An ODM (Object Document Mapper) is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of working with MongoDB databases in your code. It acts as a bridge between your application and the MongoDB database, allowing you to interact with the database using the programming language you're comfortable with, such as JavaScript. Think of an ODM as a translator that speaks both the language of your application and the language of your MongoDB database. It provides a set of methods that let you perform database operations, like creating, reading, updating, and deleting documents, using familiar JavaScript syntax. In the upcoming lessons, we'll be focusing on Mongoose , a popular ODM for Node.js applications. Mongoose simplifies database management by: Letting us define schemas and models for our MongoDB collections Providing JavaScript methods to query and manipulate data Handling relationships between collections