1. What is Node.js? Where can you use it?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment and

library to run web applications outside the client’s browser. It is used to create
server-side web applications.

Node.js is perfect for data-intensive applications as it uses an asynchronous, event-

driven model. You can use I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites.
You can also use it for developing: Real-time web applications, Network applications,
General-purpose applications, and Distributed systems.

2. Why use Node.js?

Node.js makes building scalable network programs easy. Some of its advantages
include:

• It is generally fast

• It rarely blocks

• It offers a unified programming language and data type

• Everything is asynchronous

• It yields great concurrency

3. How does Node.js work?

A web server using Node.js typically has a workflow that is quite similar to the
diagram illustrated below. Let’s explore this flow of operations in detail.
 • Clients send requests to the webserver to interact with the web application.
Requests can be non-blocking or blocking:

• Querying for data

• Deleting data

• Updating the data

• Node.js retrieves the incoming requests and adds those to the Event Queue

• The requests are then passed one-by-one through the Event Loop. It
checks if the requests are simple enough not to require any external
resources

• The Event Loop processes simple requests (non-blocking operations), such

as I/O Polling, and returns the responses to the corresponding clients

A single thread from the Thread Pool is assigned to a single complex request. This
thread is responsible for completing a particular blocking request by accessing
external resources, such as computation, database, file system, etc.

Once the task is carried out completely, the response is sent to the Event Loop that
sends that response back to the client.

4. Why is Node.js Single-threaded?

Node.js is single-threaded for async processing. By doing async processing on a
single-thread under typical web loads, more performance and scalability can be
achieved instead of the typical thread-based implementation.

5. If Node.js is single-threaded, then how does it handle

concurrency?

The Multi-Threaded Request/Response Stateless Model is not followed by the Node

JS Platform, and it adheres to the Single-Threaded Event Loop Model. The Node JS
Processing paradigm is heavily influenced by the JavaScript Event-based model and
the JavaScript callback system. As a result, Node.js can easily manage more
concurrent client requests. The event loop is the processing model's beating heart in
Node.js.

6. Explain callback in Node.js.

A callback function is called after a given task. It allows other code to be run in the
meantime and prevents any blocking. Being an asynchronous platform, Node.js
heavily relies on callback. All APIs of Node are written to support callbacks.

7. What are the advantages of using promises instead of

callbacks?

• The control flow of asynchronous logic is more specified and structured.

• The coupling is low.

• We've built-in error handling.

• Improved readability.

8. How would you define the term I/O?

• The term I/O is used to describe any program, operation, or device that
transfers data to or from a medium and to or from another medium
 • Every transfer is an output from one medium and an input into another. The
medium can be a physical device, network, or files within a system

9. How is Node.js most frequently used?

Node.js is widely used in the following applications:

1. Real-time chats

2. Internet of Things

3. Complex SPAs (Single-Page Applications)

4. Real-time collaboration tools

5. Streaming applications

6. Microservices architecture

10. Explain the difference between frontend and

backend development?

Front-end Back-end

Backend refers to the server-side

Frontend refers to the client-side of an application
of an application
 It is the part of a web application that users can see and It constitutes everything that
interact with happens behind the scenes

It generally includes a web

It typically includes everything that attributes to the
server that communicates with a
visual aspects of a web application
database to serve requests

Java, PHP, Python, and Node.js

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AngularJS, and ReactJS are
are some of the backend
some of the essentials of frontend development
development technologies

11. What is NPM?

NPM stands for Node Package Manager, responsible for managing all the packages
and modules for Node.js.

Node Package Manager provides two main functionalities:

• Provides online repositories for node.js packages/modules, which are

searchable on search.nodejs.org

• Provides command-line utility to install Node.js packages and also

manages Node.js versions and dependencies

12. What are the modules in Node.js?

Modules are like JavaScript libraries that can be used in a Node.js application to
include a set of functions. To include a module in a Node.js application, use
the require() function with the parentheses containing the module's name.

Node.js has many modules to provide the basic functionality needed for a web
application. Some of them include:

Core Modules Description

Includes classes, methods, and

HTTP events to create a Node.js HTTP
server

Includes utility functions useful

util
for developers

Includes events, classes, and

fs methods to deal with file I/O
operations
 Includes methods for URL
url
parsing

Includes methods to work with

query string
query string

Includes methods to handle

stream
streaming data

Includes methods to compress

zlib
or decompress files

13. What is the purpose of the module .Exports?

In Node.js, a module encapsulates all related codes into a single unit of code that can be
parsed by moving all relevant functions into a single file. You may export a module with the
module and export the function, which lets it be imported into another file with a needed
keyword.

14. Why is Node.js preferred over other backend

technologies like Java and PHP?

Some of the reasons why Node.js is preferred include:

• Node.js is very fast

 • Node Package Manager has over 50,000 bundles available at the
developer’s disposal

• Perfect for data-intensive, real-time web applications, as Node.js never

waits for an API to return data

• Better synchronization of code between server and client due to same

code base

• Easy for web developers to start using Node.js in their projects as it is a

JavaScript library

15. What is the difference between Angular and

Node.js?

Angular Node.js

It is a frontend development framework It is a server-side environment

It is written in TypeScript It is written in C, C++ languages

Used for building fast and

Used for building single-page, client-side web
scalable server-side networking
applications
applications
 Splits a web application into MVC components Generates database queries

Also Read: What is Angular?

16. Which database is more popularly used with

Node.js?

MongoDB is the most common database used with Node.js. It is a NoSQL, cross-
platform, document-oriented database that provides high performance, high
availability, and easy scalability.

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17. What are some of the most commonly used libraries

in Node.js?

There are two commonly used libraries in Node.js:

• ExpressJS - Express is a flexible Node.js web application framework that

provides a wide set of features to develop web and mobile applications.

• Mongoose - Mongoose is also a Node.js web application framework that

makes it easy to connect an application to a database.

18. What are the pros and cons of Node.js?

Node.js Pros Node.js Cons

 Not suitable for heavy
Fast processing and an event-based model
computational tasks

Using callback is complex since

Uses JavaScript, which is well-known amongst
you end up with several nested
developers
callbacks

Dealing with relational

Node Package Manager has over 50,000 packages that
databases is not a good option
provide the functionality to an application
for Node.js

Since Node.js is single-threaded,

Best suited for streaming huge amounts of data and I/O
CPU intensive tasks are not its
intensive operations
strong suit

19. What is the command used to import external

libraries?

The “require” command is used for importing external libraries. For example - “var
http=require (“HTTP”).” This will load the HTTP library and the single exported object
through the HTTP variable.

Now that we have covered some of the important beginner-level Node.js interview
questions let us look at some of the intermediate-level Node.js interview questions.
Node.js Interview Questions and Answers For
Intermediate Level

20. What does event-driven programming mean?

An event-driven programming approach uses events to trigger various functions. An

event can be anything, such as typing a key or clicking a mouse button. A call-back
function is already registered with the element executes whenever an event is
triggered.

21. What is an Event Loop in Node.js?

Event loops handle asynchronous callbacks in Node.js. It is the foundation of the

non-blocking input/output in Node.js, making it one of the most important
environmental features.

22. Differentiate between process.nextTick() and

setImmediate()?

The distinction between method and product. This is accomplished through the use
of nextTick() and setImmediate(). next Tick() postpones the execution of action until
the next pass around the event loop, or it simply calls the callback function once the
event loop's current execution is complete, whereas setImmediate() executes a
callback on the next cycle of the event loop and returns control to the event loop for
any I/O operations.

23. What is an EventEmitter in Node.js?

• EventEmitter is a class that holds all the objects that can emit events
 • Whenever an object from the EventEmitter class throws an event, all
attached functions are called upon synchronously

24. What are the two types of API functions in Node.js?

The two types of API functions in Node.js are:

• Asynchronous, non-blocking functions

• Synchronous, blocking functions

25. What is the package.json file?

The package.json file is the heart of a Node.js system. This file holds the metadata
for a particular project. The package.json file is found in the root directory of any
Node application or module

This is what a package.json file looks like immediately after creating a Node.js
project using the command: npm init

You can edit the parameters when you create a Node.js project.
26. How would you use a URL module in Node.js?

27. What is the Express.js package?

Express is a flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a wide set of
features to develop both web and mobile applications

28. How do you create a simple Express.js application?

• The request object represents the HTTP request and has properties for the
request query string, parameters, body, HTTP headers, and so on

• The response object represents the HTTP response that an Express app
sends when it receives an HTTP request
29. What are streams in Node.js?

Streams are objects that enable you to read data or write data continuously.

There are four types of streams:

Readable – Used for reading operations

Writable − Used for write operations

Duplex − Can be used for both reading and write operations

Transform − A type of duplex stream where the output is computed based on input

30. How do you install, update, and delete a

dependency?
31. How do you create a simple server in Node.js that
returns Hello World?

• Import the HTTP module

• Use createServer function with a callback function using request and

response as parameters.

• Type “hello world."

• Set the server to listen to port 8080 and assign an IP address