Programming · Intermediate
Node.js & Express
The other half of a web application — the part that runs on a server and owns the database.
- Lessons
- 17 lessons
- Total runtime
- 52 hours of video
- Modules
- 5 modules
- Optional lessons
- 13 optional
Free. No account.
About this course
Everything in the frontend courses here runs in somebody else's browser, which means it can be read, modified and lied to. The moment you need a secret, a database or a source of truth, you need a server. Node is how a JavaScript developer gets one without learning a second language.
The course starts with Node itself — the runtime, its module system, and the asynchronous, single-threaded model that explains why Node code is shaped the way it is. Then Express, which is a thin layer over Node's HTTP server and the default way anyone actually builds one.
The API module is the point of the whole thing. A REST API is the contract between the frontend and the backend, and understanding it from the server side is what turns fetch calls from magic into something you could have written yourself. The freeCodeCamp course at the end builds a full application and is the natural capstone.
About four and a half hours of required video, and around fifty in the pool as a whole — three more full courses, authentication, and four different takes on a production backend. Have something in mind to build — a backend with no frontend asking it questions is hard to stay interested in.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain what Node is, and why it is single-threaded without being slow
- Use modules, npm and the file system from JavaScript outside a browser
- Build a REST API with Express: routes, middleware, and status codes that mean something
- Handle errors and asynchronous failure without crashing the process
- Connect a server to a database and serve real data to a frontend
Curriculum
17 lessons · 52 hours
The Runtime
5 lessons · 12h 26m
- 01CompletedNode.js Ultimate Beginner's Guide in 7 Easy StepsFireshipVideoWhat Node is and what it is not. The event loop section is the important one — it explains why blocking a Node process is so much worse than blocking a thread elsewhere.16m
- 02CompletedNode.js Tutorial for Beginners: Learn Node in 1 HourProgramming with MoshVideoModules, npm, the file system and HTTP, taught cleanly. This is the hour that makes the rest of the course make sense rather than being copied.1h
- 03CompletedNode.js Crash CourseOptionalTraversy MediaVideoOptional second pass, more project-shaped than the last. Take it if you would rather learn by building than by being shown the pieces first.1h 30m
- 04CompletedLearn Node.js — Full Tutorial for BeginnersOptionalfreeCodeCamp.orgVideoThree hours on the runtime itself — modules, streams, the event loop and the file system — before any framework arrives. The best explanation here of why Node behaves the way it does.2h 49m
- 05CompletedNode.js Full Course for BeginnersOptionalDave GrayVideoSeven hours from the runtime through to a deployed Express application. A complete alternative to most of this course if you would rather have one teacher throughout.6h 51m
The Framework
3 lessons · 9h 41m
- 06CompletedExpress JS Crash CourseTraversy MediaVideoRouting, middleware and request handling. Middleware is the concept to get straight — almost everything Express does, including things that look built in, is middleware.1h 10m
- 07CompletedLearn Express JS In 35 MinutesOptionalWeb Dev SimplifiedVideoRouting, middleware and the request-response cycle, tightly. Express is a small framework and this is very nearly all of it.36m
- 08CompletedExpress JS Full CourseOptionalAnsonVideoEight hours including sessions, passport, validation and testing — the surrounding ecosystem rather than Express itself, which is where the real work is.7h 55m
APIs
2 lessons · 10h 20m
- 09CompletedAPIs for Beginners - How to use an APIfreeCodeCamp.orgVideoWhat REST actually asks of you, from both sides of the request. Worth watching even if you only ever consume APIs — most people use them for years without knowing what the verbs are supposed to mean.2h
- 10CompletedNode.js and Express.js - Full CourseOptionalfreeCodeCamp.orgVideoOptional, and very long. A complete application built end to end, best treated as a reference to dip into once you know which part you are stuck on.8h 20m
Authentication
3 lessons · 3h 9m
- 11CompletedJWT Authentication TutorialOptionalWeb Dev SimplifiedVideoAlmost every backend needs to know who is calling it, and almost every tutorial skips it. Half an hour on access tokens, refresh tokens and why both exist.28m
- 12CompletedJWT Authentication with Node and ExpressOptionalDave GrayVideoThe full implementation including password hashing, protected routes and logout, which is the version you would actually ship.1h
- 13CompletedWhat Are JSON Web Tokens? JWT Auth ExplainedOptionalfreeCodeCamp.orgVideoThe theory underneath: what a token contains, what signing proves, and the mistakes that make an authentication system decorative. Worth it before you design one yourself.1h 41m
A Real Backend
4 lessons · 16h 4m
- 14CompletedBackend Complete Course — Node, Express, JWT, PostgreSQL, PrismaOptionalPedroTechVideoA backend with a real relational database behind it rather than an array in memory. Prisma is the current default way to talk to SQL from Node, and this is a good introduction to it.3h 3m
- 15CompletedLearn Node.js & Express with a Project in 2 HoursOptionalDipesh MalviaVideoA compact project-based version — the shortest item here that ends in something whole.1h 43m
- 16CompletedNode.js and Express.js — Complete CourseOptionalDipesh MalviaVideoSix hours with more time on project structure — controllers, routes and models kept in separate files, which matters as soon as a server outgrows one page.6h 1m
- 17CompletedBackend Full Course — Node, Express, PostgreSQL, Prisma & DockerOptionalSmoljamesVideoThe fullest treatment of the surrounding infrastructure: containers, migrations and environment configuration. Take it last, and only if you intend to run the thing you built.5h 17m
Credits
Every lesson in this course was made by one of these channels. Tubeversity sequenced them; it did not make them. If a course is useful to you, the people below are the ones who earned it.