The Ultimate 2018 Guide – How to Become a Full Stack Developer?

In an ever advancing environment, with countless technologies being released almost every day, keeping yourself abreast with the changes is rather daunting. It is imperative for the professionals to stay up-to-date about everything, ranging from the user interfaces to databases. Sounds unrealistic right? Well, Full Stack Development is your answer for this.

What is Full Stack Development?

Full stack development process involves development of front and back end portions of a website. The developer needs to deal with multiple stacks including operating system, programming language, Web server, and database server. There are three layers of full stack development, these are- Database Layer, Presentation layer (front end portion dealing with the user interface) and Business Logic Layer (back end portion dealing with data validation).
Hiring specialists for each subsystem of web development process turns out to be expensive and complex. Hence, Companies prefer dealing with full stack developers, who hold specialization across multiple stacks.

Why Full Stack?

A full stack expert boasts functional knowledge and proficiency in handling all the aspects of application development. The developer is skilled in-

• Writing front-end code in JavaScript, HTML, and Java
• Writing backend code in Java, Python and Ruby
• Security and Networking
• Dealing with APIs
• Client coordination and Project management
• Creating, querying and understanding databases
• Handling complete system infrastructure including OS and hardware

A full stack developer is skilled enough to develop effective strategies for all kind of web development processes. His in-depth knowledge and years of experience in handling the systems allows him to handle responsibilities expertly. It is rather difficult to gather such skills and the professionals possessing these skills are in great demand in the industry. However, experience enhances the overall credibility of the expert, but it is important for the aspirants to take up good courses in order to kick off their career as a full stack developer.

How to become a Full Stack Developer?

Being an expert full-stack professional requires extensive knowledge about all the front-end and back-end technologies. In addition, you should be well-versed with the most used programming languages, if not all. Here is the list of some tips and tricks that will help you in becoming a full-fledged full-stack developer.

1. Identify the area you want to excel –

Success comes with proper planning. The first and foremost step is to find your niche. Though it’s true that full stack development requires “learning it all”, but how come you’ll pursue your goal if you aren’t clear about your interests. To excel in Full Stack, it is important to identify area of your interest and create the path accordingly. The two basic principles of full stack involve-

a. identifying the customer and business needs &
b. deciding the area of your interest

Note that Web technologies like JavaScript are a profitable path only if you hold expertise in the ‘full stack’ which consists of database systems, CSS, HTML, general-purpose programming languages, JavaScript, deployment operating systems, web server, version-control system and payment systems.

2. Focus on learning ‘few’ yet important languages –

Full stack is an extensive thing. However, it is crucial to have good knowledge of everything related to it, but you should certainly brush up your skills to the core in the selected few. Most of the developers try gaining perfection in every area of full stack, which isn’t practically possible. It is not only overwhelming, but nearly impossible.

Gain knowledge of every aspect, but go an extra mile learning the most important technologies. Say for example, it’s okay if you don’t have deep understanding of every general-purpose programming language out there. You may focus on the selected ones. It could be Ruby, PHP, Python, or any other.

3. Clear your basics –

Clear fundamentals will make things much easier for you to understand. It is important for the Full stack developers to handle both front and backend areas of software development comfortably. Strengthen your knowledge in the basics of web development including HTML/CSS and JavaScript. This is crucial especially for the beginners. Before moving up with full stack, brush up your skills and knowledge about databases, servers, hosting environments, networks, data structures, algorithms, and programming languages.

4. Improve your comfort level with the important technologies –

You can’t gain expertise in everything that you do. Most of the developers fail because they try to achieve perfection in everything. Rule of the thumb is become comfortable with the important technologies. Don’t try mastering on too many things, but gain practical experience of all. Work on improving your comfort level. While you focus on one technology, don’t ignore the rest. This will not only help you in gaining edge over your competitors, while enhance your overall capability. Note that your specialty should match with the needs of your clients.

5. Build an online network –

This heck is highly important to maintain a stable position in the market. Plus, staying in touch with your peers online will help you stay up to date. Fortunately, there are countless options to build an active network. You can join a community or create chat rooms / online forums / groups for the same. Social media sites are also a good option.

6. Focus on creating a User-friendly product –

Keep in mind, ultimately it’s all about creating a user-friendly, top-notch product. Focus on the functionality and user experience of your product. You may deviate from your ultimate aim with wide range of available technological options. Keep a picture of the end-product in your mind. In other words, you must be able to experience, see, and feel your end product conceptually. This will help you in building your product securely. Working towards the idea becomes much easier with such focus.

Best Online Learning Websites/Courses to Learn Full Stack

If you think you already know everything about Full Stack, then know that you are absolutely wrong. You will always have to be ready to learn new things from time to time. If you are already into it or planning to enter the world of Full stack, be prepared to learn everything and anything that comes your way. Fortunately, there are a number of online websites that’ll help you in learning the course. The most popular ones are listed below-

• Codecademy – Codecademy offers a spectrum of beginner-level self-guided tutorials. You can refer the online tutorials provided here to learn about the basics programs of web development.
• Eduonix – You can definitely get started with the popular technologies to become an effective backend developer. Eduonix has a Full Stack Web Developer course for anyone who is interested in learning about Full Stacks. This course breaks down with each technology with the glimpse of the practical knowledge and the detailed examples to help make it easier for developers to learn
• Khan Academy – This online academy is ideal for the ones looking for self-guided tutorials. The experts of Khan Academy provide video and audio guidance on various topics related to full stack. All the sessions are conducted through on-screen windows.
• Coursera – Coursera offers wide range of online courses from various global universities without charging a penny. All the courses vary from one another in terms of timeline and format. You will get to taste numerous courses for computer science, programming, and development.
• MIT Open Courseware – MIT Open Courseware will facilitate you with wide range of topics along with hundreds of courses for computer engineering, programming, mathematics, and development.
• Mozilla Developer Network – The tutorials, resources, and articles offered by Mozilla Developer Network are best for the ones looking forward to learn tried-and-true method of the development process. You can even check out the examples on the web page of the site.

In addition to the above names, there are many other courses including HTML5 Rocks, A List Apart and Coding Dojo Algorithm Prep. Stay away from the websites or courses that guarantee to master you in the subject within few hours. Also, don’t opt for the ones who charge a hefty amount for the course. Look for the websites with courses of good mentoring background. Though the learning process never ends in case of full stack but this profession is totally worth it. Plan your full stack learning efficiently.

Top Programming Languages Covered in Full Stack Development
If you are a new to web development industry, then the following list of top programming languages will surely meet your purpose. Know here which ones are usually covered in Full Stack Development.

• Universal languages: JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

JavaScript, CSS and HTML are categorized as the front-end browsers’ universal languages. So it is important to thorough yourself with the web development basics like CSS and HTML before you start to deal with the back-end technologies. The three languages will prove out to be very useful in every process of full stack development.

• New programmers are advised to spend more time in familiarizing themselves with the data structures and algorithms when they dive into JavaScript code writing. Initially, you may carry things at the basic level, but breaking problems down will give you better knowledge of the domain. You’ll gain in depth understanding of all the languages and technologies of full stack.
• Ruby on Rails

This full-stack framework is used by various notable sites like Basecamp, Twitter and others. Though Ruby on Rails boasts close similarity to frameworks such as MEAN’s Express and PHP’s CodeIgniter but it is more refined comparatively. It comes with matchless built-in support for REST and MVC. It even includes an excellent relational database ORM – Active Record. Ruby (language) and Rails (framework) are mature and stable.

• Python

Python code comes with easy-to-learn syntax and it is inherently readable. Emphasizing on good naming and programming style, the language enforces good indentation, requiring the programmers to be very clear about organizing their program logic, conditions, and loops. It features simple yet incredibly powerful and flexible design. For this reason, Python is used as an introductory language in more than 80% computer science programs.

• MEAN :-

MEAN leverages a compelling combination of JavaScript-based technologies. For this reason, it is turning out to be one of the most popular web technology stacks. Here are what MEAN stands for-
MongoDB (for database)
Express.js (for web framework)
AngularJS (for frontend framework)
Node.js (for server platform)

Today, MEAN is used by major tech companies including Netflix, Uber, PayPal and Google. It is usable for both back-end and front-end web development.

What is the Salary of a Fullstack Developer?

As with most of the careers, the pay scale for full-stack developers depends on the geographic region and specific expertise.

The lower limit of the scale is comparatively less for entry-level programmers and web developers who are at the learning stage of full-stack development. The average salary of entry-level professionals ranges around $97,000. Again, the salaries vary on the basis of the specific skills set of the developer. Professionals can command higher salaries in the regions with high demand for full stack developers. For example, entry-level full-stack developers can make an average of $113,500 per annum.
The average salary of an experienced full-stack developer nationwide makes up around $110,000. Again, the figure can be higher depending on the skill sets and region. High profile companies can even consider an annual average salary of $150,000 for developers holding expertise in the specific area as needed.

Conclusion

It takes immense hard word, dedication and focus to become a high-profile full stack developer. Note that it’s not only about learning a spectrum of backend and front-end technologies. You need to understand that the two areas in detail so that you can create a perfect alignment between them. Most importantly, it is crucial to be patient enough in order to achieve your ultimate goal.
Full stack development has a lot to learn. Dive into profession only if you are up for persistent learning. If you enjoy reading about web development blogs and software, then full stack development is your best bet. The overall process will become much easier for you. If this is the area of your interest, then you’ll have fun while learning and developing the applications.