Quick proof of concept with using API Star to generate random questions.

app.py

from functools import lru_cache
from random import choice

import requests

from apistar import App, Route


@lru_cache(maxsize=1)
def get_questions():
    """Retrieve questions from online resource"""
    default = ['Tell us something interesting about you.']
    resource = 'https://projects.bobbelderbos.com/welcome_questions.txt'
    
    try:
        page = requests.get(resource)
    except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError:
        return default

    if not page.ok:
        return default

    questions = [line for line in page.text.split('\n') if valid(line)]

    return questions


def question():
    """Returns a random question"""
    q = choice(get_questions())
    # print(get_questions.cache_info())
    return {'question': q}


def valid(line):
    """Validates the line"""
    return True if line and not line.startswith('#') else False


routes = [
    Route('/question', method='GET', handler=question),
]

app = App(routes=routes)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.serve('127.0.0.1', 5000, debug=False)

environment.yml

name: randomizer
channels:
  - conda-forge
  - defaults
dependencies:
  - apistar=0.5.40
  - requests=2.19.1
  - python=3.6.6

requirements.txt

apistar==0.5.40
requests==2.19.1