Go beyond "hello world" and learn to structure a production-grade Express API — modular routers, a middleware pipeline you actually understand, request validation, environment config and a single centralised error handler. You will finish able to lay out an Express codebase that other engineers can extend safely.
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Express fundamentals and the request/response lifecycle — free to watch, no account needed.
What you'll learn
- Structure a production-grade Express API with modular routers and layered middleware
- Explain the Express request/response lifecycle and how middleware order controls it
- Build custom, built-in and third-party middleware including body parsing and validation
- Centralise error handling in one place so every failure returns a consistent response
- Configure an app safely with dotenv and serve static assets with express.static
Syllabus
Routing and the Request Lifecycle
Express fundamentals and the request/response lifecycleFree preview
The Router — modular, mountable routes
Middleware in Depth
Built-in and third-party middleware, and body parsing
Writing custom middleware
Validation and Configuration
Validating incoming requests
Environment config with dotenv and serving static files
Errors and Production Hardening
Centralised error handling
Structuring a production-grade Express API
Lab — 10 Exercises & Solutions
Exercises 1–5
Exercises 6–10