Overview
Built on Chrome's V8 engine, Node.js allows developers to use JavaScript for server-side scripting. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications.
Key Features
- Asynchronous and Event-Driven: All APIs are non-blocking, allowing for high concurrency.
- Single-Threaded: Uses a single thread with an event loop to handle thousands of concurrent connections.
- NPM Ecosystem: Access to the world's largest library of open-source packages.
- Cross-Platform: Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Use Cases
Node.js is widely used for building web servers, APIs, real-time chat applications, and streaming services.