Backend resources for developers

A 10-stage path to a .NET developer job: modern C# on .NET 10, LINQ and async, ASP.NET Core, EF Core and SQL Server, Identity and JWT security, a Web API, Angular, React or Blazor front end, xUnit and integration testing, production features, and Docker, GitHub Actions and Azure. It suits students and developers aiming at banks, telecoms and enterprise software houses. By the end you can build, test, secure and ship one production-ready ASP.NET Core application and explain every choice in it.

• Web
• Backend
• Programming
• Databases

A short, nine-stage path for picking the right database for each job in an app: describe your data first, then relational, document, key-value and cache, search, vector, columnar and warehouse, graph, time-series and object storage, each with a hands-on task, and finally managed versus self-hosted, cloud equivalents, free tiers and cost. It suits students and developers starting a project. By the end you can write a database decision for your own app and defend every choice in it.

• Web
• Databases
• Backend
• Cloud

A nine-stage path for choosing the model, hosting and tools for an AI feature on evidence rather than hype: requirements first, reasoning versus fast models, cost per task, context and retrieval, tool calling and MCP, API versus open-weight models, the rest of the stack, a three-model comparison on your own data, and routing and fallbacks in production. It suits developers, students and founders about to build with an LLM. By the end you can defend a model choice with your own numbers and switch in a day.

• AI
• Backend

A quick-revision book on building features with LLM APIs: tokens, prompts, streaming, structured output, tool calling, embeddings and RAG, caching, batching, cost, evals and security, in 8 chapters and 56 concepts. It comes in OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini editions, each showing the same ideas with that provider's official Python SDK. It suits engineers who can already call an HTTP API in Python and now need their AI features to be reliable, affordable and safe.

• AI
• Backend
• Programming

Brad Traversy's long-running channel of practical web development tutorials: HTML, CSS and JavaScript crash courses, React and Vue, Node.js, Python and PHP back ends, and many full project builds. The style is calm, project-first and easy to follow. It suits beginners and self-taught developers who learn best by building a complete app alongside the video.

• Web
• Backend
• Programming
• Frontend

A 10-stage path for developers who can already call a model API and want to build agents that hold up in real use, in Python or TypeScript. It covers the agent loop by hand, structured output, memory and state, multi-agent patterns, LangGraph and the OpenAI and Claude agent SDKs, building and publishing an MCP server, evals, guardrails against prompt injection, and tracing and shipping. You finish with an evaluated, limited, traced agent and an MCP server a reviewer can try.

• AI
• Programming
• Web
• Backend

A quick-revision book on the Model Context Protocol for engineers building AI apps: hosts, clients and servers, JSON-RPC messages and lifecycle, transports, tools, resources and prompts, client features, OAuth for remote servers, building and testing servers with the official SDKs, security and tool design. It reflects the 2026-07-28 revision of the specification and notes what older revisions did differently. Use it while building or reviewing an MCP server, alongside the AI agents and MCP roadmap.

• AI
• Backend

A seven-stage plan for building and running a complete web product on your own, in Next.js, MERN, Django with React, or Spring Boot with React: web foundations, Git and React, the server side, data modelling in PostgreSQL or MongoDB, APIs with authentication and caching, deployment to Linux or AWS with CI/CD, and one shipped product with real users. It suits developers who want to own a product end to end. By the end you can model data, build a secure API and UI, deploy it and ship every change through a pipeline.

• Web
• Frontend
• Backend
• Databases

A seven-stage path for developers who can already ship a web or backend app and want to build products on large language models, in Python or TypeScript: tokens and context, prompting and model APIs, RAG with citations, evals in CI, tool calling and MCP servers, agents with durable execution, and running AI features in production. One project grows through every stage. By the end you can build, evaluate and run an LLM feature with retrieval, tools and agents, and explain what it costs, how you measured it and where it fails.

• AI
• Programming
• Web
• Backend

A free online book that explains SQL indexing for developers, from how a B-tree is laid out to why a particular WHERE clause can or cannot use an index. It covers Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and Db2 with product-specific notes. It is the clearest resource for turning index theory into faster queries.

• Web
• Databases
• Backend

A quick-revision companion to the Sefism backend roadmap: an essentials chapter for your stack, then terminal and Git, how HTTP works, relational databases and SQL, API design, authentication and API security, caching and queues, testing and CI/CD, and architecture and reliability. It comes in seven editions (Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Go, PHP and Rust), each concept with a short example and the mistake to avoid. Read a chapter before a project, an exam or a technical conversation.

• Web
• Backend
• Databases
• DevOps

The companion to the SQL and databases roadmap in PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQL Server editions: setup, single-table queries, joins, aggregation and window functions, schema design, changing data safely, indexes and query plans, SQL in applications, and a short MongoDB comparison. Each concept is a line or two with your dialect syntax and the classic mistake to avoid.

• Web
• Databases
• Backend

Postman is an API platform whose core is an API client: you send HTTP requests by hand, save them in collections, use variables and environments, write simple tests on responses, and import OpenAPI descriptions. The free plan covers one user and is enough for learning and personal projects; paid plans add collaboration and more usage. It suits backend and frontend developers who need to explore, debug and document APIs, and it is a tool many teams expect you to know.

• Web
• Backend

The official Node.js Learn guides explain what Node itself is doing underneath your framework: the event loop, asynchronous work, files and streams, HTTP, environment variables, running TypeScript, diagnostics and the built-in test runner. The articles are short and free. They suit JavaScript developers who use Express, Next.js or another tool but want to understand the runtime, and anyone debugging a problem that a framework tutorial glosses over.

• Web
• Backend
• Programming

PortSwigger's Web Security Academy is a free online training platform with written lessons and hands-on labs where you exploit real vulnerabilities, from SQL injection, XSS and access control flaws to JWT attacks, API testing and attacks on LLM features. It is built by the team behind Burp Suite. It suits developers who want to write secure code and students aiming for security roles, because attacking a flaw yourself teaches prevention far better than reading a list of risks.

• Web
• Backend

The OWASP Cheat Sheet Series is a free collection of short, expert-written guides on specific security tasks, such as authentication, session management, password storage, input validation, JSON Web Tokens, REST security, XSS and SQL injection prevention. It suits developers who need to implement something securely right now and want a concise list of what to do and which mistakes to avoid, rather than a textbook.

• Web
• Backend

The official FastAPI tutorial and user guide builds an API one concept at a time: path and query parameters, request bodies with Pydantic validation, response models, error handling, dependency injection, OAuth2 with hashed passwords and JWT, SQL databases, bigger applications, background tasks and testing. One of the few framework docs that doubles as a genuinely good backend course, for Python developers building modern APIs.

• Web
• Backend
• Programming

Harvard's free CS50 course on databases, taught by Carter Zenke and David J. Malan. Seven lectures move from querying to relating, designing, writing, viewing, optimising and scaling databases, starting with SQLite and ending with PostgreSQL and MySQL, with problem sets and a final project. It suits beginners and working developers who can write basic SELECT queries but do not yet know how to design a schema or make queries fast.

• Web
• Databases
• Backend

A seven-stage plan for building the server side of real products in Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Go, PHP or Rust: your language and HTTP, PostgreSQL and SQL, API design, authentication and API security, caching and queues, testing with CI/CD and Docker, and architecture and reliability. It suits people who can already write a little code and want a backend role. By the end you can design a schema and an API, secure it, make it fast, test and ship it in containers, and explain the choices behind it.

• Web
• Backend
• Databases
• DevOps

A quick-revision companion to the Sefism full stack roadmap in seven chapters: web foundations, Git, npm and React, the server side, data modelling, APIs with authentication and caching, deployment with CI/CD, Linux and AWS, and shipping a complete product. It comes in Next.js, MERN, Django and React, and Spring Boot and React editions, so the server and database chapters match your stack. Skim a chapter before a project or a technical conversation, and use it as a checklist before you ship.

• Web
• Frontend
• Backend
• Databases

A community curated GitHub list of free and public APIs, grouped into about 50 categories from animals and books to finance, weather and machine learning, with authentication, HTTPS and CORS noted for each. With over 480k stars it is one of GitHub's most popular repositories. The fastest cure for not knowing what to build: pick an API and make something with real data.

• Web
• Backend

The Odin Project is a free, open source full stack web development curriculum. After a Foundations course, you choose a Full Stack JavaScript path (HTML and CSS, JavaScript, React, databases and Node.js with Express) or a Full Stack Ruby on Rails path. You set up your own environment, read real documentation and build specified projects rather than coding in a sandbox. It suits self-taught beginners and career changers who want a complete path and are prepared to work hard.

• Web
• Frontend
• Programming
• Backend

Full Stack Open is the University of Helsinki's free online course in modern web development. Through a long sequence of exercises it covers React, Node.js with Express, MongoDB, testing, state management, GraphQL, TypeScript, React Native, CI/CD, containers and relational databases. A certificate and even official university credits are available free. It suits developers who can already program and want a rigorous, current full stack curriculum.

• Web
• Frontend
• Backend
• Programming

The official documentation for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI applications such as Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code and Cursor to external tools and data. It includes the specification, concept guides, tutorials for building servers and clients, and official SDKs in several languages. It is for developers who want to give a model access to their systems through a standard interface.

• AI
• Backend