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The Developer Types Series Has As Its First Type The Web Developer
Now let’s dive in deeper to see what is this career all about, what are the requirements are for each subcategory of web developer, in various parts of the world, what are the salaries and all of the other details related to this type of developer.
Web Developer
Well now, what is a web developer?
A web developer is the type of developer who works on everything related to websites, that would be the interface you see when accessing Medium, or Facebook, or Amazon, as well as millions of other examples. To put it simply, if you can search it up on Google, it’s a website, so a web developer or a team of them was behind its creation. But apart from the interface which you, the user of the website, are using to access certain data such as a facebook page where you can visit the home page to see what your friends are doing, or your profile page where you can see your account information and posts, there is also the part that you are not seeing, the backend; now, what is this? It’s everything from processes that ensure you, the owner of a certain Facebook account are receiving your data and not someone else’s data; the backend is represented by all the logic, all of the storing of posts and images, data etc that is hidden from the user’s eyes. Now, there are 3 types of Web Developers, the Frontend Developer, the Backend Developer and the Full-Stack Developer.
The Frontend Developer
This is the developer who is assigned with all of the interface-related tasks, these would be related to what the user sees and how the data is presented to him.
The Frontend Developer has to make sure that the buttons the designer designed are the right size, the text is the same size, the layout of the page is the same as presented in the design, the website looks and feels the same on different browsers, on different screen sizes, including the mobile, as well as making sure that the right data is requested from the backend / server.
Another responsibility of a Frontend Developer is to make sure that the right requests are sent to the backend system / server, such requests would be to retrieve / fetch certain data from the server, sent data, update, or even delete certain data from the server.
Average Annual Salary For A Frontend Developer Around The World According To Glassdoor
United States
Germany
India
Requirements Of Being A Frontend Developer
As seen in the previous images, knowledge about the building blocks of web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), a frontend framework such as React, Vue or Angular, a CSS preprocessor such as SCSS / SASS or LESS, as well as a bit of knowledge of APIs, as well as RESTful APIs and GraphQL will prove beneficial to getting a Frontend position.
Another way to check out some requirements regarding what it takes to become and evolve as a Frontend Developer and have a roadmap to learn frontend development is to check this link.
The Backend Developer
Now, on the other end of the spectrum we have the Backend Developer; the difference between the 2 is that the first one is tasked with the more visual part of a web application, while the latter is tasked with handling the not-so-visual backend of the application. From setting up a database system, a connection to the database from the server, to processing data accordingly, to making sure everything is secure, the backend developer has to take care of the logic behind a web application.
An example would be a backend developer who is tasked with making sure that a new blog data is received successfully from the frontend, is processed correctly so a new blog can be created and attributed to the user who wrote it and it’s stored correctly in the database, so its data can be retrieved at a later time by the user who created it, as well as other users most likely. Another responsibility of the backend developer would be to make sure that a user can’t write a blog for another user, and a user can’t access and make settings to the blogs of another user.
Average Annual Salary For A Backend Developer Around The World According To Glassdoor
United States
Germany
India
Requirements Of Being A Backend Developer
As you can see in the snapshots above, the requirements might vary, depending on each company’s tech stack, but worry not, most would appreciate if you had one thing from each point below:
- Knowledge about a backend language and a specific framework based on that language such as: Node.js / Express.js, PHP / Laravel or Symphony, Ruby / Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python / Django or Flask, Java / Spring Boot, Golang (Go) / Gin or Revel
- Knowledge about APIs, as well as the types of requests, http statuses, SOAP / REST http requests
- Knowledge about at least a SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL) or NoSQL (MongoDB, Firebase) Database System
- A bit of knowledge about Frontend would be a big plus
- GraphQL is a benefit as well
Another way to check out some requirements and have a roadmap to learn backend development is to check this link.
Backend Roadmap provided by roadmap.sh
The Full-Stack Developer
Whereas we have the Frontend Developer working on everything related to interface, accessibility and responsiveness on various devices, The Backend Developer working on everything related to the logic hidden to the user, database structure, authentication and authorisation etc, now we have the Full-Stack Developer who is tasked with doing both, simultaneously. Now this might sound impossible, but think about it for a second; we have the same person working on both the Frontend & Backend, which means he will know the system in-and-out, fact that will give him an edge over the individual developers aforementioned who each know only their part, apart from what they know communicating with each other, so this is a benefit the Full-Stack Developer has.
But, as you might expect, as responsibilities increase, so does the salary package, so it’s a fair situation to put yourself into if you believe you can do them both.
Average Annual Salary For A Full-Stack Developer Around The World According To Glassdoor
United States
Germany
India
Requirements Of Being A Full-Stack Developer
Provided the fact that a full-stack has the responsibilities of both a Frontend & a Backend Developer, the requirements for a Full-Stack position would be pretty Similar to the ones of both a frontend developer & a backend developer, as well as some specific integrations and tools that will make his life easier.
Frontend Requirements:
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- A Frontend Framework (React, Vue, or Angular)
- Knowledge About Accessibility
- Basic Knowledge About UI / UX
- Knowledge about responsiveness
- State Management (React -> Redux, Angular -> NgRx, Vue -> Vuex) for modern Frontend frameworks
Backend Requirements
- A Backend Language coupled with a framework specific to it (PHP / Laravel, Python / Django, Node.js / Express, Java / Boot Spring, C# / .NET, etc)
- Knowledge about an SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite), or an NoSQL (MongoDB, Firebase) DBMS
- Knowledge about HTTP Requests & HTTP Statuses
- Knowledge about the MVC Architecture
- Knowledge about RESTful / SOAP apis, or GraphQL
Some Additional Information
As probably some of you don’t know, but the language and requirements of web development jobs vary a lot depending on the region, so, for example if we would have an abundance of MERN Stack related jobs available in the US with similar requirements, it won’t be the case for Germany, where most jobs are looking for a C# + .NET / ASP.NET backend software system, so be sure to take that into account as well, as it’s pretty important to giving you a direction to which skills & technologies you should focus on learning;
So what I mentioned in this list would be an more abstract, generalised view of the Web Developer jobs & their requirements.
Conclusion
I tried to give out some information to fellow developers and people who are either interested in Web Development or are on their way to become a Web Developer themselves.
I’ve also covered as much information in as few lines of text as possible in order to help you get the essential information you might have been looking for by reading article for what a web developer is, what are the 3 types of web developers, what is required in order to land a job as any of these types, as well as some additional information I considered useful.
I hope you found this article useful, and be sure to check out the rest of my articles as well, as I’m trying to reach out to fellow developers and help everyone as much as I can with these stories.
If you want to learn more about my journey as a Web Developer who started working at 17 be sure to check this story:
My Roadmap of becoming a Web Developer at 17
As well as other articles which will sure help you or I just hope you’ll enjoy:
Websites that helped me as a Web Developer
5 Visual Studio Code Extensions I’ve Been Using As A Front-End Developer