Creating RESTful APIs with Node.js is a fundamental skill for modern web development. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architecture style that uses HTTP methods to manage data via URLs. With Node.js, a lightweight and efficient JavaScript runtime, building fast and scalable APIs is straightforward.

To get started, you’ll need to install Node.js and a framework like Express.js, which simplifies the process of handling HTTP requests. Begin by setting up your project with npm init and installing Express using npm install express. From there, you can define your routes to handle different HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.

A typical RESTful API structure includes:

• GET to fetch data
• POST to add new data
• PUT to update existing data
• DELETE to remove data

You can organize your code using separate route files and controllers to keep it modular and maintainable. For data persistence, you might integrate MongoDB using Mongoose or any other database with the corresponding driver.

Security and validation are critical parts of API development. Use middleware like cors to handle cross-origin requests and express-validator or Joi for input validation. Don’t forget to implement error handling and logging to track issues effectively.

Lastly, tools like Postman can help test your API endpoints, and documentation can be generated with Swagger or similar tools. RESTful APIs are the backbone of modern apps—mastering them with Node.js opens doors to frontend-backend integration and full-stack development.