This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Kyle Y. Parsotan
⚡️ 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
pagesdirectory - 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
getStaticPropsandgetServerSideProps - Create API routes in
pages/api - Fetch data with
fetchoraxios - 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.jsand_document.jsfor global config
📚 Recommended Resources
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Kyle Y. Parsotan
Kyle Y. Parsotan | Sciencx (2025-09-04T00:36:48+00:00) Next.js Roadmap: Beginner to Advanced. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/09/04/next-js-roadmap-beginner-to-advanced/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.