## TL;DR

Nginx is a high-performance web server, reverse proxy, and load balancer created by Igor Sysoev (2004) to solve the C10k problem (10,000 concurrent connections). Its event-driven, asynchronous architecture handles massive concurrency with minimal memory.

## Core Explanation

Serves ~34% of all websites (2025). Key features: reverse proxy with caching, SSL/TLS termination, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, WebSocket proxying, rate limiting, content compression. Configuration is declarative (nginx.conf). Nginx Unit runs apps in multiple languages. Nginx Plus (commercial) adds health checks, session persistence, and monitoring dashboard.

## Further Reading

- [NGINX Documentation](https://nginx.org/en/docs/)