The Hidden Cost of Unoptimized REST API Payloads in Node.js

Node.js REST API performance issues often stem from sending entire database models instead of specific fields, causing JSON.stringify to block the event loop. To fix this, developers should use DTOs, explicit selects, and pagination limits. Meanwhile, building a task management REST API with Node.js and Express serves as a practical way to master backend development, demonstrating how to organize functionality, authenticate users, and handle HTTP requests for creating, viewing, updating, and deleting tasks.