MCA-114
Full Stack Development
The MERN-and-Angular stack end to end — React and Redux on the front, Node and Express in the middle, MongoDB at the back.
- Semester
- Semester 2
- Credits
- 4
- Scheme
- 3 lectures + 1 tutorial a week
- Contact hours
- 44 across four units
- Category
- Core Elective - I
What the paper is
Full Stack Development is the most immediately employable elective in the second semester and the one that most rewards writing code rather than reading about it. It moves down the stack in order: two units of React, one of Angular and Node, and one of MongoDB.
The React half is taught from Banks and Porcello, which means it starts with ES6 and pure React before JSX — declaring variables, arrow functions, destructuring, modules — and only then builds components. That order is unusual and worth following, because the state-versus-props material in Unit I is what Redux in Unit II is a solution to.
Unit II also carries REST API design, which is the conceptual centre of the paper even though it looks like an aside. Identifier design with URIs, interaction design with HTTP verbs, representation design, caching and security are the vocabulary the rest of the stack is described in.
What to concentrate on
- Know the component lifecycle and be able to say when you would reach for state, for props, for a higher-order component and for Redux. That single comparison answers a large share of the React questions.
- The Redux data flow — action, reducer, store, middleware — is worth being able to draw and narrate in one pass. It is the most common long question in Unit II.
- For Unit III, concentrate on the Node.js process model and the difference between synchronous and asynchronous file operations. “Explain the event loop” is asked in some form nearly every year.
Syllabus, unit by unit
Summarised from the approved scheme. Hours are the contact hours the scheme allots, which is a fair guide to where the marks sit.
Unit I · React, ES6 and component state
12 hours- Definition of React, obstacles and roadblocks, the React library and developer tools
- ES6: declaring variables, arrow functions, objects and arrays, modules; introduction to AJAX and its functions
- Pure React: page setup, the virtual DOM, React elements and React DOM, constructing elements with data
- React components and DOM rendering, a first application with Create React App, React with JSX
- Props, state and the component tree: property validation, default props, ES6 classes and stateless functional components
- React state management, state within the component tree, state versus props, forms in React
Unit II · Enhancing components, Redux, Router and REST
10 hours- Component lifecycle, JavaScript library integration, higher-order components, managing state outside React, introduction to Flux
- Redux: state, actions, reducers, the store, middleware, React Redux
- React Router: incorporating, nesting and router parameters
- JSON: syntax, data types, objects and schema
- REST API design: WRML, identifier design with URIs, interaction design with HTTP, representation design, caching and security
Unit III · Angular, Node.js and Express
12 hours- Angular architecture: components, interaction and styles, templates, interpolation and directives
- Forms, user input and validation, data binding and pipes, retrieving data over HTTP, Angular modules
- Node.js: features and process model, environment setup, the runtime and installation
- Node.js modules: functions, buffers, module types; npm — installing modules, global versus local, package.json, updating packages
- The mobile-first paradigm, Bootstrap, flexbox and CSS grids
- File system: synchronous versus asynchronous file operations; the web module — creating a web server, architecture, sending requests, handling HTTP requests
- Express: overview, installation, request and response methods, cookie management
Unit IV · MongoDB
10 hours- Introduction to NoSQL and MongoDB datatypes
- Building a MongoDB environment on premise and in the cloud
- Administering databases and user accounts, configuring access control, managing collections
- Connecting to MongoDB from Node.js, accessing and manipulating databases, collections and documents
- Query objects, sorting and limiting result sets
How it is examined
- Question 1 is compulsory, covers the whole syllabus, and is made of objective or short-answer questions. It carries 12 marks.
- The rest of the paper is four units matching the four above. Each unit sets two questions and you attempt one, so there are four more answers at 12 marks each.
- Examiners are asked to map every question to a course outcome using Bloom's taxonomy, which is why questions are phrased as “apply”, “analyse” or “evaluate” rather than only “explain”.
The pass mark is 40 out of 100 in every paper.
Learning objectives
- The core concepts of both frontend and backend programming
- The latest web development technologies
- Maintaining data using NoSQL databases
- The complete web application development process
Assumed beforehand
- HTML 5 and CSS 3
- JavaScript
Paired in the scheme with MCA-168 Lab based on Core Elective I.
Books it is taught from
- TB1D. Brad, B. Dayley and C. Dayley, “Node.js, MongoDB and Angular Web Development”, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2nd edition, 2017
- TB2D. Herron, “Node.js Web Development”, Packt Publishing, 2nd edition, 2018
- TB3A. Banks and E. Porcello, “Learning React: Functional Web Development with React and Redux”, O'Reilly, 1st edition, 2017
- TB4M. Masse, “REST API Design Rulebook”, O'Reilly, 1st edition, 2011
Notes for MCA-114
Lecture notes, question papers and assignments filed against MCA-114 are in the library. Everything there has been checked by a moderator before it appears, and an account is free — new ones are approved by hand, which is what keeps the shelf clean.