In two hours (the same amount of time it takes to binge two episodes of The Witcher) you will build a ride-sharing application with Node.js and CockroachDB. That’s the beauty of this Node.js and CockroachDB fundamentals course just released by Cockroach University: You get real-life, hands on experience with the tools you need to build modern applications. Experience with modern application architectures, and with distributed databases in particular, is becoming a regular requirement for open roles at great companies like Roblox, Accenture, Netflix, Apple, and others. This Node.js course is a quick way to gain the requisite experience so that you can demonstrate your distributed systems skills in an interview.
We’ve built a Node.js cheat sheet to help you get started (here is a downloadable version). Take a look:
Why should I do this Node.js tutorial instead of another?
Do a quick search on youtube and you’ll find dozens of free Node.js tutorials (hopefully you find some of our videos in that search!). What’s unique about this course is that you will be asked to work directly with the database in two capacities: in the SQL shell and via your Node.js application. This might be a new experience for some developers. But it’s important.
In most Node.js courses you are not asked to encounter the database at all, which is a problem. There is value in learning how the performance of your application is directly connected to the database. From this course you will learn how to use your database familiarity to build better applications that deliver excellent end user experiences
What are the contents of this Node.js Fundamentals Course?
The Node.js course should take two hours to complete and that includes time to peruse the requisite Node.js, TypeORM, and CockroachDB docs. The course includes:
8 short educational videos
9 hands-on labs
1 final exam
During the course you’ll use (free) CockroachDB Serverless to build a full-stack ride-sharing application in TypeScript using Node.js with TypeORM. You will start with a simple version that manages a fleet of scooters and their current positions. You will add features one by one as the course progresses until you have a highly functional application that is ready to track vehicles and users at scale. Before taking this course, you should have some experience with Node.js and with application development in general. It’s helpful if you have some familiarity with SQL but it’s fine if you don’t.
If you’ve never used CockroachDB before, we would also suggest taking our “Practical First Steps with CockroachDB” course first. (There are also versions of this course for Python and Java as well.)
To begin the course you can register right here.
Examples of Node.js Tutorial Videos
As mentioned above, there are eight short videos in this course. A couple of them are needed in order to get you up to speed on the capabilities of a distributed database. The rest are useful Node.js tutorials that help you understand application architecture and, generally speaking, how applications are built. Take a look at these two examples to get an idea of how the course looks and feels:
Node.js Application Architecture
In this video you’ll learn about Node.js application architecture and how data flows through the backend of the application:
Read & Write Data with TypeORM
In this video about using TypeORM to Read and Write data to a database you’ll learn about CRUD operations and how they work with entity objects:
How to consume this Node.js & CockroachDB Tutorial Course
The entire playlist of Node.js tutorial videos can be found on YouTube here. But to get the full course experience including the hands-on labs, the exam, the certificate of completion, and the full stack ride sharing application you can register here. If you have questions while you’re taking the course you can reach out to the dedicated channel in our CockroachDB Community Slack called #cockroach-university, where our team is available to answer questions. Once you’ve completed the course you can share your certificate of completion on Linkedin and twitter. Don’t forget to mention Cockroach Labs in your post so that we can find you and repost your certificate from our channels.
