Node.js REST API Audit: A Checklist for Slow or Unreliable Backends

Why Auditing Beats an Expensive Rewrite When a Node.js REST API starts throwing 504 Gateway Timeouts or dragging under user spikes, engineering teams frequently propose the nuclear option: "Let's rewrite the entire backend in Go or Rust." In 90% of real-world production cases, the runtime is not the bottleneck. The issue is almost always unindexed...