🤔 Ever wondered how servers handle dynamic routes like /user/:id or validate headers?
Today, I built dynamic routing and header support from scratch in Node.js—no Express, just raw HTTP.
How it works:
🚀 Trie-Based Routing
Efficiently maps paths like /posts/:id using a Trie structure.
No more brittle if-else or regex chaos!
🛡️ Header Parsing & Validation
Extracts Content-Type, Authorization, and other headers.
Enforces rules (e.g., Accept: application/json).
📦 Modular Design
Clean separation: Parser → Router → Response Handler.
Ready to scale beyond hardcoded routes.
Top comments (4)
nice, doing it raw always feels different tbh - you think skipping frameworks early actually helps you learn faster or just makes everything harder in the long run?
Totally agree, there’s something refreshing about doing it raw. Personally, I feel skipping frameworks early on helps build a deeper understanding of the core concepts — it’s a bit tougher at first, but it pays off in the long run. Once you add frameworks later, things just start to click more naturally.
pretty cool seeing it all done raw like that tbh makes me wonder if you learn more by building from scratch or by digging into big frameworks
Totally get what you mean — building it from scratch really forces you to understand every moving part. It’s been a great learning experience so far, and I think there's value in both approaches honestly. Starting raw gives you clarity, and later digging into bigger frameworks helps you scale smarter. Thanks for the kind words!
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