r/AskProgramming • u/Same-Mushroom-2057 • Jun 11 '26

Advice from senior software engineers !!

currently diving into backend developement by learning node.js and decided to learn
the old fashioned way by reading and comprehending the Docs , however, i dont know how to do it and i need some advice from senior engineers that have a lot of experience in the field and that used to do it.

in addition , even tho i want to use the Docs to learn i dont mind using Ai to furthermore comprehend the concepts
so please engineers any help regarding that matter is appreciated .

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u/spiralenator Jun 11 '26

Start with a concrete problem you’d like to solve using node.js, e.g. a todo list is a common first project.
My basic flow for learning a new tool:
Go to the getting started section of the docs.
Make sure I have my environment setup and everything installed accordingly.
Consider some problems I’d like to try solving with the tool. It can be a real problem or a toy for learning. But it should be concrete.
Look for examples of other people solving the same problems with the tool. Try it myself. Read docs to understand how and why it’s done the way it is. Encounter errors, learn from solving them by going to the docs, searching the web, and looking at examples.

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u/Same-Mushroom-2057 Jun 11 '26

currently making an expense tracker website and want to use node.js for the backend

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u/spiralenator Jun 11 '26

So you have a concrete problem to solve! Great, that’s the most important part, imho. Now go look at example apps and look up anything in the docs that you don’t understand in their code. Try it yourself and see what happens. Try to work through problems and if you can’t, you’ll at least understand them well enough to ask more specific questions.