Web Development with JavaScript (Node.js): From Basics to Deployment

This book is a practical guide to web development in JavaScript using the Node.js platform. You will go from installing tools to deploying a finished application on a server. The material is structured to provide a systematic understanding of backend development: how servers, routes, databases, authentication, and deployment work.

The book starts with the JavaScript (ES6+) basics necessary for working with Node.js. You will learn the module system, asynchronous programming (callbacks, promises, async/await), working with the file system and streams. Then you will move on to the Express framework — the most popular tool for creating web servers. Through examples, you will master routing, middleware, request and response handling, and template engines.

Dedicated chapters cover working with databases: MongoDB (via Mongoose) and SQLite. You will learn how to design schemas, perform CRUD operations, and build relationships between data. Next, creating a REST API with authentication (JWT, sessions), error handling, validation, and file handling is discussed.

The final part of the book is deployment and operations. You will learn how to set up a production environment, use environment variables, logging, and monitoring. Deployment on Render, Vercel, and your own VPS via Docker is covered. Topics of CI/CD, testing (Jest), and performance optimization are also touched upon.

• Who is this book for? For beginner developers familiar with the basics of JavaScript but who have not worked with the backend. Also for frontend developers who want to master the server side. Experience in Node.js is not required — everything is explained from scratch.
• What will you learn? How to set up the environment, create a server on Express, work with databases, implement authentication, write a REST API, test code, and deploy a project to production.
• Features: Emphasis on modern tools (ES6+, Mongoose, JWT, Docker). All examples are ready to run. At the end of the book — a full-fledged project: an API for a blog with users, posts, and comments.
• Format: Clear structure, many practical tasks, code with comments. The book is suitable both for self-study and for courses.

After reading, you will be able to create full-fledged web applications on Node.js, understand the architecture of backend systems, and confidently pass interviews for the position of Junior Node.js Developer.