#1 What is GraphQL? | Build a Complete App with GraphQL, Node.js, MongoDB and React.js

What is GraphQL? When would you use GraphQL? How does GraphQL work?
Join the full Node.js course: acad.link/nodejs (includes GraphQL)
Exclusive discount also available for our React.js course: acad.link/reactjs
And we got MongoDB, too: acad.link/mongodb
The first video of a complete series where we will build an entire app (an event booking app) with GraphQL, Node, MongoDB and React.js. Let's dive in!
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See you in the videos!
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Academind is your source for online education in the areas of web development, frontend web development, backend web development, programming, coding and data science! No matter if you are looking for a tutorial, a course, a crash course, an introduction, an online tutorial or any related video, we try our best to offer you the content you are looking for. Our topics include Angular, React, Vue, Html, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Redux, Nuxt.js, RxJs, Bootstrap, Laravel, Node.js, Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Ionic, React Native, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Stencil, Power BI, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase or other topics, make sure to have a look at this channel or at academind.com to find the learning resource of your choice!

[@ibeeliot]

You are literally the BEST explainer. Other youtubers who do tutorials seriously do not match your level of insight into why/why nots. I bellllll and like your videos just for that fact alone. You're not willing to skip over fundamentals and for us maturing developers, this kind of dedication to the details is goooooold. Thank you and please keep up the awesome awesome.

[@md.akib5124]

ahaa!! for the last couple of days i was wondering why academind has no express, graphql, react and apollo tut. adn now there you are. Love you max.

[@academind]

Thanks so much Mohiuddin! I also think it's a very interesting topic, happy to release that series now :)

[@vt96]

Please show demo of graphQL end usage so we see overall project at beginning of video. It helps to get high level overview quickly

[@christophercaldwell6641]

Anytime I want to learn something new, I search for Max's videos. Anytime someone asks for a recommendation, I show them to Max. My work recently switched over to Vue, and I got 4 people to pick up his class on Udemy. You are indeed the real MVP, Max.

[@academind]

Thank you Chris, it really means a lot to me to read that :)

[@roribl]

Totally agree ;)

[@CanuckianMusician]

Super excited to take this course Max! I can't believe it's free. Thank you so much!

[@stefersonpatake]

You got me at 4:27. Just finished a meeting with that request, to deliver a slim request to the user... Can't wait for the next videos. Thank you again man!

[@academind]

Awesome to read that Steferson, thanks a lot for your amazing feedback!

[@someonlinevideos]

Management: "yeah, but is introducing a completely new technology really the way we want to go?" 🤯🤬

[@stefersonpatake]

@@someonlinevideos That's the beauty of knowledgement. Understand how it works to then, choose a way to do the task.

[@someonlinevideos]

Steferson Patake I 100% agree with you my friend.

[@VinniiMiranda]

GraphQL it's becoming very popular, you had a great idea in making this series with React.js, i am really excited to see and learn from you.

[@academind]

Thank you Vinnii, I hope that you will like the series!

[@CPlayMasH_Tutoriales]

In HTTP the performance overhead is creating the TCP connection not the data you send to your clients (in most cases), so I don't think that sending a couple of values more will hurt anybody

[@bouchetouche]

I'm always so relieved when I search a topic and this channel has content on it. Unmatched quality. Thank you!!

[@rafeemuhammad8828]

ok, great starting. I like the way you teach. Hopefully, you will gift me some useful knowledge at the end as usual. Thanks max

[@academind]

Thank you Rafee, I also hope that you will like the video :)

[@CanerCanbaz]

Max, you're the best! I've learned lots of things from you. Love your teaching style. Thanks for your effort.

[@dbsSensei]

This is awesome tutorials, you mush watch and practice until finish.

[@rehansattar8990]

max I'm in love with your videos! Man I have learned a lot from you and doing good in the market!! YOU ARE THE BESTTT!!!!

[@academind]

YOU are the best thanks so much for this awesome feedback, it honestly makes me happy to read that :)

[@ravinderreddykothabad2299]

***Suggestion for viewers***, watch this series(best GraphQL tutorial on youtube) only because he is explaining from scratch, which we can't find in any other series( I had already watched three other playlists). And don't forget to say thanks to Max at the end. And I'm also very grateful to Max. Request to Max:- please provide a Patreon or Paypal link, and soon I'll subscribe to your Udemy course

[@academind]

Thank you so much Ravinder! The best way to support me is indeed to buy one of our courses. With that we both benefit: You get a (hopefully helpful) course and we earn money :) => academind.com/learn/our-courses/

[@marcelinoborges5088]

7:04 A seller trying to ship his product: "- Does this product have some issue?" "- Problems: None" hahahahahha

[@iedmrc99]

You are the best educator around the world!

[@academind]

Reading this honestly makes me happy, thanks so much Ibrahim!

[@jaroslawkret]

Amazing Max! As usually you deliver us knowledge that we truly need at the moment!

[@academind]

It really means a lot to me to get such a great feedback Gorti, thanks so much for that!

[@osmankirpat4856]

Gotta put the kettle on. Thank you for all those subject specific tutorials Max. Reading documentation is one thing, but learning/practicing use-case scenarios is also equally important.

[@19balazs86]

Thank you Max to begin this series. This will be such an interesting with your style. I am looking forward for the next episodes. And as usual, all my respect!

[@academind]

Happy to read that you're looking forward to the series, I hope that you will like it!

[@Arneallan]

Honestly the best tutorial out there, even amongst paid tutorials, this is the one. I would love to see more about graphql+Apollo, I would watch/buy in a heart beat.

[@academind]

Wow, thanks so much, this really means a lot to me! No plans regarding GraphQL at the moment though, but we'll see.

[@eugenemusebe4963]

Santa came early.......Thank you Max

[@academind]

:D

[@StefanoGiraldi]

Max, you are great! Thank you for this new series.

[@academind]

YOU are great Stefano, thanks a lot for your support!

[@adarshnuckched3714]

Academind, I got a senior software developer job by following your courses

[@gianlucavillalba8115]

That's what I was looking for! And I'm looking forward to watch the next episodes! Max you're just awesome!👊

[@academind]

Thanks so much for your fantastic feedback Gianluca, YOU are awesome!

[@simonndungu1196]

Max please also include Vue js , we all know you love vue, becasue its amazing, Thanks for all your courses, currently taking your Flutter and Node courses on Udemy, you are my best our best, you only give content. Many thanks and God Bless

[@academind]

Thanks a lot for your support here and on Udemy and for your suggestion Simon. For this project I will use React though, but Vue might be used in future projects, we'll see.

[@someonlinevideos]

Academind max, just bought the Node, Vue and then the comparison course on Udemy. I've got to say-I very refreshing to see such a phenomenal teacher have knowledge of any of their students in such a busy time. Thank you for sharing your knowledge modestly. I look forward to consuming more of your material.

[@aadams99]

Just React please, very few companies, relatively speaking, in the US use Vue from my experiance.

[@someonlinevideos]

Aaron Adams it shouldn't be about what the companies use, it should be about the better technology.

[@aadams99]

​@@someonlinevideos As we all know, compines hire developers (and usually try to hire the best developers they can). And usually within a group of developers at said comapines, the best of the best determine what technology to use. In the US and much of the EU, most of the time, the best and brightest in corporations have chosen to use React as far as JavaScript UIs go. Now, I'm just expressing my point of view from my fresh experiance with talking with Tech Recruiters, looking at job boards, and recently landing a job. To me it just makes sense for these "technical educators" to cover what is relevant and will benefit us the most at the moment. And I'm like most people, I only have limited time to study this stuff, so I know what I'm going to spend my money and time on. :)

[@edgardoarriagada9467]

I just have finished this course and I came back from the future just to let you know that it was AMAZING! A course of this level of quality would be a 5 stars bestseller on Udemy easily... and here you have it FOR FREE!

[@academind]

Thanks so much for this incredible feedback Edgardo, this honestly means a lot to me :)

[@carlosjosejimenezbermudez9255]

Your explanation is way better than the one of a course I was watching, great work!

[@academind]

Great to read that video is helpful for you Carlos, thank a lot for your comment!

[@radvilardian4055]

Me a year ago: Academind don't have Graphql backend tuts, Me a minute later: 'what a comeback'

[@redbeardjunior]

I can't Wait !!!! Lets GOOOOOO !!!

[@juancpgo]

Best KZbin channel for explaining web development I've ever seen. 👏

[@academind]

Wow, what an amazing feedback, thank you Juan!

[@abdiwadudhaji5800]

This is an amazing intro. Am loving the hard work you've put into this. I'm now conviced that Graphql is the way to go for me compared to Rest API. I appreciate it bruv, keep up the good work 👏👏🙌🙌

[@egwuatusamuel7821]

men happy new year you are the number one on this youtub that teach high quality topics which no body expect. now done with your lectures if i get a client i make sure i deposit into your pay-pal account just trust me. may you live long to see your children children children children children children children children children children.

[@rvuyyuru]

Please include redux also for app state maintenance

[@nidky]

Thank you Max for being a great instructor, you are always on top of your game. Any chance of doing an Electron series?

[@academind]

Thanks a lot for your awesome feedback! I do not plan to create an Electron series in the near future, sorry :/

[@meow13804]

I've been wanting to learn GraphQL for a while but haven't found any good tutorials. Thanks for this video

[@academind]

Thank YOU for your comment, I hope that you will like the series!

[@tomcatbuzz]

Would like to see GraphQL with Angular :), but I think I can apply this learning to an Angular app. Look forward to the series. Now I will go back to all of your Udemy courses.

[@RajSekharK]

same here. i also want to apply this kbowledge with an ng app

[@skythakur244]

Same here. I don't think there are much tutorials out there that explains Angular with graphql properly. So if you can come up with such stack it would be really helpful. Thanks.

[@maheswaranm2099]

You teach like a pro. Hats off. I have a doubt. If the responses from DB is too big(like 50 res at the same time with big headers), It causes any latency issue? That means data binding on the client side.

[@aadams99]

This is great! Just what I've been looking for, a GraphQL tutorial from the legend! One thing, you mentioned GraphQL subscriptions with websockets, will you PLEASE implement these in this tutorial? Information on how to do subscriptions with express-graphql is almost non-existant online! Also, please, if you will, add some Auth implementation (in AWS Cognito or Firebase or just Passportjs). One more thing, I think you can set up a subscription service here on Youtub? if you'd make content like THIS all the time, convering the HARD stuff, and done the RIGHT WAY, I'm sure you'd get subscribers! Thanks!

[@mehdiichkarrane8808]

Hi Max I'm a fan of your courses in Udemy. I like that you put every new concept in graphql in contrast to REST, wich i couldn't get from other courses. Also great explanation overall.

[@amitavasengupta5580]

I am your regular student and your course helped me a lot with my career as a web developer, is this course up to date because it's 6 years old and I want to learn GraphQL and apply it in a frontend application

[@HOLONIA4EVER]

Maximilian Schwarzmüller he's perfect as always !

[@frankgodlove2740]

you guys are real doing great job, I personally leant and am still learning a lot from your video tutorials, great work!!

[@academind]

Thanks so much for your awesome feedback and support Frank, this really means a lot to us!

[@niranjanash]

As always, the best introduction video. It was very crisp and clear. Explained very well.

[@academind]

Very happy to read that you like the video, thanks a lot!

[@harrisoncramer]

This is excellent and concise. Thank you!!

[@ЕвгенийСавицкий-й2щ]

Good explanation for beginners of what GraphQL is. Thanks a lot!

[@academind]

Thank you!

[@behindthescenex]

with auth ! thank you so much maxxx !!!!

[@Mark33090]

Concur. I've been trying to use auth in my angular app with no luck. Worked fine on the sample app I downloaded from my account in auth0

[@NikitaNikita-z1w]

Here is the full auth implementation with GraphQL github.com/sysgears/apollo-universal-starter-kit

[@shnam928]

Thanks for the good tutorial. I have 2 questions: 1. What's the best way of putting event booking on a web site? 2. In all tutorials when the users log into their accounts, they can see other users stuffs, like events in this case. I don't know how a user can only see their own events?

[@ColdStoneBoy]

wow! very happy to see you start a new series videos.

[@academind]

Me too, I was really looking forward to that series :)

[@NoiseBox1980]

this is great, but why wouldn't you use OData?

[@antanaskiselis7919]

I'm just interested when or if you ever going to make a few introductions into Go for developing backend endpoints. A lot of folk are migrating from node to go, not only companies like netflix, but a lot of individual developers. It simply.. well, outclasses node in every aspect really. Other than perhaps familiarity with the language and perhaps availability of packages (which is not always a good thing). It would seem the right thing to actually provide some introduction so more people would get familiar with it. It also supports express.js like functionality out of the box.

[@ioannispotouridis297]

Man, I started looking tutorials on this exact stack and I wished you had a series on this. 😁🎉✨ Thanks!

[@academind]

Awesome to read that the series came at the right point in time for you Ioannis, I hope that you will like it :)

[@geeksy2278]

Thank you Max for your awesome and clear teachings! Since I bought your react course on udemy, I am very hooked with your style of teaching. Keep it up man!

[@academind]

Thanks a lot for both your great feedback and your support here and on Udemy! I'll do my best to keep it up :)

[@hemicar92]

Yeeeeees! This is just the kind of tutorial I need for going one step further and probably applying for jobs soon. Thanks Max I appreciate everything you do, much love

[@academind]

Happy to read that the series is (hopefully) helpful for you! All the best also to you :)

[@josuevargas7252]

Great video.This guy is simply a genius.I love his courses in udemy.

[@academind]

Thanks so much Josue, this honestly means a lot to me!

[@baibhabmondal1740]

Thank you so much man!!! Your Vue + Vuetify + firebase was awesome. I knew Vue, But your tut gave me nice insight and in depth knowledge of state management in Vuex. Thanks. And this!! Can't wait. How frequently are you going to upload these videos?

[@craigjohnson8279]

I'm excited to code along with this series.

[@academind]

Happy to read that Craig, thank you for your comment!

[@ajaybanstola123]

Thank you very much for this *serious.

[@amransunda855]

Hello, im a beginner in programmation. And i did understand everything you said !!!! How you explain is amazing ! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!

[@academind]

Awesome to read that Amran, thanks a lot for your comment!

[@ManuJimenez8]

Another Amazing course Max! You're the best of the best!

[@academind]

Thanks a lot Manu, this really means a lot to me!

[@abbyck]

Just the perfect time. I was looking for the same for the past week. Perfect, Max

[@academind]

Really cool to read that the topic came at the right point in time for you Abhinav, thank you for your comment!

[@Gamerschoicetechy]

I buyed and completed your nodejs course on udemy thanks man you are a beast . I am just came here to increase your views tbh

[@nileshsatpute2843]

I have watch several video about GraphQl but really this was super awesome ( and best also 👍)

[@wibbs88]

Looking forward to the series.. any chance you can add some pdf generation as well? i.e. if it's an event booking app - have the user be able to download their ticket in pdf format.

[@CastleMatch]

Have you thought of doing a series on Prisma?

[@mhezzetjr]

what is better Apollo server v2 , express-graphql or graphql-yoga ?

[@maximos118]

Max I've just purchased your React course on Udemy. I plan to dive into this series when I'm done there. I think this series will be the cherry on top to get me to a place where I'm employable as an intern/jr developer. Any advice for me before I start this long journey?

[@shanthoshjayachandran8236]

Please create an online store kind of project using React, Aws Amplify , S3, Appsync , Cognito, Lambda, DynamoDB , Payment etc., It will be really helpful. Thanks in advance :)

[@ababibearakazaavelin2585]

thanks a lot Max. i'm also interested with Laravel GraphQl and Vue from Academind

[@inamulhassan4384]

Great work Max Hope to go through this tutorial...:)

[@academind]

Thanks Inamul, I hope that you will like the series!

[@larryOsyk]

thanks a lot for your eagerness and your super videos, Max!

[@mehdibelbal4456]

Hi, When you expose the 3 possible solutions, Why dont simply send requested fields in a post request just like mongodb or elasticsearch does, whats the benefit of GraphQL over such strategy?

[@paulimfavarato]

This is exacly what I was looking for to start my ideias. You are the best programming teacher. Have a lot of your courses on Udemy. Thanks

[@academind]

Thank you very very much for your awesome feedback Paulo :)

[@ahjax]

How does security work for this? Can’t this just open up a query editor on the client side to ALL data via trial and error?

[@fadimoussa8382]

Although I liked the video it's actually a bit of a lie 😊 REST and GraphQL serve the same purpose - it is up to the backend developers to define what can be used, how it is to be used and what can be returned. This applies to both REST and GraphQL since they both can define what data to send and what data to receive. The difference lies in how you implement your solution - smart or dumb, dynamic or static. The editor that comes with the GraphQL looks nice and there are similar editors/tools for REST. As a fullstack developer I have implemented the entire stack (set up server, database, webserver, backend and frontend code) and made several project dependent APIs using different languages, frameworks and tools. In the end it's all about looking at what endpoints and fields are available, which you need and requesting them.

[@naimeshvaja4842]

Thank you so much for this series MAX Once again come with very trending technology which is graphql. I can't wait to see you. I following you since last 2 years You are giving very quality content in KZbin as well as on Udemy Max u are my ideal U are great MAX :) Naimesh

[@academind]

I don't know what to write but a massive THANK YOU for your awesome support (here and on Udemy) and your wonderful comment Naimesh! As you can see I do read the comments and it's just great to get feedback like yours :)

[@dakshsagar2839]

Good to see you again Max.

[@academind]

I was never gone, no worries ;)

[@Mental1993]

Thanks for your new interesting series! How many parts (roughly) will this series be? Also how often will you upload the videos?

[@academind]

Thank you for your comment! We plan to release 1-2 videos per week (might always change a bit), an estimation of the total amount of parts of not possible as I'm still recording the videos. But it will be a longer series.

[@mikezcooler]

Hi Max, this is a great course. Thanks. I certainly like your teaching style

[@scwyldspirit]

Was just looking at the DOCS and I see I can use with JAVA and C#. Two of my favorite languages.

[@syedhammad233]

Should I use mongoDB or mongoose in production level Ecommerce application where we have large amount of users?

[@just-Banks]

These videos are an absolute #DELIGHT! Serious!

[@academind]

Thanks so much Darryl!

[@ba8e]

Isn't this just coupling the code? The REST was devised to decouple the front from the back. With GraphQL, you are moving the coupling from the server side (server side rendering) to the front end (client side querying). Am I wrong?

[@antanaskiselis7919]

How is this coupling? You make separate endpoint which serves your frontend, yet has no effect on the rest of your architecture. I think you are confused between cohesion and coupling.

[@abigailarmijo9064]

HI! What do you think about OData? As exists Vue, React, Angular, what do you think about OData and GraphQL

[@FilipCordas]

Odata is actually awesome once you get a hang of it. Funny thing is I remember in like 2010 you could build a LOB app with Silverlight odata and sql server in like an hour super productive it was SOAP back then, but the problem was it just couldn't scale. I think QraphQL will run into the same problem if you start implementing relationships. Graph database have been here for a long time and the problem was always that they don't scale that easily.

[@cancer10in]

@Academind Thanks so much for this course. I have a confusion and hopefully you will be able to clarify it. From 4.38 till 7.30 you explain how creating a separate endpoint to retrieve minimal dataset OR passing data=slim is not a good idea, i do agree with it, but, what about endpoints where we can ask the client what fields they want as a response, for eg: I have seen many apis that allow /post?fields=id,name,email so that it can respond back with only those fields. Does that not defeat the purpose of GraphQL? Thanks so much.

[@marielukesova5021]

Max, thank you for posting this course for free :) I already bought 3 courses from you on Udemy and wanted to buy this one too, and then I see it's free KZbin series 😎 Btw. the way you explain things is amazing :)

[@stevefu7317]

Thank you Max, life saver! I’m just developing a React Native app using GraphQL, could you consider using Apollo and especially image retrieving and uploading please?

[@ankitmehrotra8519]

Max you are awesome..Thanks for wonderful series..I am big fan of your teaching..U rock..🍻🍻

[@academind]

Thank you very very much for your fantastic feedback and support Ankit!

[@soultouchingsongs]

Thank you Max. Another great content .. Loved your react course on Udemy.. with the burger 🍔 Project.. excellent.. 👍

[@academind]

Thanks a lot for your great feedback and for your support here and on Udemy! Happy to read that you liked the burger project :)

[@lovindaagungpradana8889]

is this maximilian, instructor of Vue - The Complete Guide (incl. Router & Composition API) course in udemy...? his sounds familiar...

[@TechReagan]

Yes, that's him. The best Vue course out there.

[@filipkovac767]

@ Academind why not use modern syntax with import / export.... instead of require / module.exports ??? old syntax is just confusing!

[@webcodeuniversity]

Hi Max, but we can use REST like facebook does: /user/:id?fields=name,age, then we return only name and age that simply.

[@tedspens]

Looks like fun! I especially look forward to using charts.

[@academind]

I hope it will also be fun for you - I have a lot of fun creating it :)

[@lardosian]

Hi Max, is this a complete series or part of a Udemy course? Thanks and happy new year to Academind.

[@academind]

It's a complete series, everything will be available for free here on KZbin. Happy new year also to you :)

[@Raviraj-1514]

Looking forward to this new series can you make series for firebase 🔥 with reactjs.

[@valentineifedayo6626]

@Academind is this tutorial advisable for someone with no knowledge on graphql?? i'm new to graphql

[@nitnekb1954]

Thx for your video ! Just a small remark, it should be 'GET posts' with 's' to be restful compliant ;) For what matters, it's been a great explanation, thx for that!

[@tunisiano32]

Awesome! Thank you. Christmas came early :)

[@academind]

So happy to read that Bouba, thank you!

[@heyyy4987]

will be the same series with vue??

[@marnix2452]

Great video, I'm excited to get started on this course. Do I understand it correctly that it'll be uploaded on KZbin, entirely?

[@academind]

Thank you Marnix! Yes, the entire series will be released on KZbin.

[@yuriishportko5935]

Max, thnx a lot, waiting for series... Like your lessons very much

[@academind]

Happy to read that Yurii, the next part will be published next week.