Build a Backend REST API with Node JS from Scratch

Name: Build a Backend REST API with Node JS from Scratch
Rating: 4.4 (671 reviews)

Build a backend NodeJS API with a React client

Created byPierre Henry

Last updated 5/2026

English

What you'll learn

Ability to build a backend API for any kinds of projects and MVPs
Creating API endpoints, testing property an API call and securing them!
Capacity to build a client React application and plug it to an API
HTTP Client Axios package as well as Fetch Native JS API!
Clean Code and Good Coding Practices in NodeJS and RESTful API architecture
Software Architecture: Learn the n-tier and layered architecture patterns
Calling an API from the client-side and dealing with CORS from the web browsers
All the little things you ABSOLUTELY need to know for taking your skills to the next level and becoming an outstanding web developer
Implementing several NPM packages such as Pino, Yup, Toastify, React Content Loader, and so on!
Securing and optimizing an API on production with Rate Limiter, Helmet and Compression
Documenting an API professionally with JSDoc and OpenAPI
Use React Router for your React routes
React Bootstrap v5 (in your React components!)
Implementing Styled-Components in React components
Implementing unit tests to the API with AVA test runner

Course content

7 sections • 53 lectures • 12h 14m total length

Project Introduction2:25
Introduction of what we are going to build in NodeJS (and React) together.

Create a Node project from scratch2:11
Pre-checks. Environment Setup4:07
Verify your node version and install node if missing, then use npm to manage packages, initialize git, ignore node_modules, and create a basic package.json for the project setup.
NodeJS, NPM, Git, and Git Config4:16
Install necessary NPM packages18:42
Initialize your npm project, configure git user details, install express and babel as dev dependency for a modern rest api, set up body-parser, and choose tape as a test runner.
Install Nodemon for automatically reload any changes2:20
Install nodemon to automatically reload changes during development. Use it to avoid restarting the server after edits and add it as a development dependency.
Our first file (server.js)4:32
Let's communicate with our backend (API)8:59
Insomnia - Postman - REST clients for making HTTP requests very easily5:28
HTTP Status Codes - Let's make them readable5:09
API Endpoints9:49
Let's design the architecture of our Simple API and the different clean options10:16
Part 1 - Create a solid and flexible architecture for the API47:05
Part 2 - Create a solid and flexible architecture for the API1:03:04
Build a solid api architecture for a node js rest api, focusing on update logic, guard clauses, and v1 routes for get all, get by id, add, update, and delete.
Validate our endpoints41:02
Secure our API - Potential Vulnerabilities2:42
Install helmet and PM package to secure Express apps by setting HTTP headers, then use helmet as middleware in the server and restart, verifying the API remains functional.
Let's briefly see JSDoc and OpenAPI9:06
Let's git commit our simple RESTful API2:25
Rate limiting and compressing your API8:45
Adding Pino logging library for our NodeJS API15:17
Learn to integrate the lightweight Pino logging library into a Node.js API, using a logger instance, info and error levels, and JSON-formatted logs for local and cloud monitoring.

Let's create our client React app8:24
Create a React client for the Node.js backend, set up with npm init, and implement user routes to call API endpoints like get all, get one, create, update, and delete.
UsersList, Axios/Fetch and Installing dependencies4:11
UsersList component - Implementation19:44
Enhance UsersLis component7:46
Enhance the users list component by enforcing an object state, applying bootstrap container classes, and conditionally rendering city and country from each user, while renaming the component and aligning imports.
React Styled-Components15:32
Discover how to style a React app with styled-components by installing the package, creating a global body color with createGlobalStyle, and toggling light and dark themes via props.
Use React Router14:21
Set up routing for a React front end with react-router-dom v6, connecting the users list to individual views and adding a create user route.
Create User component20:19
Toastify messages and hadling error messages from API30:45
Retrieve a user from our React component41:19
Refactoring Layout-Navbar26:00
Re-organized React client into multi-tiers22:52
Reorganize your React client into multi-tier layers by moving user components into dedicated services and user folders, establish a base API, and refactor for cleaner imports and async calls.
Edit a User55:03
Delete a User34:32
Implement a delete user feature in the React client by wiring a remove user component to API delete endpoint using Axios, with confirmation and toast feedback plus redirect after removal.
Footer and static pages32:37
Concerning the Footer component, with `{{ span: 3, offset: 1 }}` on the `Col` React-Bootstrap component, need to use curly brackets twice, because we have an object, and an object is declared with curly brackets as well. It would be the same as doing
```
columnMdOptions = { span: 3, offset: 1 };

<Col md={columnMdOptions}>
</Col>
```
Optional - Convert axios with native JS Fetch13:18
Enhance footer, little CSS/HTML tricks1:30
Handle nicely an error message when no users on homepage17:56
Enhancement, part 1 - Have a loading spinner when retrieving users25:31
Enhancement, part 2 - Fixing the content loader not showing the error messages3:49
Usage of the `finally` block in JS and how we can implement it2:49
Enhance UsersList - Fix Bootstrap Row usage and Refactor into new User component8:23
Refactor the users list into a reusable user card component, fix bootstrap row layout, and add margins to improve the UI for a clean backend REST API with Node.js.

Requirements

Basic knowledge of programming (using a code editor, installing web extensions, ...)
Basic knowledge of JavaScript and CSS
A text editor/IDE (Visual Studio Code, WebStorm, IntelliJ, Sublime, ...)

Description

Quickly learn the fundamental of building a robust RESTFul API with NodeJS based on an efficient N-tier architecture pattern, and then, see how to plug your API with a client which you will also learn how to build. A client built with the latest React and Bootstrap versions.

You will learn how to build a backend API from scratch and build a client that will speak to your API through HTTP protocol.

Communicate with your backend. HTTP and HTTP methods and codes.
How to validate the input data validation.
How to request some API endpoints easily
How to test your API gradually.
How to design a flexible and solid API architecture.
How to secure and optimize your API professionally (with the packages you absolutely need to know).
CORS on your API.
Building a client from scratch with React JS.
Calling the CRUD (Create-Read-Update-Delete) endpoints from your client.
How to document the API endpoints with JSDoc and OpenAPI.
And so much more will be covered in this course.

This JavaScript course will also cover some great packages that will change your life during the development of an API efficiently.

You will learn to create very easily a design in a matter of minutes, without any complicated CSS (just a few reusable components).

You will learn how to embrace your components with Styled-Components and understand the benefits of using it.

You will be able to add as many pages as needed in your React application thanks to React Router Dom.

At the end of this course, you will be comfortable enough to create an API from scratch by yourself, implement new endpoints, being comfortable with many packages (such as logging, rate-limiter, Yup schema validation, ...).

Icing on the cake, you will be confident to create a frontend client from scratch and use those endpoints to interact with the backend on your frontend JavaScript application.

At the end of the course, you will even learn how you can create different unit tests for your API.

You will be ready to start building any modern JavaScript web applications (API and/or client-side rendering) using NodeJS with ExpressJS and React.

Who this course is for:

Beginners & Intermediates (and any students curious about building such a web architecture)
Anyone looking to gain more professional knowledge in JavaScript and NodeJS/React
Anyone interested in building a clean RESTFul backend API in NodeJS
Anyone interested in building a modern frontend React JS client
Anyone who desires to build an API following the 3-tier architecture

Build a Backend REST API with Node JS from Scratch

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 2min

NodeJS Backend API19 lectures • 4hr 25min

Frontend React Client21 lectures • 6hr 47min

Unit tests (API)3 lectures • 23min

Source Code / GitHub Repositories2 lectures • 8min

Resources & Beyond6 lectures • 29min

Bonus1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: