Module Overview

What You’ll Learn

• Explain Node.js’s architecture and how the event loop works
• Use package.json, npm, and npx to manage a real project
• Work with both of Node’s module systems, and debug a running program

💡 Why this module matters: Express is a library that runs on top of Node.js, not a replacement for it. Understanding how Node actually executes code, especially the event loop, explains a lot of behavior that otherwise looks mysterious once real applications get built.

What’s Covered

• Node.js architecture and the V8 engine, what Node actually is under the hood.
• The event loop, how Node handles many operations without multiple threads.
• Global objects, values available everywhere in a Node program.
• package.json, npm, and npx, managing dependencies and running a real project.
• Module systems, CommonJS (require) and ES Modules (import), and the difference between them.
• Environment variables, configuring a program without hardcoding values.
• Debugging, actually stepping through a running Node program.

Hands-On

By the end of this module, you’ll have a real Node.js project with a proper package.json, understand why Node handles concurrent operations the way it does, and be able to debug a program instead of guessing at what went wrong.

Next module: Node’s own core built-in modules, no framework required.