cat ~/production/online-course-marketplace/REPORT.md

Online Course Marketplace

Teachers publish video courses grouped by college, students buy through a gateway or in cash, and purchase unlocks the lectures.

role Tech Lead, Backendtimeline 2025category platformclient An education business selling online courses
Node.jsExpressMongoDBLMSPayments

Problem

An education business selling courses needed video content that only paying students can reach, with cash payment supported alongside a gateway because that is how a large share of customers actually pay.

Approach

Entitlement is checked at content access rather than at page render, so a purchased course unlocks its lectures and an unpurchased one cannot be reached by guessing a URL. Cash payment is a first-class path with an admin confirmation step, not an afterthought bolted onto a gateway-only flow.

Outcome

Course content gated on real entitlement, with both gateway and cash purchase supported through to unlock.

2Payment paths · gateway and confirmed cash
At accessContent gating · not at render
related --by-stack

Adjacent systems

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