Backend Engineering Track

Node.js Developer
Roadmap

// Click topics to track progress. Click phase header to expand/collapse.

PROGRESS

01

JavaScript & Runtime Fundamentals

3–5 WEEKS▼

JS Engine & V8

V8 architecture, JIT compilation, hidden classes, inline caching, generational GC, mark-and-sweep.

Event Loop Deep Dive

Call stack, microtasks vs macrotasks, timers, poll, check, close phases, nextTick vs setImmediate.

Asynchronous Patterns

Callbacks, Promises, async/await, Promise combinators, structured error propagation.

ES Modules vs CommonJS

require vs import/export, .mjs/.cjs, ESM interop, __dirname in ESM.

TypeScript for Node.js

tsconfig, strict mode, path aliases, declaration files, typing Express/Fastify.

Error Handling Patterns

Operational vs programmer errors, custom error classes, unhandledRejection, Result pattern.

02

Node.js Core APIs

2–3 WEEKS▼

File System (fs)

fs/promises, streams, path module, file watchers, glob usage.

Streams

Readable/Writable/Duplex/Transform, backpressure, pipeline, highWaterMark.

HTTP Module (Raw)

http.createServer, IncomingMessage, ServerResponse, manual body parsing.

EventEmitter

on/once/emit, memory leaks, maxListeners, extending EventEmitter.

Buffer & Encoding

Buffer.alloc/from, base64/hex, binary handling, Uint8Array interop.

Child Processes & Workers

spawn/exec/fork, worker_threads, IPC, SharedArrayBuffer, Atomics.

Process & OS

process.env/argv, nextTick, cluster module, multi-core scaling.

03

Web Frameworks — Express & Fastify

4–5 WEEKS▼

Express Core

Routing, middleware chain, req/res lifecycle, body parsing.

Middleware Architecture

Error middleware, helmet, cors, compression, rate limiting.

REST API Design

Resource modeling, status codes, versioning, pagination strategies.

Input Validation

Zod/Joi schemas, boundary validation, schema-first APIs.

Authentication & Authorization

JWT, refresh tokens, bcrypt, RBAC, Passport strategies.

Fastify

Schema validation, hooks lifecycle, decorators, plugin system.

File Uploads

Multer, multipart handling, S3 streaming, file validation.

WebSockets

ws, socket.io, SSE, protocol trade-offs.

04

Databases & Data Access

4–5 WEEKS▼

PostgreSQL (node-postgres)

pg Pool, transactions, prepared statements, SSL config.

Prisma ORM

Schema, migrations, relations, nested writes, raw queries.

Drizzle ORM

Type-safe queries, schema-as-code, joins, lightweight approach.

MongoDB & Mongoose

Schemas, indexes, aggregation, middleware hooks.

Redis

Caching, pub/sub, session storage, TTL strategies.

Database Patterns

Repository, Unit of Work, N+1 mitigation, EXPLAIN ANALYZE.

Migrations Strategy

Zero-downtime migrations, seeding, schema versioning.

05

Architecture & Design Patterns

3–4 WEEKS▼

Project Structure

Feature-based vs layered architecture, separation of concerns.

Dependency Injection

Manual DI, tsyringe/Inversify, interface-driven design.

SOLID in Node.js

SRP, OCP, LSP, ISP, DIP applied to services and modules.

CQRS

Command/query separation, event sourcing fundamentals.

Domain-Driven Design

Entities, value objects, aggregates, domain events.

API Documentation

OpenAPI 3.0, swagger-ui, automated schema generation.

06

Testing, Security & DevOps

3–4 WEEKS▼

Unit Testing

Vitest/Jest, mocking, spies, coverage thresholds.

Integration Testing

Supertest, Docker test DB, isolated test runs.

Security Hardening

Helmet, CORS, rate limiting, injection prevention.

OWASP in Node.js

Top 10 risks, dependency auditing, secure configuration.

Docker

Multi-stage builds, docker-compose, non-root user.

CI/CD

GitHub Actions pipelines, caching, secrets handling.

Logging & Monitoring

Structured logging, correlation IDs, Prometheus metrics.

07

Queues, Microservices & Real-Time

3–4 WEEKS▼

BullMQ

Queue lifecycle, retries, concurrency, repeatable jobs.

RabbitMQ

Exchanges, bindings, DLQ, acknowledgments, prefetch.

Kafka (kafkajs)

Consumer groups, partitions, offsets, delivery guarantees.

GraphQL

Schema, resolvers, DataLoader, subscriptions.

gRPC

Protobuf, streaming patterns, REST trade-offs.

Microservices Patterns

API Gateway, circuit breaker, saga, distributed tracing.

08

Performance, Cloud & AI Integration

ONGOING▼

Performance Profiling

clinic.js, flamegraphs, load testing, event loop blocking.

Memory Management

Heap snapshots, leak detection, max-old-space-size tuning.

Caching Strategies

Cache-aside, write-through, stampede prevention, CDN.

Cloud Deployment

AWS EC2/ECS/Lambda, blue-green deployments, 12-factor apps.

Serverless Node.js

Cold starts, execution reuse, API Gateway integration.

AI Integration

LLM SDK usage, streaming responses, embeddings, RAG pipelines.

Security for AI Endpoints

Prompt injection defense, rate limiting, audit logging.