Introduction to Node.js — What is Node.js? — Features of Node.js — Use cases of Node.js — Node.js vs traditional server-side languages Installing Node.js — Installing on Windows, Mac, Linux — Verifying installation — Node.js LTS vs Current versions Node.js Fundamentals — Running your first Node.js script — Global objects (__dirname, __filename) — The console object Understanding the Event Loop — What is the Event Loop? — Blocking vs non-blocking code — Asynchronous nature of Node.js Core Modules — fs (File System) — path — os — events — http Working with the File System — Reading and writing files — Creating and deleting directories — Streams and buffers npm (Node Package Manager) — What is npm? — Installing local and global packages — package.json and package-lock.json — Semantic versioning Modules and Require — Creating custom modules — Exporting and importing — Module caching Event Emitters — Creating custom event emitters — Listening for events — Handling multiple events HTTP Module — Creating a basic HTTP server — Handling requests and responses — Routing basics without a framework Express.js Framework — Installing and setting up Express — Creating routes (GET, POST, etc.) — Request and response objects — Middleware in Express — Error handling middleware Templating Engines — EJS — Handlebars — Pug (formerly Jade) Working with Databases — Connecting Node.js with MongoDB — Mongoose ODM basics — MySQL with Node.js — Performing CRUD operations RESTful API Development — Designing REST APIs — HTTP status codes — CRUD using Express and MongoDB — Postman for testing APIs Authentication & Authorization — User authentication with JWT — Sessions and cookies — Role-based access control File Uploads — Handling file uploads using multer — Storing files locally or on cloud (e.g., AWS S3) Real-time Communication with WebSockets — Introduction to WebSockets — Using socket.io — Chat app with socket.io Working with Environment Variables — .env files — dotenv package — Configuration best practices Error Handling & Debugging — Try/catch, async error handling — debug and node --inspect — Logging with Winston or Morgan Unit Testing & Integration Testing — Testing with Mocha and Chai — Supertest for API testing — Jest for testing Project Structure and Best Practices — MVC structure — Folder organization — Linting and Prettier Task Runners and Build Tools — nodemon, pm2 — Automating tasks Deploying Node.js Apps — Deployment to Heroku, Vercel, Netlify — Deploying to VPS (DigitalOcean, AWS EC2) — Dockerizing Node.js apps Security Best Practices — Input validation and sanitization — Helmet for securing HTTP headers — Rate limiting and CORS