Stage 1 of 8 · 8 lessons · ~2 weeks

Documents and your setup

Learn what documents, BSON and collections are and when MongoDB is the right fit, then set up a free Atlas cluster or a local server with mongosh and Compass, and load a sample dataset to practise on.

Start: Documents, fields and the document model

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Create an Atlas free cluster, or install a current 8.x Community Server locally or in Docker.
Connect with mongosh and run show dbs, use and show collections.
Connect Compass and open the Schema tab on one collection.
Load a sample dataset and open a few documents from three collections.
Insert one document with a Date, a Decimal128 and a nested array, then read it back.
Write down one application where MongoDB fits and one where it does not.
Start a Git repository for every script you write in this roadmap.

Start with

CourseFree
MongoDB University
MongoDB
Free: start with the introduction to MongoDB and Atlas setup lessons, which use the same sample data

Practise

Mongo Playground
Paste a few documents and a query and run it in the browser, no install needed

Keep handy

MongoDB Shell (mongosh)
The mongosh docs: connecting, running scripts and the shell helpers such as show and use
MongoDB Compass
The Compass docs for the Schema, Explain Plan and Aggregations tabs you will use later

Also worth your time

PostgreSQL vs. MongoDB vs. DynamoDB (opens in a new tab)Read
A balanced comparison of where a document database fits and where a relational one wins

Before moving on: MongoDB running on an Atlas free cluster or locally, mongosh and Compass both connected, a sample dataset loaded, and a short note describing three of its collections, their nested fields and one field whose type varies.

Tauseef's advice

Learn mongosh properly even though Compass is friendlier: every query, index and pipeline in this roadmap is easier to understand when you have typed it yourself. And keep every script you write in a Git repository from day one, so you can rerun it against a fresh cluster.