Installing MongoDB

Before writing a single query you need MongoDB running on your machine. This lesson walks through installing MongoDB Community Server on Windows, macOS, and Linux, verifying the installation, connecting with the shell, and setting up the course dataset you will use for every hands-on lesson from here onwards.

Choosing Your Installation Method

MongoDB can be installed locally on your own machine or accessed instantly through the cloud. For this course either approach works — choose based on your preference.

• Local install — MongoDB Community Server runs on your machine. Full control, works offline, best for understanding the internals.
• MongoDB Atlas (cloud) — free M0 cluster available in minutes, no installation needed. Best if you want to skip local setup entirely.

The official MongoDB documentation covers every platform and version. Always use it as your definitive reference — click below to open the installation guide directly.

1. Installing on Windows

MongoDB provides an MSI installer for Windows that sets up the server, optional tools, and can install MongoDB as a Windows Service so it starts automatically on boot.

# Windows installation steps

steps = [
    "1. Go to mongodb.com/try/download/community",
    "2. Select: Version = Latest  |  Platform = Windows  |  Package = MSI",
    "3. Run the downloaded .msi installer",
    "4. Choose 'Complete' setup type",
    "5. Check 'Install MongoDB as a Service' — auto-starts on boot",
    "6. Optionally install MongoDB Compass (GUI) during setup",
    "7. Ensure the bin folder is on your PATH:",
    "   C:\\Program Files\\MongoDB\\Server\\7.0\\bin",
    "8. Open a new terminal and verify:",
    "   mongosh --version",
]

for step in steps:
    print(step)

2. Installing on macOS

The recommended method on macOS is Homebrew — the standard macOS package manager. If you do not have Homebrew, install it first from brew.sh.

# macOS — install via Homebrew (run in Terminal)

brew tap mongodb/brew
brew update
brew install mongodb-community@7.0

# Start MongoDB as a background service
brew services start mongodb-community@7.0

# Confirm it is running
brew services list

# Connect with the shell
mongosh

3. Installing on Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)

MongoDB provides an official APT repository for Ubuntu and Debian. The commands below install the latest stable release.

# Ubuntu / Debian — install via APT (run in terminal)

# 1. Import the MongoDB GPG key
curl -fsSL https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-7.0.asc \
  | sudo gpg -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg --dearmor

# 2. Add the MongoDB APT repository
echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg ] \
https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu jammy/mongodb-org/7.0 multiverse" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list

# 3. Update package list and install
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org

# 4. Start and enable the service
sudo systemctl start mongod
sudo systemctl enable mongod

# 5. Check the service is active
sudo systemctl status mongod

• systemctl start mongod starts the server now; systemctl enable mongod makes it start on every reboot
• For Red Hat / CentOS, replace apt-get with yum and use the RHEL repository URL from the official docs

Verifying the Installation

Once installed, connect using mongosh — the modern MongoDB interactive shell. A successful connection confirms everything is working.

# Verify the install — connect and run basic commands

# In your terminal:
mongosh

# Inside mongosh:
db.version()          # prints MongoDB server version
show dbs              # lists all databases
use test              # switch to a database
db.hello.insertOne({ msg: "it works" })   # insert a test document
db.hello.findOne()    # read it back
db.hello.drop()       # clean up

• mongosh with no arguments connects to localhost:27017 — the default for a local install
• The prompt shows the current database name — test> is the default starting database
• To connect to Atlas: mongosh "mongodb+srv://cluster0.xxxxx.mongodb.net" --username yourUser

Installing the Python Driver — PyMongo

All Python-based examples in this course use PyMongo — the official MongoDB Python driver. Install it with pip before moving to the next lesson.

# Install PyMongo (run in your terminal)

pip install "pymongo[srv]"
# [srv] adds DNS SRV support needed for Atlas connection strings
# Works for local connections too — always use this variant

# Verify in Python
import pymongo
from pymongo import MongoClient

print("PyMongo version:", pymongo.version)

client = MongoClient("mongodb://localhost:27017/")
print("MongoDB server version:", client.server_info()["version"])
client.close()

• Always use pymongo[srv] — it includes DNS SRV support required for Atlas connection strings
• MongoClient is the entry point for all PyMongo operations — one client per application

The Course Dataset — Dataplexa Store

From this lesson onwards every hands-on example uses the same shared dataset — the Dataplexa Store. It is a realistic e-commerce dataset with four collections: users, products, orders, and reviews. It has been designed to demonstrate every MongoDB feature covered across all 40 lessons — from basic CRUD to aggregation pipelines, indexes, transactions, and more.

Download the dataset file below, then follow the import steps to load it into your local MongoDB or Atlas cluster.

The dataset contains:

• users — 5 users across UK, Spain, USA, Germany — with membership tiers, join dates, and tags
• products — 7 products across Electronics, Stationery, and Furniture — with price, stock, and rating
• orders — 7 orders with embedded line items, statuses (delivered, shipped, processing, cancelled), and totals
• reviews — 5 product reviews linked to users and products by ID

# Import the dataset — run these in your terminal

# Import all four collections into the 'dataplexa' database
mongoimport --db dataplexa --collection users    --file dataplexa_store.json --jsonArray
mongoimport --db dataplexa --collection products --file dataplexa_store.json --jsonArray
mongoimport --db dataplexa --collection orders   --file dataplexa_store.json --jsonArray
mongoimport --db dataplexa --collection reviews  --file dataplexa_store.json --jsonArray

# Verify inside mongosh
use dataplexa
show collections
db.users.countDocuments()
db.products.countDocuments()
db.orders.countDocuments()
db.reviews.countDocuments()

• Import the dataset once — it persists on disk until you explicitly drop it
• All lessons from here on reference db.users, db.products, db.orders, and db.reviews
• If you ever need a clean slate: use dataplexa → db.dropDatabase() → re-import

Summary Table

Practice Questions

Quiz

Next up — MongoDB Atlas Overview: creating a free cloud cluster and connecting from anywhere in minutes.