What is Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs?

Build a secure REST API with a database and login, using only what Node.js already includes. You build a secure API with a database that a front end can use: a REST API with accounts, login, private data for each user, automated tests and a deployment you can show to others.

Open the Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs course page

People who know basic JavaScript and want to build the server side of an app: front-end learners who need an API to call, career changers, freelancers and small-team developers. You do not need any back-end experience, and you install no packages.

These are the prerequisites the course lists:

• Basic JavaScript: variables, functions, objects, arrays, conditions and loops
• You can open a terminal and run commands such as cd and node
• You have used a code editor to create and save files

These are the tools and materials the course lists:

• A Windows, macOS or Linux computer with an internet connection
• Node.js 22.13 or newer, free from nodejs.org (the code was run on Node 24)
• A code editor, for example Visual Studio Code (free)
• A terminal and a web browser (both already on your computer)
• Git (free) for the last module. The fresh-clone path in Module 6 needs no online account
• Optional: a free GitHub account and a free hosting account for a real deployment. Free hosting plans change, may ask for a payment method, and can erase SQLite data on restart, so check the host's current terms
• No paid subscription and no npm packages are needed for any core lesson

The Tasks API: a REST API with login, tested and ready to deploy. Assemble everything into one project that another person could clone, run, test and use. The API has accounts, login, private tasks for each user, a SQLite database built from migrations, automated tests, a smoke test and a short README. You show it running either on a host you chose or through the fresh-clone path on your own computer, and you review your own work route by route. The finished deliverables are:

• The project folder (or repository) with the source files, the four migration files, `.gitignore` and `.env.example`, and no secrets committed
• A passing `npm test` run: all 24 tests green, including the ownership test with two users and the failure-path tests
• Smoke test output with eight PASS lines, from your own computer and, if you deployed, from the deployed address
• Either the deployed address or the output of the fresh-clone path from Module 6
• The five-question review table filled in for all nine routes, with any gaps you fixed
• A README that lets a stranger run and use the API, with an honest list of known limits
• The browser demo page working from a different origin than the API
• A short written note explaining three security decisions in your own words: password hashing, token hashing and the owner check

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs has 24 lessons in 6 modules, a workbook of 10 items and a capstone project. It is planned at about 6 hours in total. The lesson text runs to roughly 19,800 words.

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs has 6 modules:

• Module 1: How the Web Back End Works. Learn the picture behind every back end: a client sends a request and a server sends a response. Set up Node.js, run your first script, write your first real server, read what a request says, and answer with proper status codes.
• Module 2: Design and Build a REST API. Plan the API as a contract of routes and rules, build a small router, read JSON bodies safely, and finish with a working create, read, update and delete API that keeps its tasks in memory.
• Module 3: Store Data in SQLite. Learn the SQL you need, keep user input out of your queries, move the tasks from memory into a real database file, and change tables safely over time with numbered migration files.
• Module 4: Users, Passwords and Login. Store passwords the safe way, let people register, give them a session token when they log in, and put a guard in front of the task routes so that only logged-in users can reach them.
• Module 5: Ownership, Tests and Safe Failures. Close the hole from Module 4 so that users see only their own tasks, prove it with automated tests, make every failure predictable and quiet, and let a browser front end on another address call your API.
• Module 6: Configure, Protect, Deploy and Hand Over. Move settings out of the code, slow down password guessers, run the API the way a host would run it, and finish the capstone: a tested, reviewed and documented REST API with login.

All 24 lesson titles, module by module:

• Module 1: How the Web Back End Works. 1.1 What a back end does; 1.2 Your first server; 1.3 Read what a request says; 1.4 Answer with the right status code.
• Module 2: Design and Build a REST API. 2.1 Design the contract: routes and rules; 2.2 Build a tiny router; 2.3 Read a JSON body safely; 2.4 Create, read, update and delete tasks.
• Module 3: Store Data in SQLite. 3.1 Talk to SQLite with SQL; 3.2 Keep user input out of your SQL; 3.3 Move the tasks into the database; 3.4 Change tables safely with migrations.
• Module 4: Users, Passwords and Login. 4.1 Store passwords the safe way; 4.2 Register a user; 4.3 Log in and get a token; 4.4 Protect routes with a guard.
• Module 5: Ownership, Tests and Safe Failures. 5.1 Give every task an owner; 5.2 Test your API with node:test; 5.3 Fail safely: errors, logs and headers; 5.4 Let a browser front end call your API (CORS).
• Module 6: Configure, Protect, Deploy and Hand Over. 6.1 Keep settings and secrets out of the code; 6.2 Slow down password guessers; 6.3 Deploy and smoke test; 6.4 Final review and hand-over.

The course is listed at intermediate level and planned at about 6 hours in total. It has 24 lessons, each with objectives you can check yourself against.

Lesson 1 is "What a back end does" (Module 1, How the Web Back End Works). By the end of it the course says you will be able to:

• Explain what a client, a request, a server and a response are
• Describe what an API is and why data travels as JSON
• Install Node.js and run a JavaScript file with it

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs defines 25 terms in plain words: Client, Server, Request and response, API, JSON, Status code, Route, Router, Handler, REST, Header, Query string, Database, SQL, SQL injection, Placeholder, Migration, Hash, Salt, Session token, Authentication and authorization, Origin and CORS, Environment variable, Rate limit and Smoke test.

ClientServerRequest and responseAPIJSONStatus codeRouteRouterHandlerRESTHeaderQuery stringDatabaseSQLSQL injectionPlaceholderMigrationHashSaltSession tokenAuthentication and authorizationOrigin and CORSEnvironment variableRate limitSmoke test

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs lists 33 official sources that were opened and checked while it was written, from 8 websites.

• nodejs.org
• raw.githubusercontent.com
• owasp.org
• developer.mozilla.org
• rfc-editor.org
• render.com
• expressjs.com
• sqlitebrowser.org

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs costs $39 (USD) as The Codex, the full written course with its workbook and templates. Studio (narrated video lessons) and the Full Operator path are not on sale yet.

How much do courses cost?

Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs was prepared by Apex Flow Labs with AI assistance and checked before it was published. Every code sample, formula and command the course includes was run before it went in, the course records 22 verification checks, and it lists 33 official sources it checked. Do not take the label on trust: open the sources and run the examples yourself.

How Apex Flow Academy checks its courses

It is listed at intermediate level, and it asks for this before you begin:

• Basic JavaScript: variables, functions, objects, arrays, conditions and loops
• You can open a terminal and run commands such as cd and node
• You have used a code editor to create and save files

No. Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs teaches and checks a skill, but it cannot promise an outcome. The course's own disclosure reads: "Created by Apex Flow Academy with AI assistance. For education only; not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Results depend on your effort and circumstances."

Yes. Node.js: Build the Back End and APIs includes a verifiable Certificate of Completion, issued by Apex Flow Academy when you finish every lesson, resolve every quiz question with at least 50% right on the first try, and tick the capstone checklist. It has a unique ID and a public verification page. It is a completion certificate, not a degree, licence, accreditation or exam result. The Full Operator path, with a final exam and capstone review, opens later with its own separate, stronger credential.

Is there a certificate?