Build practical backend skills with Node.js and Express by creating RESTful APIs, connecting MongoDB, working with asynchronous code, handling errors and implementing JWT-based authentication.
By Board Infinity · Offered on Coursera
40 short lessons, each one demonstrated in a live editor
Shareable on LinkedIn the day you finish
10 assignments and a peer-reviewed final project
A practical foundation for building REST APIs with Node.js, Express and MongoDB - stand the server up, give it a database, then make it asynchronous, resilient and secure.
Building RESTful APIs with Node.js and Express is a practical foundation for building REST APIs with Node.js, Express and MongoDB. It starts with what Node.js actually is - its architecture, the event loop, non-blocking I/O, the built-in modules and NPM - and has you running an Express server and answering HTTP requests before anything else.
The progression is deliberate: Introduction to Node.js and Express → Working with Databases and MongoDB → Advanced Topics in Node.js and Express. You move from setting up Node.js and Express servers, to MongoDB CRUD operations and queries, and then to asynchronous programming, error handling and JWT authentication.
It assumes basic JavaScript familiarity and nothing more. Coursera's guidance is roughly one week at ten hours a week, fully self-paced, and the course closes with a peer-reviewed Node.js and MongoDB application you build yourself.
The course is open to developers with basic JavaScript familiarity - no backend experience assumed, and no starting from zero either.
You build interfaces against APIs somebody else wrote. This is the course where you write them - routes, middleware, a database and an authentication layer.
Node.js architecture and REST come first, so you understand why an API is shaped the way it is before you start putting endpoints on one.
You already have the syntax. This adds the runtime, the framework, the database and the security that sits around them.
From HTTP methods and REST architecture through MongoDB CRUD to JWT - the whole path to an API you would be willing to deploy.
These are the course's own learning outcomes - what you leave able to do, from an empty project folder.
Build a working Express server using Node.js architecture, routing, and middleware.
Apply MongoDB CRUD operations and queries to power a Node.js REST API.
Develop asynchronous code using promises and async/await for robust API performance.
Design a secure, JWT authenticated REST API as your Express REST API capstone project.
A dedicated coach who ships Node.js services for a living - someone who can look at the 500 you have stared at for an hour and tell you why.
Book a demo session60-minute demo session · 100% refundable · no obligation to continue
The middleware that never fires, the Mongo connection that hangs - explained by someone who has seen it before.
Not just whether it returns 200 - whether you would want to maintain it in six months.
Extra endpoints set for you, then reviewed, so Express turns from syntax into fluency.
Which backend path fits you - Node services, API platform work or full-stack MEAN - and what to learn next.
One week at ten hours a week, fully self-paced. Every module below lists its learning objectives, every lesson with its duration, and what you leave with.
This module introduces Node.js and Express as fundamental technologies for building modern web applications.
This module teaches learners how to work with databases in Node.js using MongoDB, a popular NoSQL database.
This module covers advanced topics in Node.js and Express, including asynchronous programming, error handling, security, authentication and maintainable backend development.
Lesson titles and durations are taken from the course as it is published on Coursera and may be updated by the instructor. Download the full syllabus as a PDF.
Coursera lists three tools for this course - Middleware, MongoDB and Node.JS - and every one of them is set up and demonstrated on screen.
The whole backend. Architecture, the event loop, non-blocking I/O, built-in modules and NPM.
Where the API lives - server setup, routing, HTTP requests and responses, and the middleware chain.
The NoSQL store behind the API - collections, documents, CRUD operations and queries.
Custom and third-party middleware, error handling, and the JWT layer that guards your routes.
The capabilities this course builds, grouped the way the work actually splits - standing the server up, giving it data, and making it safe to expose.
Getting a request in and a response out.
Holding it, finding it, changing it.
Asynchronous, resilient and authenticated.
Complete the course successfully and Board Infinity issues a shareable certificate through Coursera - with a public verification link, and a one-click path onto your LinkedIn profile, resume or CV.
Issued on successful completion of the 10 assignments and the peer-reviewed final project. It is a Board Infinity course certificate, not an official Node.js, Express or MongoDB certification.
Filed under Licenses & Certifications, where recruiters actually look.
Its own verification link, so a hiring manager confirms it in seconds.
Awarded on 10 assignments and a peer-reviewed API project - it certifies what you built.
Board Infinity as the provider, Coursera as the platform.
Node.js, Express and MongoDB sit under a large share of modern web products. These are the roles that ask for them by name.
The direct line. Routing, middleware, a database and an auth layer are the daily shape of the job, and they are what this course builds.
Architecture, the event loop and non-blocking I/O are the first things asked about - and the first things module one covers.
Express is the default Node framework. Server setup, routing and the middleware chain are exactly what the role is built on.
REST architecture, HTTP methods, status codes and authentication - the vocabulary of designing an interface other teams consume.
One language across the stack. If you already write JavaScript, this is the shortest route to being useful server-side.
This is the half most frontend developers are missing. It is also the course that sits inside the MEAN stack specialization.
Every topic here exists free somewhere on the internet, and nobody is pretending otherwise. What a course adds is the order you meet them in, the checking that makes them stick, and something to show at the end. It is also honest about its size: one week at ten hours a week is a foundation, not a substitute for production backend experience.
These are suggested next directions, not topics taught inside this course. The course itself sits in the Learning MEAN Stack by Building Real world Application specialization.
Project structure, schema modelling with Mongoose, and the patterns that keep a growing Express codebase readable.
Browse courses Make it trustworthyAutomated tests, documented endpoints, and the security work that starts where authentication ends - validation, rate limiting and secrets.
Browse courses Scale it outTypes across your API surface, splitting a service into several, getting them running in the cloud - and the full-stack MEAN picture around them.
Browse coursesBoard Infinity runs 270+ courses and 57 specializations on Coursera - browse the full catalogue.
Everything learners ask before enrolling, answered plainly.
It is a practical foundation for building REST APIs with Node.js, Express and MongoDB. Across three modules you set up Node.js and Express servers, learn REST architecture and HTTP methods, connect MongoDB and run CRUD operations and queries against it, and then move on to asynchronous programming, error handling and JWT authentication. It ends with a peer-reviewed Node.js and MongoDB application you build yourself.
Developers with basic JavaScript familiarity who want to work server-side: frontend developers moving into backend work, aspiring backend developers, web developers and JavaScript developers who want to learn Node.js and Express and build REST APIs.
Basic JavaScript familiarity is the recommended experience, and Coursera lists the course at intermediate level. You do not need prior backend or Node.js experience - module one starts at what Node.js is - but this is not a first-ever programming course either.
Yes. Module one covers what Node.js is, its architecture, the event loop, non-blocking I/O, the features that make it suited to web applications, its built-in modules and NPM.
Yes. Express is introduced in module one - setting up an Express server, handling HTTP requests and responses, routing and middleware - and it is the framework every later module builds on.
Yes - that is the point of the course. Module one covers REST architecture, the HTTP methods GET, PUT, POST and DELETE, how RESTful APIs are used in web applications, and walks through building a simple RESTful API.
Yes. Module two is dedicated to it: what MongoDB is, how it compares with an RDBMS, its advantages and disadvantages, installing it, and connecting it to your API.
All four, one lesson at a time: inserting documents, the find method, the update method and deleting documents - plus covered queries. The module's practice quiz has you build CRUD operations with MongoDB and Express together.
Middleware is a function that sits between the incoming request and your route handler - it can read or change the request, end the response, or pass control on. The course covers it twice: as part of building a RESTful API in module one, and in depth in module three, including third-party middleware.
Yes. Module three has a full lesson sequence on it: an overview of error handling, missing field and unique field errors, checking for empty values in a controller, CustomAPIError, and BadRequestError and NotFoundError.
Yes. Module three explains what authentication and authorization are, why an API needs both, and then implements them - ending with JWT authentication on the API you have built.
A JSON Web Token is a signed, self-contained token a server issues after a successful login and a client sends back with later requests, so the API can tell who is calling without holding a session. The course has a dedicated lesson on what JWT is and another on implementing authentication with it.
It is introduced. Module three includes a lesson on what Passport.js is and its applications, alongside the JWT work - enough to know what it does and when you would reach for it.
A peer-reviewed final assignment: Building a Node.js and MongoDB Web Application, allowed 120 minutes. It is the capstone for the course - a secure, JWT authenticated REST API that pulls the three modules together.
Coursera's guidance is 1 week at 10 hours a week. The three modules are listed at roughly 3, 4 and 5 hours. It is fully self-paced, so spreading it across a few evenings and weekends is completely normal.
Three: Introduction to Node.js and Express, Working with Databases and MongoDB, and Advanced Topics in Node.js and Express. Together they hold 40 video lessons and 10 readings.
Ten assignments across the three modules - a mix of graded and practice quizzes - plus one peer-reviewed final project, which is assessed differently from the quizzes.
Yes. The schedule is flexible and deadlines can be reset, so you move at whatever pace your week allows. The course is available in English, with 7 languages available on Coursera.
Yes - a shareable certificate on successful completion, issued by Board Infinity through Coursera with its own verification link. Coursera's one-click button adds it to the Licenses & Certifications section of your LinkedIn profile, and you can add it to a resume or CV. It is a course certificate, not an official Node.js or MongoDB certification.
Yes - this page is Board Infinity's own overview of our course. Enrollment, payment, video lessons, grading and the certificate all happen on Coursera, where the course is hosted. It is part of the Learning MEAN Stack by Building Real world Application specialization.
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