Day 56 of #100DayOfCode — Next.js API routes

When building full-stack applications, one of the biggest challenges is managing separate frontend and backend codebases. This is where Next.js API routes come in. With the App Router, Next.js allows you to build backend endpoints directly inside your project, no need for a separate Express server. Today, for day 56, the goal was to understand the API routing in Next.js React.js + Node.js vs Next.js In MERN: Frontend → React Backend → Express (separate server) In Next.js: Same project = Frontend + Backend You don’t need a separate backend anymore. API routes live inside your app. 📁 Folder Structure (App Router Way) We create APIs like this: app/api/users/route.js This automatically maps to: /api/users No extra routing setup needed. HTTP Methods in Next.js API Routes Inside route.js , you export functions like: export async function GET () {} export async function POST () {} export async function PUT () {} export async function DELETE () {} Each function handles a specific HTTP method.