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Lesson 02 / 474%· free preview
Introduction to Node.js2/6
Features and Benefits
Key Features
| Feature | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Asynchronous & non-blocking | A single thread handles thousands of concurrent connections without blocking. |
| Event-driven | Code reacts to events (HTTP request, file read finished, message received) instead of polling. |
| Single-threaded with worker pool | One main event loop + libuv thread pool for heavy I/O. |
| Fast | V8 JIT-compiles JS to machine code; startup ~50 ms. |
| Cross-platform | Same binary works on Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker. |
| NPM | Two million reusable packages, one command away (npm i express). |
Real-world benefits
- Lower hosting cost — one Node process can serve ~10× more concurrent users than the equivalent threaded server.
- Faster iteration — share code (validation, types, helpers) between frontend and backend.
- Massive talent pool — JS is the world's most common language.
Interview Questions
Pro Tips
- For CPU-heavy work (image processing, ML inference) prefer Worker Threads or offload to a Python/Go microservice.
- Always profile before optimising —
node --prof app.jsis built-in.
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