1. go to the Node.js website Download and install the LTS version (recommended for most users).

2. Verify with node -v and npm -v

3. Make a project directory

4. npm init -y

5. To create a Node.js server you need a package called express. install it with npm install express or npm i express

6. create a server.js file. use touch or whatever.

7. Stuff needs to be kept secret so, create a .env file and also npm i dotenv or npm install dotenv the most common use for this is secure keys and also port number for the server by using the PORT variable .

8. app.use() app.post() app.get() are all express methods

9. in order to use express in your server.js file you need to require it and use it by

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

Keep in mind this is the ES5/ES6 way which is still accepted even though ES7+ uses import.