Brotli compression in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Enable Brotli Compression in nginx

📖 Scenario: You manage a website running on an nginx server. To improve page load speed and reduce bandwidth, you want to enable Brotli compression, a modern compression method that makes files smaller before sending them to users.

🎯 Goal: Configure nginx to use Brotli compression for text-based files like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a basic nginx configuration block

Add Brotli compression settings

Enable Brotli compression for specific MIME types

Verify the configuration by printing the relevant settings

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web servers use compression to reduce file sizes sent to users, speeding up websites and saving bandwidth costs.

💼 Career

Knowing how to configure compression in nginx is a key skill for DevOps engineers and system administrators managing web infrastructure.

1

Create a basic nginx server block

Write a basic nginx server block with listen 80; and server_name example.com; inside http context.

Nginx

# Your code here
http {
    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;
    }
}

Need a hint?

Start with http {} block, then add server {} inside it with the required directives.

2

Add Brotli compression module settings

Inside the http block, add brotli on; and brotli_comp_level 5; to enable Brotli compression and set compression level.

Nginx

http {
    brotli on;
    brotli_comp_level 5;
    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;
    }
}
# Add Brotli settings above the server block

Need a hint?

Place Brotli settings inside http {} but outside server {}.

3

Enable Brotli for specific MIME types

Add brotli_types text/plain text/css application/javascript application/json application/xml; inside the http block to specify which file types to compress.

Nginx

http {
    brotli on;
    brotli_comp_level 5;
    brotli_types text/plain text/css application/javascript application/json application/xml;
    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;
    }
}
# Add brotli_types directive

Need a hint?

List the MIME types separated by spaces after brotli_types.

4

Print the Brotli configuration

Write a print statement to display the Brotli settings: brotli on, brotli_comp_level 5, and the brotli_types list.

Nginx

# Your code here
print("brotli on")
print("brotli_comp_level 5")
print("brotli_types text/plain text/css application/javascript application/json application/xml")

Need a hint?

Use three print statements to show each Brotli setting exactly as configured.