All 15 HTTP & Web Servers questions
More in HTTP & Web Servers
What is the difference between an HTTP request header and a query parameter, and when should each be used to pass information to a Node.js server? What is the difference between HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2, and how does Node.js support HTTP/2 via the node:http2 module? What is HTTP keep-alive, and how does it improve performance for a Node.js server handling many requests from the same client? What is the difference between HTTP methods GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE, and what does 'idempotent' mean in this context? What is content negotiation in HTTP, and how would a Node.js API implement it to return either JSON or XML based on a client's Accept header? What is the purpose of the HTTP OPTIONS method, and how does it relate to CORS preflight requests? What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 HTTP redirect, and when should a Node.js application use each? What is the purpose of the Content-Length and Transfer-Encoding: chunked headers, and why can't a response use both simultaneously? How would you implement Server-Sent Events (SSE) in Node.js to push real-time updates to a browser client over a single long-lived HTTP connection? How would you implement HTTP/2 server push in Node.js, and why has server push become less commonly recommended over time?
Advertisement
Back to results for “HTTP & Web Servers”
Node.js › HTTP & Web Servers

How would you create a basic HTTP server in Node.js using only the built-in node:http module, without any framework?

Beginner

Answer

The http.createServer() function accepts a callback (or request listener) invoked for every incoming request, receiving request (req) and response (res) objects -- req provides details about the incoming request (method, url, headers), while res is used to construct and send the response (setting headers, writing the body, and calling res.end() to finish the response).
const http = require('node:http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('Hello, World!');
});

server.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));
Real-world example A minimal internal health-check service uses the raw http module directly rather than a full framework like Express, since its single, extremely simple responsibility (returning a 200 status) doesn't justify the additional dependency and abstraction overhead of a framework.

Common follow-ups: At what point does a project's growing complexity typically justify introducing a framework like Express over the raw http module?;What does res.writeHead() do differently from simply setting individual headers with res.setHeader()?

Express & Middleware;RESTful API Design with Express
All 15 HTTP & Web Servers questions