# How much JavaScript do you need to know to use Node?

> How much JavaScript do you need before learning Node.js? The core concepts to grasp first, from types and functions to closures and the event loop.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2018-08-14 | Topics: [Node.js](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/node/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/node-javascript-language/

As a beginner, it's hard to get to a point where you are confident enough in your programming abilities.

While learning to code, you might also be confused at where does [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/javascript/) end, and where [Node.js](https://flaviocopes.com/nodejs/) begins, and vice versa.

I would recommend you to have a good grasp of the main JavaScript concepts before diving into Node.js:

- Lexical Structure
- Expressions
- Types
- Variables
- Functions
- this
- Arrow Functions
- Loops
- Loops and Scope
- Arrays
- Template Literals
- Semicolons
- Strict Mode
- ECMAScript 6, 2016, 2017

With those concepts in mind, you are well on your road to become a proficient JavaScript developer, in both the browser and in Node.js.

The following concepts are also key to understand asynchronous programming, which is one fundamental part of Node.js:

- Asynchronous programming and callbacks
- Timers
- Promises
- Async and Await
- Closures
- The Event Loop