Most developers spend the majority of their careers professionalizing themselves in a certain area. As for Full-Stack Developer, they are knowledgeable from server, data, front-end to back-end, UI, UX,… So whether they are technology geniuses in the whole team or not.
Why is a full-stack developer role critical in the IT industry?
Because it calls for a wide variety of technical abilities that may help organizations save time, money, and resources, the role of a full-stack developer is essential in the IT sector. The front-end and back-end code for a website or application must be created by a full-stack developer.
They are able to provide a comprehensive solution that is effective and user-friendly because to their expertise of programming languages, databases, and web development frameworks. Full-stack engineers are skilled at creating server-side logic, developing user interfaces, and managing data processing and storage in the background.
Full-stack developers may work on many areas of a project, such as building, testing, and deploying apps, thanks to their broad variety of talents, which can result in shorter turnaround times and lower costs for organizations.
A full-stack developer may also aid in improving communication across various divisions of a firm, such as marketing and IT. They can grasp the demands of non-technical team members and interact with them effectively to translate those needs into a useful program. Full-stack developers have the freedom to manage their workload and deadlines because of their ability to work autonomously.
The Definition of Full-Stack Developer
Full-Stack is a combination of knowledge, visual and deep understanding of both front-end and back-end, as well as having a thorough understanding of best practices and concepts. Front-End is generally the component for the user to see and interact with, the Back-End is the part of application with processing logic, database interaction, user authentication, server configuration.
Obviously, Full-Stack Developer is the person having capability to work in both the front-end and the back-end of the product, concurrently code for all components of the system. It requires a large amount of skills as well as experience.
In general, Full-Stack Developer is usually responsible for designing the interface and the database behind until the product runs smoothly.
Although assuming responsibilities for both the front-end and the back-end of an application, a full stack developer will not be as good as a front-end expert in processing the front-end, this is similar to the back-end. However, they will have a broad understanding of many different components, how to interact between them in the development process and combine them into a complete product.
As a Full-Stack Web Developer, you don’t necessarily have to do all the tasks that are delivered from the front-end to the back-end, but that means you can work on both front-end and back-end, understand what is happening when building an application.
The main tasks of a Full-Stack Developer
Set up the system environment to deploy the application.
Analyzing and designing databases through database management systems such as MySQL, SQLServer, writing data query script.
Must know to use one or more different programming languages such as PHP, C #, Java, … for the purpose of writing web applications, web services, or Back-end.
Know how to use HTML, CSS, Javascript, … to create Front-end.
Creating technical requirements and document instruction for customers.
Classification of the required key technologies from a Full-Stack Developer
System Administration:
Linux and basic scripting shell
Linux is ubiquitous in the Internet world, which is an operating system playing an important role in web development.
Cloud hosting: Amazon, Rackspace, etc.
In addition, a full-stack programmer should know about cloud hosting, Amazon / Rackspace or other providers and how its APIs work.
Background processing: Gearman, Redis
Search: Elasticsearch, Sphinx, Solr
Searching is integral to most sites – a web developer should know how to set up and use search servers like Sphinx or Elasticsearch.
Caching: Varnish, Memcached, APC / OpCache
Caching is also very important, Varnish, reverse proxy, Memcached and opcode caching. Full-Stack Developer needs to know what these technologies are and how to use them.
Monitoring: Nagios
Web development tools:
Version control: Git, Mercurial, SVN
Today, it would be unacceptable without using version control, even if you are a single developer. In there, Git is a version control system that allows developers to work on a group to keep track of all changes being made on the codebase. It is important to have some basic knowledge regarding Git, so that you understand how to recognize the latest code you missed, update parts of the code, fix bugs and change the code of others without infringe.
Virtualization: VirtualBox, Vagrant, Docker
With virtualization tools, having separate development environments for each basic project is really necessary, and easy to set up with at least using VirtualBox and Vagrant.
Besides, if you want to work with Vagrant you also need to know Ruby’s basic syntax and shell script.
Back-end technology:
Web servers: Apache, Nginx
Programming languages: PHP, NodeJS, Ruby
Database: MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, SQL / JSON
Front-end technology:
HTML / HTML5: Semantic web
CSS / CSS3: LESS, SASS, Media Queries
JavaScript: jQuery, AngularJS, Knockout, etc.
Compatibility between browsers
Responsive design
AJAX, JSON, XML, WebSocket
Front-end developers create and test their apps using a wide range of tools and technologies in addition to programming languages. These consist of code editors, package managers, task runners, and CSS preprocessors. Additionally, front-end engineers should be knowledgeable with design applications like Adobe Photoshop and Sketch.
Design:
Convert website design into Front-End code
UI
UX
Mobile:
Another category that deserves mention is mobile technology. It is a very dynamic industry and closely related to web development:
iOS
Android
Hybrid: PhoneGap, Appcelerator
One of the biggest differences today is development on web and mobile devices, but the distance between them is narrowing rapidly.
Advantages of a full-stack developer:
The key benefit of a full-stack developer is that they could work more quickly and independently than other team members, which might save technical expenses. Their extensive knowledge may also provide them the ability to form original viewpoints and a more proactive approach. These factors contribute to the popularity of full-stack engineers in startup settings where a broad variety of skills is essential despite possible limited resources.
Full-stack developers can assist in training or problem-solving with other staff members, therefore larger firms may desire to recruit them. Additionally, they are able to transition between technologies and modify their job needs depending on the situation or a certain time period.
Drawbacks of a full-stack developer:
Companies who are considering adding a full-stack developer to their staff should take into account the following downsides. First off, the majority of full-stack developers have a mediocre understanding of a number of talents rather than being experts in just one of them. Therefore, it is advisable to hire additional, more specialist developers if a project requires in-depth familiarity with complicated topics. Second, using a single full-stack developer for a project puts a lot of trust or risk in one individual, and losing that employee would be bad for the business.
Education and Experience Required for a Full Stack Developer
Highly clever individuals who have gained training via their degree or through years working in relevant sectors on the job market are known as full-stack developers. Despite the strong demand for these positions, organizations are wary about hiring just anybody to create their websites. Full Stack Developers must adhere to a set of educational requirements as well as experience requirements in order to get employed. here differ amongst employers, but here are a few safe bets.
Education: A degree in computer science, programming, software development, statistics, or a closely connected discipline is required. Even while most occupations just require an associate's degree to apply, your chances of getting employed increase the more education you have. To truly differentiate themselves, several Full Stack Developers choose to earn master's degrees. Another option to gain all the knowledge necessary to thrive as a Full Stack Developer is through an intense bootcamp in web development.
Work Experience: You don't need to have years and years of on-the-job experience to apply for this job, but you also shouldn't expect to learn everything during training. You must be able to demonstrate that you have the expertise and experience necessary for the position. This can be accomplished either via rigorous education or prior work experience in a position relevant to growth. Some organizations will demand that you stay up with the most recent developments and have at least three years of expertise with certain coding languages, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Some resources are useful for becoming Full-Stack Developer:
– About front-end: For the initiates, should read:
Head First HTML & CSS
HTML5 & CSS3 for Dummies
Javascript for Dummies
Coding with JavaScript for Dummies
For doing Tutorials and exercises you can go to Codeacademy or Freecodecamp.
More advanced front-end can read JavaScript: The good part, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers.
– About UI / UX: Although you know front-end code, you still have to learn UI / UX to make the design easy to use. UX books are worth reading:
Don’t Make me Think
User Interface Design for Programmers
Alternatively, go to Medium to refer to the UX articles.
– About back-end: Some books on system architecture and code organization include:
Clean Code
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Head First Design Pattern
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
If you choose C # as a back-end language, you should read C# In Depth and C # Design Strategies, C # Best Practices: Improving on the Basics on pluralsight.
Source: Internet
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