💼 MERN LinkedIn Clone

A full-stack LinkedIn-style social platform built using the MERN stack, featuring secure authentication, user profiles, post feeds, and social networking features.

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🔗 Live Demo

• 🌐 Frontend (Vercel): https://tap-academy-two.vercel.app/
• ⚙️ Backend (Render - Free Tier): (may take time to wake up)

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📸 Screenshots

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🏠 Landing Page

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🔐 Authentication

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📰 Feed

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👤 Profile

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🌍 Explore Users

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🔔 Notifications

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⚙️ Settings

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💬 Chat (🚧 Work in Progress)

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🧠 Project Overview

This project replicates core LinkedIn functionalities, focusing on:

• Secure authentication system
• User profile management
• Feed-based content sharing
• Social graph (follow/unfollow)
• Scalable and modular architecture

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🚀 Features

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🔐 Authentication (✅ Production Ready)

🔁 Reused from: 👉 https://github.com/mohankumaronly/Authentication_using_MERN

• Email + Password login
• Google OAuth 2.0
• JWT Access & Refresh Tokens
• HTTP-only cookie-based authentication
• Email verification system
• Forgot / Reset password flow
• Persistent login (/me)
• Secure logout & token rotation

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👤 Profile System (✅)

• Create & update profile
• Upload avatar (Cloudinary)
• Public / private profile visibility
• View other users' profiles

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📰 Posts & Feed (✅)

• Create post
• Edit & delete post
• Like posts
• Global feed
• User-specific posts

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🤝 Social Features (✅)

• Follow / Unfollow users
• Followers / Following list
• Connection statistics

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💬 Comments (🚧)

• Partially implemented

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💬 Realtime Chat (🚧)

• Backend structure ready
• WebSocket integration in progress

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🧱 Tech Stack

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🖥️ Backend

• Node.js + Express
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT Authentication
• Google OAuth 2.0
• Cloudinary (media uploads)
• Nodemailer / Brevo (emails)
• Rate Limiting + Security Middleware

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🌐 Frontend

• React (Vite)
• React Router v6
• Context API
• Axios (interceptors)
• Tailwind CSS

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⚙️ DevOps & Deployment

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Render (Backend - Free Tier)
• Vercel (Frontend)
• Nginx (Frontend container)

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🔐 Authentication Flow

Login / OAuth
→ Access Token (httpOnly cookie)
→ Refresh Token (stored in DB + cookie)
→ Access expires
→ Silent refresh (/refresh-token)
→ Retry request

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📂 Project Structure

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📦 Backend

backend/
│── server.js
│── package.json
│── Dockerfile
│── Dockerfile.dev
│── .env
│
├── configuration/
│   └── db.js
│
├── middlewares/
│   ├── rate.limiter.js
│   └── token.verification.js
│
├── modules/
│   ├── auth/
│   │   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── models/
│   │   ├── routers/
│   │   └── validators/
│   │
│   ├── profile/
│   │   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── models/
│   │   ├── middlewares/
│   │   └── routers/
│   │
│   ├── posts/
│   │   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── models/
│   │   ├── middlewares/
│   │   └── routes/
│   │
│   └── chat/   (WIP)
│       ├── controllers/
│       ├── models/
│       └── routes/
│
└── utils/
    ├── cloudinary.js
    ├── sendEmail.js
    └── Emails/

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🎨 Frontend

frontend/
│── Dockerfile
│── Dockerfile.dev
│── vite.config.js
│── vercel.json
│
├── public/
│   └── assets
│
└── src/
    │── App.jsx
    │── main.jsx
    │
    ├── assets/
    ├── common/
    ├── components/
    ├── context/
    │   └── AuthContext.jsx
    │
    ├── Hooks/
    ├── layouts/
    │   └── LayoutComponents/
    │
    ├── pages/
    │   ├── Auth/
    │   ├── Home/
    │   ├── posts/
    │   ├── payment/ (not used)
    │   └── NotFound/
    │
    ├── Routers/
    │   └── AppRouters.jsx
    │
    └── services/
        ├── api.js
        ├── auth.service.js
        ├── post.service.js
        ├── profile.service.js
        └── chat.service.js

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🐳 Docker Setup

Development

docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up --build

Production

docker-compose up --build

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🧪 Running Locally

git clone https://github.com/your-username/linkedin-clone.git
cd linkedin-clone

# Backend
cd backend
npm install
npm run dev

# Frontend
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

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🔒 Security Highlights

• HTTP-only cookies (XSS protection)
• Refresh token rotation
• Rate limiting
• Secure OAuth flow
• Input validation

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🚧 Roadmap

• ✅ Authentication
• ✅ Profiles
• ✅ Posts
• 🚧 Comments
• 🚧 Chat (WebSockets)
• ⏳ Notifications improvements
• ⏳ Search system

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⭐ Key Highlights

• 🔐 Production-ready authentication system
• 🧱 Modular backend architecture
• ⚡ Clean & scalable frontend
• 🐳 Dockerized setup (dev + prod)
• 🌐 Fully deployed (Render + Vercel)

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👨‍💻 Author

Mohan Kumar

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📜 License

MIT License