Portfolio Reviews: What Mentors Look For

A strong portfolio API project shows auth, sandbox docs, and a realistic failure story — not just happy-path Postman exports.

Mentors score narrative clarity: can you explain trade-offs in two minutes? We also look for operational artifacts: runbook section, rollback note, and a changelog entry for your v1.1 breaking change.

Visual design matters less than information scent. If your readme buries the base URL, fix that before adding diagrams.

Career switchers often over-explain language choice; under-explain idempotency. Flip that balance. Bring one diagram of request flow and one table of error codes — no more.