IBM
IBM JavaScript Backend Developer Professional Certificate
IBM

IBM JavaScript Backend Developer Professional Certificate

Launch your Back-End JavaScript Developer career. Build the skills and hands-on experience to get job-ready in under four months. No degree or prior experience required.

John Rofrano
IBM Skills Network Team
Michelle Saltoun

Instructors: John Rofrano

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Earn a career credential that demonstrates your expertise
4.7

(316 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

4 months to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Earn a career credential that demonstrates your expertise
4.7

(316 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

4 months to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Develop back-end applications using JavaScript technologies like Node and Express and manage code using GitHub repositories.

  • Deploy and scale applications using Docker, Kubernetes, Microservices, and Serverless computing. 

  • Design, develop, use, and integrate REST APIs in back-end applications to communicate with client-side technologies. 

  • Employ DevOps practices and Agile methodologies to continuously build and deploy secure software.

Details to know

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Taught in English
Recently updated!

August 2025

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Professional Certificate - 13 course series

What you'll learn

  • Explain the principles of software engineering, the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and software development tools, technologies, and stacks

  • Differentiate between programming language types and apply basic programming constructs such as loops, conditionals, and functions using Python

  • Summarize key software architecture and design approaches, including common architectural and deployment patterns

  • Outline the roles, skills, and career paths in software engineering

Skills you'll gain

Category: Software Engineering
Category: Software Development Life Cycle
Category: Software Development Tools
Category: Software Documentation
Category: Unified Modeling Language
Category: Software Development Methodologies
Category: Software Architecture
Category: Software Design Patterns
Category: Systems Development
Category: Programming Principles
Category: Agile Methodology
Category: Development Environment
Category: Engineering Software
Category: Integrated Development Environments
Category: Program Development
Category: Software Design
Category: Python Programming
Category: Application Development

What you'll learn

  • Describe the Web Application Development Ecosystem and terminology like front-end developer, back-end, server-side, and full stack.

  • Identify the developer tools, online editors like JSFiddle, and integrated development environments (IDEs) for building and testing web applications.

  • Create and structure basic web pages using HTML and style them with CSS.

  • Develop dynamic and interactive web pages using JavaScript, including DOM manipulation, form validation, and client-side scripting techniques.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Javascript
Category: Bootstrap (Front-End Framework)
Category: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Category: Back-End Web Development
Category: Scripting
Category: Web Development
Category: Browser Compatibility
Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: Responsive Web Design

What you'll learn

  • Describe version control and its place in social and collaborative coding and in DevOps.

  • Explain basic Git concepts such as repositories and branches used for distributed version control and social coding.

  • Create GitHub repositories and branches, and perform pull requests (PRs) and merge operations, to collaborate on a team project.

  • Build your portfolio by creating and sharing an open-source project on GitHub.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Git (Version Control System)
Category: GitHub
Category: Collaborative Software
Category: Web Applications
Category: Version Control
Category: Command-Line Interface
Category: DevOps
Category: Open Source Technology

What you'll learn

  • Describe JavaScript development concepts, list ES6 features, outline data structures, and explore arrays, DOM, AJAX, and debugging techniques.

  • Explore handling errors and exceptions, functions and events, apply string manipulation and error-handing techniques, and traverse the DOM.

  • Compare functions, values, reference types, and strategies in promises and async/await, and discuss modifying the appearance of DOM elements.

  • Employ JavaScript functions, services, tools, and libraries to create and style navigation and pages, and AJAX to fetch and display data from APIs.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Javascript
Category: JSON
Category: Ajax
Category: Debugging
Category: Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
Category: Computer Programming
Category: Git (Version Control System)
Category: Data Structures
Category: Web Development
Category: Software Development
Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: Scripting
Category: HTML and CSS
Category: Web Applications

What you'll learn

  • Create server-side applications using the Node.js JavaScript run time. 

  • Extend your Node.js applications with third-party packages and frameworks, including Express. 

  • Use npm to manage Node.js packages in your Node.js application. 

  • Develop asynchronous callback functions and promises to complete asynchronous operations.   

Skills you'll gain

Category: Node.JS
Category: Back-End Web Development
Category: Package and Software Management
Category: Javascript
Category: JSON
Category: Web Applications
Category: Server Side
Category: Middleware
Category: Web Development
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: JavaScript Frameworks
Category: Restful API
Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: Computer Science
Category: Authentications
Category: Web Servers

What you'll learn

  • Explore cloud native applications concepts and methodologies, recognize CNCF’s impact, and analyse the benefits of CI/CD, Agile, and Scrum.

  • Recognize the DevOps culture, and its significance, differentiate between TDD and BDD, and explore the principles and characteristics of MongoDB.

  • Implement CI/CD practices and connect and integrate user stories using Zenhub to facilitate the Agile development process.

  • Enhance application functionality using tools and techniques, store, manage, and perform basic data operations using MongoDB and CRUD operations.

Skills you'll gain

Category: CI/CD
Category: DevOps
Category: User Story
Category: Test Driven Development (TDD)
Category: Agile Methodology
Category: Behavior-Driven Development
Category: NoSQL
Category: MongoDB
Category: Scrum (Software Development)
Category: Cloud-Native Computing
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: Continuous Delivery
Category: Continuous Integration
Category: Software Development Methodologies
Category: Software Development

What you'll learn

  • Using containers, learn how to move applications quickly across any environment.

  • Build cloud native applications using Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, and Istio.

  • Describe and leverage Kubernetes architecture to set up and use an entire lifecycle-based container management system.

  • Create and leverage a YAML deployment file to configure and create resources such as pods, services, replicasets, and others in a declarative way.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Kubernetes
Category: Docker (Software)
Category: Containerization
Category: Istio
Category: OpenShift
Category: Command-Line Interface
Category: Cloud-Native Computing
Category: Microservices
Category: Scalability
Category: YAML
Category: CI/CD
Category: Application Deployment

What you'll learn

  • Summarize the fundamentals of Microservices, their advantages, and contrast with monolithic architectures.

  • Create REST API endpoints and invoke them using cURL and Postman; Use SwaggerUI to document and test APIs.

  • Create, and deploy microservices using Docker containers and serverless technologies like IBM Code Engine.

  • Practice hands-on with labs and projects using a no-charge cloud-based environment.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Application Deployment
Category: API Gateway
Category: Containerization
Category: Restful API
Category: Serverless Computing
Category: IBM Cloud
Category: Microservices
Category: Cloud Computing
Category: Kubernetes
Category: Scalability
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: Application Development
Category: Software Architecture
Category: Istio
Category: OpenShift

What you'll learn

  • Implement fundamental back-end development concepts with Node, Express, and NoSQL databases

  • Develop secure RESTful APIs using Node and Express to communicate with databases

  • Apply authentication and authorization mechanisms and implement error handling

  • Scale and deploy Node database applications on a cloud platform

Skills you'll gain

Category: Node.JS
Category: Back-End Web Development
Category: MongoDB
Category: Middleware
Category: Restful API
Category: Application Deployment
Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: Scalability
Category: NoSQL
Category: Authorization (Computing)
Category: Authentications
Category: Web Servers
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: Javascript
Category: Web Applications
Category: Database Application
Category: Server Side
Category: Application Security
Category: Databases

What you'll learn

  • Explain security by design, learn to develop applications using security by design principles; perform defensive coding following OWASP principles.

  • Describe IBM cloud container vulnerability; perform vulnerability scanning and pen testing with Kali Linux.

  • Describe what to look for in app performance; perform troubleshooting using logging, stack trace, and log analytics.

  • Discuss concepts like Golden Signals; list tools for monitoring and troubleshooting; and test monitoring in action with Prometheus and Grafana.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Secure Coding
Category: Application Security
Category: Security Testing
Category: DevSecOps
Category: Vulnerability Scanning
Category: Software Development Life Cycle
Category: Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
Category: Vulnerability Assessments
Category: Threat Modeling
Category: System Monitoring
Category: Continuous Monitoring
Category: Development Environment
Category: Data Security
Category: Application Performance Management

What you'll learn

  • Explain the importance of monitoring and describe concepts like Golden Signals

  • Demonstrate your knowledge of observability with Instana and explain the pillars of observability, cloud native observability, and types of sampling

  • Implement logging and demonstrate your knowledge of telemetry using OpenTelemetry and tracing using Kubernetes

  • Develop hands-on experience with a variety of tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Mezmo (LogDNA), OpenTelemetry, and Instana

Skills you'll gain

Category: Continuous Monitoring
Category: Application Performance Management
Category: System Monitoring
Category: Prometheus (Software)
Category: Grafana
Category: Microservices
Category: Docker (Software)
Category: DevOps
Category: Interactive Data Visualization
Category: Real Time Data
Category: Kubernetes

What you'll learn

  • Integrate and apply your JavaScript, Node.js, Express, and MongoDB skills

  • Build and deploy a real-world backend application using popular cloud-native concepts such as containers and serverless

  • Apply DevOps and Agile practices by employing CI/CD pipelines and developing user stories

  • Construct secure endpoint APIs within your application to ensure seamless communication with the front-end and databases

Skills you'll gain

Category: MongoDB
Category: Back-End Web Development
Category: Node.JS
Category: Kubernetes
Category: Containerization
Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: CI/CD
Category: JavaScript Frameworks
Category: Database Management
Category: Full-Stack Web Development
Category: Software Technical Review
Category: NoSQL
Category: Continuous Deployment
Category: Microservices
Category: Continuous Integration
Category: Secure Coding
Category: Databases
Category: Application Deployment
Category: Server Side
Category: Restful API

What you'll learn

  • Describe the role of a software developer, typical career paths, and emerging opportunities in the field

  • Explain how to prepare for a job search, including researching companies, identifying suitable roles, and developing key

  • Apply strategies for networking and assessing job listings to effectively target and pursue software development positions

  • Demonstrate readiness for each stage of the interview process, including technical challenges, behavioral questions, and post-interview follow-up

Skills you'll gain

Category: Communication
Category: DevOps
Category: Software Engineering
Category: Software Engineering Tools
Category: Interviewing Skills
Category: Software Development
Category: Application Development
Category: Verbal Communication Skills
Category: Software Development Methodologies
Category: Algorithms
Category: Professional Development
Category: Problem Solving
Category: Relationship Building
Category: Software Testing
Category: Professionalism
Category: Code Review
Category: Engineering Software
Category: Cloud Computing

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Instructors

IBM Skills Network Team
IBM
82 Courses1,437,951 learners
Michelle Saltoun
IBM
2 Courses251,924 learners
Sachin Jambur
IBM
2 Courses105,878 learners

Offered by

IBM

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Frequently asked questions

¹ Median salary and job opening data are sourced from Lightcast™ Job Postings Report. Content Creator, Machine Learning Engineer and Salesforce Development Representative (1/1/2024 - 12/31/2024) All other job roles (8/1/2024 - 8/1/2025)