How to Build an Applicant Tracking System with Strapi 5 and Next.js 16

In an effort to consolidate and streamline the hiring process, this guide provides a detailed tutorial on building an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) using Strapi 5 as a backend and Next.js 16 as a frontend framework. The ATS allows for complete ownership and customization of the data model, avoiding per-seat fees as the team grows, and enables features such as job postings, candidate applications, and a status-tracking pipeline. The tutorial covers setting up Strapi as a headless CMS for content modeling, storage, and API generation, while Next.js is used to render the job board and application forms. It explains how to model data with relational fields, create a public job board, and track candidate progress through various hiring stages using enumeration fields and filtered API queries. The project includes instructions for setting up the tech stack, configuring API permissions, and deploying a full-stack ATS. By leveraging Strapi’s content-type builder, flat response format, and documentId strings, the tutorial demonstrates how to build a scalable and extensible ATS that supports REST API filters and controlled access through the Users and Permissions plugin.