Node.js

Definitions

1. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 engine that enables JavaScript to run outside the browser, primarily on servers. Its event-driven, non-blocking I/O model makes it highly efficient for handling concurrent connections, which is why it became a popular choice for building web servers, REST APIs, real-time chat applications, and streaming services. Node.js uses a single-threaded event loop rather than spawning a new thread for each request, which keeps memory usage low and throughput high for I/O-bound workloads. The npm ecosystem provides hundreds of thousands of open-source packages, making it fast to build and prototype applications. Node.js is also used for command-line tools, build systems, and serverless functions. Companies like Netflix, LinkedIn, and PayPal adopted it for its performance characteristics and the ability to use JavaScript across both frontend and backend, reducing the context-switching cost for developers.

   In plain English: A tool that lets you use JavaScript to build server-side applications, not just websites — meaning one language can power both the frontend and backend.

Related Terms

• TypeScript
• npm
• Deno
• Bun
• Node
• Jest
• Module Loader
• Scroll Event
• Standard Library
• Template Literal
• V8
• Var
• Browser Runtime
• Classpath
• Code Execution
• Code Load
• Container Daemon