Work backwards. Start with tools that basically do all your work for you, and then try to understand the pieces as you work with them.

Try the angular-fullstack generator using yeoman: https://github.com/angular-fullstack/generator-angular-fulls...

This will generate you a fully functioning front end and server, with an authentication and user management service. It also has methods to push to heroku, so you don't really need to know how to deploy to a live server.