About the Project

Inspiration

We wanted to create a simple way for people to lend and borrow items without losing track of them. Managing these exchanges manually is easy to forget, so we built LendToAFriend to make it organized and effortless.

What We Learned

Through this project, we deepened my skills in:

• React Native and Expo for cross-platform mobile development
• Backend development with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB
• Authentication systems using JWT and bcrypt
• State management, navigation, and real-time UI updates

How We Built It

The app was built with:

• Frontend: React Native (Expo) with AsyncStorage and secure fetch requests
• Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose ORM)
• Authentication: Custom login/register flow using JWT tokens
• State Management: Context API for tracking user authentication

Challenges

Some of the biggest challenges were:

• Properly syncing login state between frontend and backend
• Handling token persistence and screen navigation dynamically
• Debugging CORS, network issues, and MongoDB errors during development

Built With

• javascript
• mongodb
• node.js
• react-native
• typescript