QuizMaster — JSP/Servlet Web Application

A simple application for creating, managing and playing quizzes. Developed using Java Servlet/JSP technology with the MVC pattern, Hibernate (JPA) ORM, and a MySQL database. Application consists of two parts: an administrative section, which allows authenticated users to create and manage quizzes, and a public section, which allows participants to play the quizzes.

The application provides:

• Registration and login for admin users

• Creation, editing, viewing, and deletion of quizzes (CRUD functionalities)

• Adding questions and answers to a quiz, with control of the minimum number of questions

• Viewing quiz details (title, image, questions, correct and incorrect answers)

• Super admin management of users (view, edit, and delete admin profiles)

• Authentication and protection of all /admin/* routes using a filter

Technologies

• Java 21 / 23

• JSP, Servlets

• JPA (Hibernate) + MySQL

• Gradle 8.5 + Gretty (Jetty)

• Vanilla JS, HTML, CSS

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Architecture and Technologies

Architecture: MVC (Servlets = Controller, JSP = View, JPA entities = Model) Back-end: Java 23, Jakarta Servlets/JSP (JSTL), Hibernate/JPA, MySQL Front-end: JSP + HTML5, CSS (custom), JavaScript (vanilla) Build/Run: Gradle Wrapper + Gretty (Jetty)

Authentication is based on HttpSession, and all admin routes are protected by a filter and available under /admin/*.

Running (Gradle Wrapper)

The project uses Gradle Wrapper, so manual Gradle installation is not required.

./gradlew clean build
./gradlew appRun

Database

CREATE DATABASE quizdb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

USE quizdb;

CREATE TABLE users ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, admin BOOLEAN NOT NULL, superadmin BOOLEAN NOT NULL );

CREATE TABLE quizzes ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, image_url VARCHAR(512), pin VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL UNIQUE, is_active BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE, created_by BIGINT, FOREIGN KEY (created_by) REFERENCES users(id) );

CREATE TABLE questions ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, quiz_id BIGINT NOT NULL, question_text TEXT NOT NULL, duration_seconds INT NOT NULL CHECK (duration_seconds <= 60), points INT NOT NULL, question_order INT, FOREIGN KEY (quiz_id) REFERENCES quizzes(id) );

CREATE TABLE answers ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, question_id BIGINT NOT NULL, answer_text TEXT NOT NULL, is_correct BOOLEAN NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY (question_id) REFERENCES questions(id) );

CREATE TABLE players ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, full_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, quiz_id BIGINT NOT NULL, total_score INT DEFAULT 0, FOREIGN KEY (quiz_id) REFERENCES quizzes(id) );

CREATE TABLE player_answers ( id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, player_id BIGINT NOT NULL, question_id BIGINT NOT NULL, answer_id BIGINT, is_correct BOOLEAN, answered_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, FOREIGN KEY (player_id) REFERENCES players(id), FOREIGN KEY (question_id) REFERENCES questions(id), FOREIGN KEY (answer_id) REFERENCES answers(id) );

Roles and Permissions

Super Admin

• Can view, edit and start all quizzes

• Can view and edit admin profiles (change username/password)

• Can delete admin accounts (deletion is blocked if the admin owns quizzes unless those quizzes are removed first)

Admin (editor)

• Can view, edit and start only their own quizzes

• Has no access to user management