⚡️ Next.js Roadmap: Beginner to Advanced

🟢 1. Prerequisites

Before diving into Next.js, make sure you're comfortable with:

• HTML & CSS: Structure and styling
• JavaScript (ES6+): Arrow functions, destructuring, modules
• React: Components, props, state, hooks (useState, useEffect)

🔵 2. Getting Started with Next.js

• Install with npx create-next-app
• Understand the file structure (pages, public, styles)
• Learn how routing works with the pages directory
• Create your first page and navigate with Link

🟣 3. Rendering Strategies

Next.js supports multiple rendering methods:

Method	Description
Static Generation (SSG)	Pre-renders at build time (getStaticProps)
Server-Side Rendering (SSR)	Renders on each request (getServerSideProps)
Client-Side Rendering (CSR)	Traditional React rendering
Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)	Updates static pages after deployment

🟠 4. Routing & Navigation

• Dynamic routes (pages/blog/[id].js)
• Catch-all routes (pages/docs/[...slug].js)
• Programmatic navigation with useRouter
• Middleware (Next 13+) for advanced routing logic

🟡 5. Styling in Next.js

Choose your preferred method:

• CSS Modules (built-in)
• Tailwind CSS (popular utility-first)
• Styled-components or Emotion (CSS-in-JS)
• Global styles with globals.css

🟤 6. Data Fetching & APIs

• Use getStaticProps and getServerSideProps
• Create API routes in pages/api
• Fetch data with fetch or axios
• Use SWR or React Query for client-side caching

⚪ 7. Authentication & Authorization

• Use libraries like NextAuth.js or Clerk
• Protect routes with middleware or server-side checks
• Handle sessions and tokens securely

🧪 8. Testing

• Unit testing with Jest
• Component testing with React Testing Library
• E2E testing with Cypress or Playwright

🚀 9. Deployment & Optimization

• Deploy to Vercel (official platform)
• Use environment variables
• Image optimization with next/image
• Performance tuning with Lighthouse and Web Vitals

🧠 10. Advanced Features

• App Router (Next.js 13+): app/ directory, layouts, server components
• Middleware for request handling
• Internationalization (i18n)
• Static file serving from public/
• Custom _app.js and _document.js for global config

📚 Recommended Resources