This tutorial article provides a concise and pedagogical overview on negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. The research on the NV centers has attracted enormous attention for its application to quantum sensing, encompassing the areas of not only physics and applied physics but also chemistry, biology and life sciences. Nonetheless, its key technical aspects can be understood from the viewpoint of magnetic resonance. We focus on three facets of this ever-expanding research field, to which our viewpoint is especially relevant: microwave engineering, materials science, and magnetometry. In explaining these aspects, we provide a technical basis and up-to-date technologies for the research on the NV centers.