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A reading-first course for frontend engineers

YOU KNOW THE FRONTEND. LET'S FOLLOW THE REQUEST.

Backend,
understood.

One working app. Small, focused lessons.
Understand what happens after your code calls fetch().

Start reading Explore the app code →
THE APP THAT CONNECTS IT ALLTaskboard

A workspace.
A team. A task.

Build the understanding behind a SaaS backend, one decision at a time.

BrowserExpress API identity · permissions · contractsPostgres + Drizzle tenants · transactions · durable jobs
Payments · Email · Real-time updates
51 focused lessonsRead at your own paceNo setup required to learn0 pages read

A SINGLE STORY, SIX CHAPTERS

See how the pieces fit.

Start with the basics. Follow Taskboard into the failures and tradeoffs that production systems face.

01

Follow the request

HTTP, Node, Express, and the server side of fetch.

6 lessons 02

Give data a home

Postgres, SQL, Drizzle, and database guarantees.

8 lessons 03

Know who can do what

Sessions, workspaces, roles, and tenant isolation.

10 lessons 04

Work beyond the request

Email, durable jobs, retries, and idempotency.

10 lessons 05

Connect the outside world

Payments, webhooks, and real-time collaboration.

8 lessons 06

Keep it running

Security, observability, Docker, and recovery.

8 lessons

Understand it without running it.

Each lesson explains one idea, shows the relevant code, and follows a concrete request or failure. Expand the deeper details when you want them. Your reading progress stays in this browser.

How to use this course →