Front-End, Back-End And Full-Stack Web Developer: What's The Difference?

 The ICT job market is rapidly developing and more and more professional figures are sought. As many as there are ads on portals like LinkedIn, there is so much confusion in understanding the real meaning of job titles.

 The question is always the same: what is the difference between a back-end web developer, a front-end web developer, and a full-stack web developer?

The computer terms front end and back end (also written, frontend or front-end and backend or back-end) refer respectively to the part visible to the user of a program and with which he can interact - typically a user interface - and the part that allows these interactions to work effectively.

In general, the back-end developer works "behind the scenes" of a site or web application and takes care of its operation on the data and server-side, therefore on what users do not see when visiting the site. The front-end developer, on the other hand, takes care of everything that has an impact on the interface, namely the part visible to users and the one with which they interact. Then there are web developers who deal with both fronts and are called full-stack web developers.

Let's take a closer look at what these three professionals have in common and what distinguishes them.

The Web Developer: Who He Is

Before going into the specifics of the differences, let's start from the base: what does a web developer do? We can define a web developer, or in the Italian "web developer", any professional involved in building web projects, whether these are websites or web applications.

The web developer spends most of his day writing code and studying new systems to improve his work. His main tool is clearly the pc, and knowledge of programming languages ​​and frameworks such as

HTML and CSS3, JavaScript and jQuery, PHP, MySQL and SQL, Laravel, VueJS, and Python (to name but a few) is what makes this professional of the web one of the most sought after in the world.

Whether you decide to undertake a career as a freelance or not, tech companies, web agencies, but also consulting, IT development, and e-commerce companies are the places where the web developer usually works (very often with the possibility of doing so in smart working). 

He often collaborates with various departments in the company to create ad hoc products and the web designer is one of the figures he interfaces with most often.

The Web Developer Front-End: What It Does

Through his technical skills, he is able to make the user experience simple and interactive.

The web developer front-end is the one who takes care of the visible part of a site or application and is the figure that acts as a bridge between the web designer and the web developer back-end (of which we will see the specifications shortly).

What Languages Should A Front-End Developer Know

To excel in his work, this professional must know the 3 basic markup languages and programming languages: HTML5, CSS3, Javascript by learning to master some frameworks or libraries created on them (for example Bootstrap, Foundation, jQuery, Angular, VueJs, ...)

The first two Markup languages allow you to create a large part of the structure and aesthetics of your website. HTML is used to create elements, such as the page title, the content of a post or an image. The syntax of this language arises from the need to standardize the structures of web pages. 

Its sole purpose is to allow the browser to understand what the elements that make up the web page are and in what order they are arranged. After that, CSS allows you to decide the color, size, and even the position of the elements, although it is a good idea to arrange them following the reasoning set out in the HTML.

To create web pages, frameworks are crucial: the most famous of all is Bootstrap. The frameworks are nothing more than pieces of code written by other developers who make ready-made features available to those who use them, saving time and effort for other developers. These libraries are the result of the work of individual developers or companies that often release them for free. Which frameworks to use is at the discretion of each web developer.

Another programming language that a good front-end web developer cannot do without is JavaScript. This is a real programming language since it is able to “reason”, that is, to perform calculations and make decisions based on certain types of events.

Every time we press on a banner or in a menu we are activating an event that Javascript will process and subsequently return a result, be it a confirmation of registration or a new page. Its most famous framework is undoubtedly Jquery, even in this case it will come to our aid by allowing us to group several lines of code into a single statement. Recently, new frameworks with a different “component” approach are taking hold, such as React, Angular, and VueJS.

In addition to knowing how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript well, it is useful to have a good creative ability. Today's websites are more and more captivating and even if you can still rely on a web designer (whom we remember it is not obvious that he writes code), having good creativity allows you to be more autonomous in drafting projects.

The Web Developer Back-End: What It Does

He takes care of everything that the user does not see, and if he never sees it, he will mean that he has done a great job.

The web developer back-end takes care of making everything behind the scenes of the project work. He must know at least one server-side programming language and use it to create the logical structures that, using databases, will manage all the data of an application. To understand what data is, just think about what we use every day.

 Let's take Netflix for example which episodes have already been seen and the movies recommended for each user are all data that must be saved on a database and sent to the frontend.

What Languages Does A Backend Developer Need To Know

The programming languages that you need to know to be an excellent web developer back-end are PHP or Java, but also Python or Ruby. An in-depth study of the SQL language that allows you to communicate with databases should also be integrated.

The task of this figure is to manage the amount of data that is exchanged from the web page to the server and vice versa. It is also called into question when it comes to code security. It is therefore good practice to have an IT security base among the hard skills: it will then be up to the individual back-end to choose whether to specialize in this branch or not.

In summary: to be a good back-end web developer you need to know how to create the core of the software, its algorithms, and its logic. Furthermore, you must be able to manage the data contained in the database and then have full control over it as regards security.

The Full-Stack Web Developer: What He Does

The full-stack developer is an "all-around" developer.

The full-stack web developer must necessarily (otherwise it could not be called that) know and know how to apply the skills of back-end and front-end developer. Patience and perseverance are essential, in fact, to be able to master the art of the front-end and back-end it will certainly take a long time.

Every developer will always have a preference for one industry or the other, but having skills on both the front and back ends helps to have a complete understanding of web development, to communicate better with other team members and, in some, it can make it more attractive to the job market.

In Summary: What Is The Difference Between A Front-End, Back-End, And Full-Stack Web Developer?

If we want to compare the construction of a website to that of a house, we could say that if the back-end web developer takes care of the electrical system, the front-end web developer makes the switches and sockets work. If the beck end takes care of the pipes, the front end is dedicated to the taps. And so on.

Obviously, to have a good result in terms of practicality and aesthetics, the two figures will have to collaborate and it will be necessary that the front-end and the back-end web developer know the basics of each other's tasks.

The full-stack web developer, on the other hand, encompasses the technical and creative skills of both the professionals mentioned above and has the necessary experience behind him to build the house himself, from the foundation to the choice of furnishings.

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How Can You Become A Web Developer?

Constant study is required for all three figures because the web evolves quickly and we can never afford to be left behind. The nature of web developers is to keep themselves constantly updated and this works in their favor.

To become a web developer there are several ways, you just need to understand which is the right one for each. It really depends on what kind of person you are, on the time you can devote to studying, and how fast you are to become a web developer.

The most traditional training course is certainly the university one. Even if the academic cut is by its very nature impractical, so it will be necessary to do some training through curricular and extracurricular internships. 

Another option that is not rare in the world of programming is to start studying the various programming languages ​​independently (preferably one at a time). The time it takes will depend only on your ability to concentrate and your resilience.

There are also several training courses that can be both physical and remote (on-demand or life). If you want to reach a certain level in a short time, it is certainly better to think about intensive courses.

How to start programming from scratch?

If you are interested in programming, you are a beginner and you have yet to figure out if this could be the right path for you, you can take online lectures from Youtube, Udemy, Udacity, w3schools, and many more.