I had the task of writing the nodejs backend for a build-to-learn project I was on so I used this class to help with my understanding of NodeJS. I had already gotten some understanding of it from “Angular (Angular 2 or 4) & NodeJS - The MEAN Stack Guide” on Udemy - but I felt like I was still uncertain of some of the topics so I was hoping to solidify my knowledge by taking Anthony’s class.
First the good - Anthony (Like Max) explains everything in excruciating detail and very much encourages a deep understanding of the concepts he is teaching. He wants you to know, for example, that if you want to know how NodeJS works that you should look at the code itself - He discusses how the Node Core and the V8 engine work and why your understanding of this is relevant to learning NodeJS. He also goes into some of the intricacies of Javascript that are relevant to writing asynchronous code and how callbacks work. (I understand that his Javascript classes are very good as well.) All in all, if you take this class you will definitely understand the technical aspects of NodeJS.
A minor criticism - The examples that he uses are quite repetitive and so simple that I think it is hard to extrapolate them into concrete concepts - one of the things that I like very much about Max Schwarzmuller’s classes is that you always walk away with a very nice sample project that you build while you are taking the class - Anthony does have a section where you build an app but it is quite simple and not something that you could easily turn into a scaffold for a project that you are building.
Also, the class starts out quite slow. If you already have a lot of Javascript under your belt this class may not work for you - the first few sections are so elementary that I think many programmers would be tempted to skip them - I think a mistake that some course developers make is trying to cast too wide of a net for their audience. It would be great if this course were specifically geared toward an intermediate level audience and didn’t start with such basic concepts.