Handling Empty Results

Instead of returning an empty array, SdashAPI strictly adheres to RESTful conventions. If no questions match your specific filters, the server will respond with an HTTP 404 Not Found status code and a JSON object containing an error message.

{
  "status": 404,
  "message": "No questions matched your filters, or unknown endpoint."
}

In your frontend code, you must never blindly attempt to access data.question without first verifying the status. Attempting to iterate over a non-existent data array will crash your application.

const response = await fetch(url);
const json = await response.json();

if (json.status === 200) {
  // Safe to render questions
  renderQuiz(json.data);
} else if (json.status === 404) {
  // Handle empty result gracefully
  showEmptyStateUI("No questions found for this specific year. Try another year.");
} else {
  // Handle server errors
  showErrorUI("An unexpected error occurred.");
}

Good user experience dictates that you should anticipate these scenarios. Instead of showing a generic error alert, design a friendly "Empty State" component in your app. Offer the user a button to reset their filters, or suggest a different exam year where data is known to be abundant.