Basics Backend Explained Web Pages VS Web Applications Backend technologies JSON APIs Why APIs APIs Server-side API Requests + Axios API Authentication REST API Tools Node.js nodemon Express.js HTTP requests (Express) Express middleware (bodyParser, Morgan) Custom middleware Next.js Database SQL vs NoSQL MongoDB (NoSQL) PostgreSQL (can also be SQL) MySQL (SQL) BLOG PROJECT For blog: Next.js full stack → a full-stack setup without Express. Next.js MongoDB Node.js