How to Structure Backend Code as Your Project Grows?

Focus more on understanding the 'why' behind solutions rather than just the 'how.' If you can explain your reasoning in simple terms, that’s a good sign. I mix community resources, documentation, and some structured lessons, but the real growth comes from thoughtful consideration.

About your questions on abstraction: aim for a single layer when starting out to avoid making your code hard to read. Responsibilities should align together in terms of functionality—code that works together should be grouped close. Try keeping your data simple; use basic arrays for lists of Orders, Products, etc. Then write functions to manipulate these lists instead of overcomplicating with classes. This way, logic becomes clearer and easier to manage. Good luck with it!

To start off, it's crucial to have a clean API layer to handle requests, validate data, and manage authentication. Then, set up another layer to interface with your database. The rest depends on your app's size. The goal is to keep related functions together, rather than cluttering a single class. Many tutorials simplify it this way for ease, but finding the right balance between abstraction and simplicity often comes down to trial and error.

I think what's overlooked is the time it takes to truly grasp concepts. Don't rush through the documentation. Instead, experiment and compare what you learn from Codemia with your notes. This self-reflection helps identify gaps in your understanding.

Here's a simple structure that scales well:
- **Controllers:** Manage HTTP requests and responses, validate inputs.
- **Services:** Handle business logic, deciding what actions to take.
- **Repositories:** Deal with database interactions.
For instance, if you're creating a user, the controller validates input, the service checks for existing emails and hashes passwords, and the repository performs the actual database insert. Start with just controllers and services, add repositories when needed. A good rule of thumb: if your controller has over 20 lines of logic, consider moving some of that into a service.