beginner 14 min read

Introduction to Node.js

What is Node.js, its architecture, and why it is popular for backend development.

What is Node.js?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. It allows you to run JavaScript on the server side, outside of a browser.

Key Features

Event-Driven: Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking architecture
Asynchronous: I/O operations never block the execution thread
Single-Threaded: Uses a single thread with event looping for high concurrency
NPM: The largest ecosystem of open-source libraries

Node.js Architecture

// Node.js runs on the V8 engine (same as Chrome)
// libuv provides the event loop and async I/O
// Process global represents the running Node process

console.log("Node.js version:", process.version);
console.log("Platform:", process.platform);
console.log("Architecture:", process.arch);

Examples

// Hello World in Node.js
const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('Hello, Node.js!\n');
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server running at http://localhost:3000/');
});

Table of Contents

Related Lessons

Introduction to Node.js

What is Node.js?

Key Features

Node.js Architecture

Examples

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