How to Build a REST API with NodeJS and Express

Getting Started

Building a REST API is a fundamental skill for any backend developer.

Setting up the project

First, initialize your project and install the necessary dependencies:

npm init -y
npm install express mongoose dotenv cors
npm install -D nodemon

Creating the Server

Create a server.js file:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.use(express.json());

app.get('/api/health', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ status: 'ok' });
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));

Next Steps

In the next module, we will connect this API to MongoDB and implement JWT authentication.