Welcome! This repository holds the starter code for the hands-on assignments in the Backend Web Development course. It is shared with both students and mentors.
You will build real backend skills the way working engineers do: by writing code, pushing it to a branch, and opening a Pull Request (PR) for review.
Backend Web Development takes you from the fundamentals of the server side through to building structured, production-shaped Node.js and Express applications. Across the course you will work with the Node runtime, the file system and streams, HTTP and routing, modular Express apps, middleware pipelines, request validation, and more.
Many lessons are anchored around Threadbase, a reference developer-community app, so the concepts you learn always connect to how a real backend is actually built.
This repository contains the starter code for one assignment, at the root. Everything you need to begin is right here:
README.md ← the full brief: what to do, how to run, how to submit
package.json ← dependencies and the "npm start" script
...starter files with TODOs for you to complete
Read
README.mdfor the complete details, and only edit the files it tells you to.
These assignments are Project Artifact Submissions: you work in your own repository and submit a link to a Pull Request, and your code is reviewed against a rubric (an automated AI reviewer plus, where needed, a mentor).
You do not push to this starter repo. This repo is read-only reference material. You copy the starter code into your own repository, do all your work there, and open the PR inside your repo.
The flow is the same every time:
- Create your own repository for the assignment (follow your cohort's instructions), and copy this starter code into it. This starter repo stays untouched.
- In your repo, create a branch for your work, e.g.
git checkout -b lu16-streams(committing straight tomainis fine too if that is what your cohort uses). - Install dependencies inside the assignment folder:
npm install. - Run it to make sure it starts:
npm start. - Implement the TODOs described in the
README.md. - Test locally until the behaviour matches the brief's examples.
- Commit and push to your own repo:
git add . git commit -m "lu16: implement streams assignment" git push origin lu16-streams
- Open a Pull Request in your own repository (e.g. your branch into your
main) and submit the PR link on the platform.
Only the code in your PR is evaluated against the assignment rubric — does the code do what the brief asks, correctly and cleanly. A clear PR title and description are good practice, but the description itself is not part of the grade.
- Working in your own repo (not this starter repo).
- All TODOs implemented; no leftover
// TODOplaceholders. -
npm installandnpm startrun without errors. - Behaviour matches the examples in the brief.
- Only the files you were asked to change have changed.
- Pushed to your repo and PR opened there; PR link submitted.
- Do not commit
node_modules/. Runnpm installlocally instead. - Keep commits small and meaningful.
- If something is unclear, re-read the
README.mdbefore asking — the examples usually answer it.
Happy building.