Get started with backend

How to become a back-end Web Developer  from scratch

The demand of web developer is constantly increasing day by day.
Web Development is one of the trending career choices to pursue in terms of growth, job satisfaction, and salary. It’s easy to get attracted towards a life of web developer working remotely as a freelancer and digital nomad.
In this blog, I will quickly try to list down the possible steps to become a back-end web developer.

Step 1: Choose a Language & Framework

You can not master everything at once and become a web developer in one month. So, it’s important to have a proper plan and timeline depending on your availability. Start by choosing a programming language like Python, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript and subsequently, choose a framework out of it.
  
Django — Built over Python
Laravel — Built over PHP  
Ruby on Rails — You guessed it right, it’s built in Ruby
NodeJS — It’s not a framework, it’s more of an environment built on JavaScript.

Step 2: Learn Programming Fundamentals

I hope that you are already familiar with basics of programming. If not, then pick any of the languages like C, Java or Python and try to understand the programming logic.

Step 3: Data Structure & Algorithm [Basics]

It’s huge. That’s the main reason most of the web developers skip this step and jump to learning a framework. I strictly recommend you to revise your basic Data Structures and Algorithmic skills. You don’t need to be expert but you should understand Stack, Queue, Linked List, Tree, Graph, Hashing, Sorting & Searching Algorithms and so on.

Step 4: Basics of Framework

Based on whatever framework you have chosen, you can learn the basics of that very framework. It can be anything from Django to Ruby on Rails. Most of them follow the same MVC (Model-View-Controller) principle.

Step 5: Work on Small Assignments/Projects

Learning by doing is one of the best approaches to follow. You can start with small projects like

• Simple To-do list
• Simple Blog
• Photo Gallery Web App
• Resume Builder
• Basic Project Management app

Step 6: Build Something [IMPORTANT]

You can not imagine the value of building something of your own. It’s great if you already have a product or startup idea. Otherwise, it’s better to start off with building startup clone. By startup clone, I mean that you are cloning some of the great products available in the market

Just keep in mind that you can not copy everything so just think from the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) point of view.

Step 7: Deploying on Server —AWS / Heroku

Deploy your product on the server. You can use any free server for this. Obviously, AWS will be the first preference. It provides 1 year of FREE* hosting (limited usage).
Now that you have got the basics of back-end development, it’s time to move down to the complexity. If your goal is getting a job as Back-end Developer then work on your resume, add your projects and start applying for jobs.