deploy a solidity smart contract with hardhat and interact with it in nodejs.

mkdir project_name
cd project_name

# init yarn project and install hardhat
yarn init
yarn add --dev hardhat
# 
yarn hardhat

Delete the Lock.sol contract, create a new file ContractExemple.sol, write your own smart contract

Go into scripts/deploys.sol and modify the file (code in the repo at scripts/deploy.ts)

# compile your contract:
yarn hardhat compile

# run the hardhat node:
yarn hardhat node

Open a new terminal window

# deploy the contract:
yarn hardhat run scripts/deploy.ts --network localhost

# Install nodemon, web3, ws and express
yarn add --dev nodemon
yarn add web3 ws express

write your nodejs script in server.mjs to interact with your smart contract and use his function

run the nodejs script :

npm run dev

good job !