestone 1: Solution scaffolding. dotnet new sln → add API + Tests projects.

  2. 2

    Milestone 2: Domain models + DbContext + first migration. EnsureCreated for dev.

  3. 3

    Milestone 3: 3-5 CRUD endpoints with EF Core + return DTOs (not raw entities).

  4. 4

    Milestone 4: JWT auth, register + login + protect endpoints with [Authorize].

  5. 5

    Milestone 5: Tests, unit (xUnit) + integration (WebApplicationFactory).

  6. 6

    Milestone 6: Swagger UI at /swagger; clean OpenAPI annotations.

  7. 7

    Milestone 7: Dockerfile + docker-compose with Postgres.

  8. 8

    Milestone 8: Deploy to Azure App Service (free tier) + connect to Azure Postgres Flexible Server.

  9. 9

    Milestone 9: README + architecture diagram (use draw.io / Mermaid).

💡 How to talk about this

INTERVIEW: 'I built TaskTracker, an ASP.NET Core 8 REST API with EF Core, JWT auth, integration tests, OpenAPI docs, and Azure deployment. Codebase has 80% test coverage and CI on GitHub Actions.' RESUME: 'TaskTracker (GitHub link), ASP.NET Core 8 + EF Core + Postgres + JWT + xUnit + Azure App Service.' QUESTIONS to expect: How do you handle DI lifetimes? How does JWT work? How do you prevent N+1 queries in EF? Why did you choose minimal API vs controllers?

Deployment

Azure App Service free tier (F1): perfect for portfolio. azure.com/free. Or Render/Railway/Fly.io for cheap .NET hosting. Make the URL clickable in your resume + README badge for CI status.

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