A lean, practical Nginx course for backend developers — install and configure it, serve static files, reverse-proxy to your app, load-balance across instances, and serve HTTPS with free certificates. Every lesson is config you can paste and run.
Nginx runs on Linux servers and is configured from the command line, so comfort with a shell and basic Linux is all you need. Every lesson is a real config file or command you can run.
Getting Started with Nginx
Install and run Nginx, understand how its config is structured into http, server, and location blocks, and learn the test-then-reload workflow that applies changes with zero downtime.
Serving Static Files
Serve a directory of files with root and index, match URLs with location blocks, add an SPA fallback with try_files, and shrink responses with gzip.
Reverse Proxy to Your App
Put Nginx in front of your Node app — forward requests with proxy_pass, pass the headers your app needs to see the real client, support WebSockets, and cache responses at the proxy.
Load Balancing
Run several app instances behind Nginx — define an upstream pool, choose a balancing method (round-robin, least_conn, ip_hash), and keep traffic off unhealthy backends.
HTTPS & Hardening
Serve your site over HTTPS — terminate TLS in Nginx, force every visitor onto HTTPS, get free auto-renewing certificates with Certbot, and rate-limit abusive clients.