learn.fttgsolutions.com · The Stack
Application Development
Build. Ship. Repeat.
Languages
| TypeScript | Typed superset of JavaScript — catch errors before runtime and build large codebases with confidence. |
| JavaScript | The language of the web — runs in every browser and on the server via Node.js. |
| Python | General-purpose scripting language — excellent for backend APIs, automation, and data tasks alongside web apps. |
Frontend
| React | UI component library from Meta — the most popular way to build interactive web interfaces. |
| Next.js | React framework for production — adds routing, SSR, and API routes out of the box. |
| next/og | Next.js built-in for generating dynamic Open Graph images — renders JSX to a PNG via ImageResponse, runs on the edge. |
| Vue | Progressive frontend framework — gentle learning curve with a clean, approachable syntax. |
| Svelte | Compiler-based UI framework — writes less code, ships no runtime, blazing fast results. |
| Vite | Lightning-fast dev server and build tool — replaces Webpack with near-instant hot reload. |
Styling & Motion
| Tailwind CSS | Utility-first CSS framework — style directly in HTML with atomic classes, no context switching. |
| Framer Motion | Production-ready animation library for React — declarative animations with physics-based springs. |
| PostCSS | CSS transformation tool — processes your stylesheets through plugins like autoprefixer and Tailwind at build time. |
| Lucide React | Open-source icon library for React — clean, consistent SVG icons as components, tree-shakeable and typed. |
| Simple Icons | Free SVG icons for popular brands — over 3,000 logos with consistent style, great for tech stack displays. |
| Storybook | UI component workshop — build, document, and test components in isolation before wiring them up. |
Backend
| Node.js | JavaScript runtime for servers — run JS outside the browser to build APIs and CLI tools. |
| NestJS | Opinionated Node.js framework — brings structure and TypeScript-first patterns to backend APIs. |
| FastAPI | Python API framework — auto-generates docs, validates requests, and runs at async speed. |
| Express | Minimal Node.js web framework — the building block behind most Node APIs, unopinionated by design. |
| Hono | Ultra-lightweight web framework — runs on any JS runtime including Cloudflare Workers and Bun. |
Databases
| PostgreSQL | The most powerful open-source SQL database — handles complex queries, JSON, and scales well. |
| MySQL | The world's most-used open-source database — fast, reliable, and the backbone of most web apps. |
| MongoDB | Document database — stores JSON-like objects, great for flexible schemas and rapid iteration. |
| Redis | In-memory key-value store — used for caching, sessions, and real-time pub/sub messaging. |
| Supabase | Open-source Firebase alternative — PostgreSQL database with auth, storage, and realtime out of the box. |
ORM & Validation
| Prisma | Type-safe ORM for Node.js — write database queries in TypeScript with full autocomplete support. |
| Drizzle | Lightweight TypeScript ORM — SQL-like syntax with zero runtime overhead and schema-first approach. |
| Zod | TypeScript-first schema validation — define your data shapes once, validate everywhere at runtime. |
Cloud & Hosting
| Vercel | Deployment platform for frontend apps — git push and your Next.js app is live in seconds. |
| Docker | Containerisation tool — package your app and its dependencies so it runs identically anywhere. |
| Railway | Simple cloud platform — deploy databases and backends from GitHub with zero infrastructure config. |
| AWS | Amazon's cloud — the industry standard for scalable, production-grade infrastructure at any scale. |
Auth
| Clerk | Drop-in authentication for React — user management, sessions, and MFA in minutes, not days. |
| NextAuth | Auth library for Next.js — handles OAuth providers, sessions, and JWT out of the box. |
| JWT | JSON Web Token — a compact, self-contained token for securely passing user identity between services. |
| bcrypt | Password hashing library — salts and hashes passwords with a cost factor so brute-force attacks are computationally expensive. |
APIs
| REST | Standard architecture for HTTP APIs — resources mapped to URLs with predictable CRUD operations. |
| GraphQL | Query language for APIs — clients request exactly the data they need, nothing more. |
| tRPC | End-to-end type-safe APIs — share types between your Next.js frontend and backend with no schema files. |
Testing
| Jest | JavaScript testing framework — write unit and integration tests with a simple, familiar API. |
| Vitest | Fast unit test framework powered by Vite — drop-in Jest replacement with native ESM support. |
| Playwright | Browser automation and end-to-end testing — simulate real user interactions across all major browsers. |
Search
| Algolia | Hosted search-as-a-service — fast, typo-tolerant full-text search with a generous free tier and a Next.js SDK. |
| Typesense | Open-source alternative to Algolia — self-hostable or cloud, great for large guide and content libraries. |
| Orama | Edge-native full-text search — runs client-side or at the edge, has a Vercel integration, and handles vector search. |
Dev Tools
| Git | Version control system — track every change to your codebase and collaborate without stepping on toes. |
| GitHub | Cloud platform for Git repositories — pull requests, issues, Actions, and the world's largest code community. |
| Postman | API testing client — send requests, inspect responses, and document your API without writing code. |
| pnpm | Fast, disk-efficient package manager — installs node_modules up to 3x faster than npm. |
| Turborepo | Monorepo build system — caches tasks and runs pipelines in parallel across your workspace. |
| marked | Fast, lightweight markdown parser for Node.js — converts .md files to HTML with zero dependencies. |
| Fuse.js | Lightweight fuzzy-search library — no server required, searches arrays of objects client-side with weighted keys and configurable threshold. |
| clsx | Tiny utility for constructing class name strings — conditionally join Tailwind classes without messy template literals. |
| ESLint | JavaScript and TypeScript linter — catches bugs, enforces style rules, and keeps code consistent across a team. |
AI Dev Tools
| GitHub Copilot | AI pair programmer in your editor — autocompletes code and writes functions from comments. |
| Claude | Anthropic's AI — strong at code review, architecture planning, and writing clean, documented code. |
| Cursor | AI-first code editor — built on VS Code with deep Claude/GPT integration for chat-driven development. |