CST 438 Week 8

 I Am Become Monolith

CST-438 has been one of the most practical and intense classes I have taken in the program. The course was not just about how to write code, it was about development and workflow practices designed to make you feel like you are working in a professional software team. Here are some things I learned during my time here that stood out to me:

1. How Real Agile Teams Work

We used GitHub Projects, broke things down into stories and tasks, and worked in weekly iterations. This was my first time managing a project like an actual dev team would. Learning how to organize work this way made everything more structured and gave me a better sense of how professional teams stay on track.

2. Building Backend APIs with Spring

Spring Boot was new to me, but by the end of the course, I was building REST APIs that connected to databases, handled user requests, and returned data. We worked with DTOs, error messages, and endpoint testing; the kind of stuff you’d expect to see in a real job.

3. Using Git the Way Develops Actually use it

Before this class, I only used Git for personal projects or to host small team project repositories. Now I understand how to work with branches, resolve conflicts, submit pull requests, and collaborate with a team. We even did code reviews and tested changes before merging them. It really changed how I think about team coding.

4. Full-Stack Development

We didn’t just stop at the backend. we built the frontend too, using React, and connected it all together. It was awesome to see how the whole system worked as one. A user clicks a button, the frontend makes a request, the backend processes it, and then the data updates in real time. Getting to work on both sides of the stack helped me feel way more confident in building full applications, not just the small, isolated programs we’re usually used to.

5. Writing Meaningful Tests

Testing wasn't treated as an afterthought. We wrote unit tests with JUnit, used MockMvc for API-level validation, and built full system tests with Selenium. This is something most courses barely scratch the surface on, but it’s critical in the real world. I used to think of testing as just extra work. Now I see it as a way to build reliable, maintainable software and catch issues early before they become real problems.

6. Security

Security was another major focus; one that’s often left out of coursework. We implemented JWT-based login, token storage, and role-based access control throughout our full-stack app. We tested everything using Postman, making sure only the right users had access to the right routes and data. We removed hardcoded values and protected our endpoints with secure tokens. This gave me a much better understanding of how to build not just functional applications, but ones that are secure against real-world threats.

Final Thoughts

CST-438 didn’t just level up my coding skills, it helped me understand the full picture of what software engineering looks like in practice. From agile workflows and testing to security and full-stack development, I now feel much better prepared to step into an actual development role. This class was tough, but every challenge came with a lesson that will stick with me going forward.