Hands-On Introduction to Backend Development with NestJS

Welcome to Hands-On Introduction to Backend Development with NestJS — a practical and beginner-friendly course where you’ll build a real RESTful API from scratch using one of the most powerful Node.js frameworks out there.

I’m Lucas, a tech lead working in an international team. I’ve designed this course to give you a strong foundation in NestJS — without slides, without filler, just clean, focused, hands-on coding.

In this short course, we’ll start by setting up a NestJS project and walk step by step through creating modules, controllers, and services. You’ll build a real CRUD API with in-memory data, handle parameters and query strings, and learn how to structure your application using DTOs and validation.

From there, we’ll move into more advanced features like using global validation pipes, creating custom middleware to log requests, and protecting routes with guards (such as a basic API key check). We’ll also cover how to use .env files to manage configuration, leverage the built-in NestJS logger, and run the tests that are automatically created for you with the CLI.

So no matter if you're coming from Express.js or starting fresh, this course will give you the confidence and skills to move forward with NestJS. Let’s get started!