Inspiration
We were inspired by how many applications work perfectly in development but fail in real-world conditions like invalid inputs, crashes, or unexpected usage. This hackathon pushed us to think beyond “it works” and focus on building a system that can handle failures gracefully and stay reliable.
What it does
Starshift is a resilient backend API service that manages product data. It provides endpoints to check system health and perform product operations, while ensuring the system remains stable under invalid inputs and simulated failures.
How we built it
We built Starshift using Flask for the backend. We implemented REST APIs for product management and added input validation and structured error handling to prevent crashes.
We tested the system by:
Sending valid and invalid inputs Simulating failures by stopping and restarting the server
This allowed us to verify that the system behaves reliably under different conditions.
Challenges we ran into Handling incorrect inputs without crashing the system Managing API behavior during edge cases Time constraints while building and testing everything Debugging environment and command-line issues during setup Accomplishments that we're proud of Built a fully working API from scratch under time pressure Implemented graceful error handling instead of crashes Demonstrated failure simulation and recovery Delivered a clean, working demo within the deadline
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