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Become a Full Stack Developer
Design, build, and ship end-to-end features across React frontend and Node.js backend confidently.
CREATED BY
B
Bhavya Z. [PLACEHOLDER] ★ 5.0
Senior Software Engineer at PayFriend | 8+ years of experience
About this Path
For developers who are solid on one side of the stack and need to own the full vertical. You will build a production-grade application from database schema through REST API to a React frontend, covering authentication, real-time features, testing at every layer, and cloud deployment. The outcome is a portfolio project you can walk through in a system-design interview.
Path Overview
Intermediate LevelCertificate of CompletionAbout 70 hours to completeEnglish language22+ curated videosLearn online at your own pace6 modules with resourcesGamified & interactive
Path Curriculum
Full stack architecture patterns
Compare monorepo vs separate repos, BFF vs direct API, and REST vs GraphQL trade-offs.
PostgreSQL schema design and indexing
Model entities and relations, choose primary key strategies, and add indexes for query patterns.
Prisma ORM: migrations and typed queries
Define schema.prisma, run migrations, and use generated types for safe database access.
Database seeding and test isolation
Seed realistic fixture data and reset state between test runs with transaction rollbacks.
Layered REST API: routes, services, repositories
Enforce separation of concerns so each layer has a single responsibility and is testable.
Authentication: JWT, refresh tokens, and sessions
Implement stateless auth with access/refresh token rotation and revocation on logout.
File uploads and storage with Multer and S3
Accept multipart uploads, validate MIME types, and stream files to an S3-compatible bucket.
API documentation with OpenAPI and Swagger UI
Annotate routes with JSDoc or schema definitions and serve live Swagger UI to consumers.
Socket.IO server setup and namespace design
Configure Socket.IO with Express, organise event handlers by feature namespace.
Room-based messaging and presence tracking
Join rooms on connection, broadcast to rooms, and maintain an in-memory presence map.
Scaling Socket.IO with Redis adapter
Distribute events across multiple Node processes using the Redis Pub/Sub adapter.
React project structure for large applications
Feature-folder layout, barrel exports, and shared component library conventions at scale.
TanStack Query mutations and optimistic updates
Mutate server state, rollback on failure, and keep local and remote state in sync.
Form state management with React Hook Form and Zod
Register fields, validate with Zod schemas, and handle async server-side error responses.
Integrating Socket.IO client in React
Connect on mount, subscribe to events with useEffect, and clean up listeners on unmount.
Unit tests for service and utility functions
Mock external dependencies with Vitest, assert pure business logic independently.
API integration tests with Supertest and Testcontainers
Boot a real database in Docker, seed fixtures, and assert full HTTP request-response cycles.
End-to-end tests with Playwright
Record user journeys, assert on UI state, and run tests against a staging environment in CI.
Docker Compose for local full-stack environment
Define services for API, frontend, PostgreSQL, and Redis with health checks and volumes.
Multi-stage Dockerfiles for API and React build
Separate build and runtime stages to produce minimal, secure production images.
GitHub Actions pipeline: test, build, deploy
Run lint and tests in parallel, build images, push to registry, and SSH-deploy on merge.
Environment configuration and secrets management
Use dotenv for local dev, GitHub Secrets for CI, and vault or SSM for production secrets.
What you'll learn
- ✓Design a normalised PostgreSQL schema and write efficient queries with Prisma ORM.
- ✓Build a layered Node.js/Express API with JWT auth, input validation, and global error handling.
- ✓Implement real-time features using WebSockets and Socket.IO with room-based messaging.
- ✓Develop a React 19 frontend that fetches API data, manages state, and handles optimistic updates.
- ✓Write end-to-end tests with Playwright and integration tests with Vitest and Supertest.
- ✓Containerise the full stack with Docker Compose and deploy to a VPS or cloud platform.