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Decision: Milestone 1 will prioritize a functional backend URL shortener that generates unique short URLs for every request, with no authentication or ownership tracking. Advanced guardrails and user systems will be introduced in future milestones.

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Current MVP Approach

For Milestone 1, the URL shortener API focuses on building a simple and functional backend system before introducing advanced user management and security features.

Current implementation

• Generates a completely unique shortCode for every request
• Does not require user authentication
• Does not track ownership of URLs
• Allows public access to shortened URLs
• Uses expiration dates to automatically invalidate links after 10 days

This approach was selected to reduce complexity and ensure the project remains achievable within the internship timeline.

Why This MVP Approach Was Chosen

Mentorship discussion identified that introducing the following would significantly increase project complexity:

• Login systems
• User accounts
• Authentication
• Ownership tracking
• Request limitations

To keep the scope manageable, the project was split into milestones.

Milestone 1 focuses on

• Core URL shortening functionality