Anujcodecraft/notes-online

## ❌ Upvoting PYQ Fails – `branch` field casting error

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#33 opened on Jul 5, 2025

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NodeJSReactJsbuggood first issue

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Description

🐛 Description:

When trying to upvote a PYQ, a 400 Bad Request error is returned from the backend. The response suggests a validation failure related to the branch field.

💥 Error (from network tab):

{
  "error": "Failed to upvote PYQ",
  "details": "pyqs validation failed: branch: Cast to ObjectId failed for value \"CSE\" (type string) at path \"branch\" because of \"BSONError\""
}

Contributor guide

Research direction
Trace the upvote handler to find where the branch field is assigned, and verify if it expects an ObjectId or string. Check the Mongoose schema for branch field type.
Tech stack
javascriptmongodb
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitJavaScript
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75