How did you move from a front-end developer into a full-stack?
I am a self taught #front-end #developer. Currently deciding to get formal training to later move into #back-end development. I have strong fundamentals in #programming #computer #software.
6 answers
Vidya’s Answer
A Full-Stack Web Developer is someone who is able to work on both the front-end and back-end portions of an application. Someone is familiar with each layer. Front-end generally refers to the portion of an application the user will see or interact with, and the back-end is the part of the application that handles the logic, database interactions, user authentication, server configuration, etc.
Being a Full-Stack Developer doesn’t mean that you have necessarily mastered everything required to work with the front-end or back-end, but it means that you are able to work on both sides and understand what is going on when building an application.
Web Languages:
1. HTML,CSS
2. Javascript
Backend Languages:
1. C
2. C++
3. Java
4. PHP
5. Python
6. Ruby
7. Rust
8. SQL
9. Swift
Frameworks:
Another set of web technologies that full stack developers need to become familiar with are development frameworks. Some of the popular web development frameworks available include Angular, Django, Laravel.
Web protocols:
Knowing how web protocols work will help full stack developers ensure that devices can communicate with each other and the internet.
The protocols that have to be used include HTTP/ HTTPS, DDP, and the API-related REST.
Servers:
There are a number of web hosting services to choose from and these servers contain a great deal of information about your site and other online applications.
When you are either a front end or back end developer, the prospect of becoming a full stack developer can be daunting. But though it can take time, it is quite possible to achieve this.
Start by mastering the front end web languages that make websites work, and learn one back end language thoroughly. Additional knowledge of other languages is beneficial, but not essential.
Study the web technologies that make it possible for the sites to function on the internet and communicate with each other and other devices.
You need to practice everything you learn—academic knowledge will not be sufficient within a corporate environment. And always test your coding so you can spot errors as soon as they occur.
Tova’s Answer
Great question, Isaiah. I haven't made this exact career move, but one recommendation that I would suggest is to work on side projects so you can gain experience building full-stack apps. Whereas your front-end projects likely used existing APIs as their data source, you would now want to focus on building an API yourself. You might even create a fork of one of your current projects that uses a custom backend instead of the current API it is using. Feel free to start with free or very cheap tutorials online (Youtube, Udacity, Udemy) to get you started.
To give you an idea of the type of side project I'm talking about, one full-stack project that I worked on in the past is a textbook exchange website. A friend and I built a website (front-end using React, backend using PHP/Laravel) where students could list textbooks that they wanted to sell, browse the available textbooks, and connect with sellers of the textbooks they wanted to buy. I started by building the front-end and using the Google Books API, since my friend was building out a backend at the same time. Then over time, the plan was to integrate with our custom backend and use our own library of books (using fake data in the beginning, until we launched).
Hope this helps provide some ideas and inspiration! Best of luck.
Hanié (Zahra)’s Answer
Hi Isaiah,
My personal experience: I was a fullstack (node js, react) and moved to a frontend (only react). I would recommend consider your goals. If you want to financially grow your career, then you can either become best in either FE or BE. This way you can become a senior in one domain faster and increase your chances in job market and scoring higher salaries. If you want to move to BE for any other reason, I would recommend watching some short videos on Youtube for your targeted languages to get a taste of which one you like to move forward with (I figured out I have a passion for Python this way).
Let's say you choose one language, now to learn:
Hanié (Zahra) recommends the following next steps:
Raj’s Answer
Anthony’s Answer
Hi Isaiah,
I would suggest to learn a stack. For example if you know React then I would recommend to learn about the MERN stack. [Mongo DB, Express, React, and Node].
Once you get the basics of the stack then I would recommend building a project. The project can be a simple chat program or simple to-do list.
As you are building the project, I would highly recommend you to use github to backup your code and to show off to any potential employer.
Christine’s Answer
There are some great answers already but I think the value of SQL as a starting point should definitely be reiterated. If you don't know at least intermediate SQL, it is unlikely you will snag a full-stack job that you're comfortable in.
Best of luck!
Christine recommends the following next steps: