Node.js Backend Developer Roadmap

Event loop and async flow Promise, async/await, microtasks

Modules and package management CommonJS, ESM, npm/pnpm

TypeScript fundamentals types, generics, utility types

Streams and buffers

Error handling and debugging

Testing: Vitest / Jest unit, integration, mocking

REST API with Express middleware, routing, error handlers

NestJS architecture modules, providers, decorators, DI

Validation and DTO class-validator, Zod

Authentication JWT, OAuth, Passport.js

GraphQL Apollo, code-first vs schema-first

WebSockets and real-time Socket.io

API documentation OpenAPI / Swagger

PostgreSQL with Prisma / Drizzle ORM

MongoDB with Mongoose document models, indexing

Redis: caching and queues with BullMQ

Docker and container orchestration

CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Logging and APM Pino, OpenTelemetry, Sentry

Performance and scalability cluster, worker threads, load balancing