Exercise 3: Confirming the Minimal Starting Dependencies — Possible Solution
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package.json (relevant excerpt)
------------------------------
"dependencies": {
  "express": "^4.x.x" (or "^5.x.x"),
  "ejs": "^3.x.x",
  "mysql2": "^3.x.x"
}

WHAT'S GENUINELY ABSENT
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Per this chapter, no ORM package (no Prisma, no Sequelize, no
Drizzle), no session library (no express-session), and no validation
library (no Zod, no Joi) appear anywhere in dependencies. Every one
of these was present by default, or added within the very first
chapter, in at least one sibling rebuild course - here, none of them
exist until a later chapter deliberately adds them.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
------------------------------
It correctly lists only the three packages actually installed in this
chapter, and correctly confirms the real absence of any ORM, session,
or validation library - concrete, checkable proof of the chapter's
own claim that Express is the most architecturally minimal framework
in the entire series.