Module Overview

What You’ll Learn

• Explain what backend development actually is
• Describe client-server architecture and how HTTP requests and responses work
• Set up a working Node.js development environment

💡 Why this module matters: Every later module in this course, and this entire track, assumes you understand what’s actually happening when a browser talks to a server. Skipping this to jump straight into Express code leaves a gap that shows up later as confusion.

What’s Covered

• Backend development, what it is, and how it differs from frontend work.
• Client-server architecture, the model nearly every application on the internet is built on.
• HTTP and HTTPS, the protocol that makes all of this communication possible.
• The request-response lifecycle, what actually happens between a click and a rendered page.
• Static vs dynamic websites, and where APIs and web services fit in.
• REST vs GraphQL, a high-level preview, properly covered much later in this track.
• Installing Node.js, setting up VS Code, and running your first Node.js program.

Hands-On

By the end of this module, you’ll have Node.js and VS Code installed and configured, and you’ll have written and run your first real Node.js program from the command line.

Next module: the modern JavaScript features real Node.js code relies on every day.