What is Web Development? Full-Stack Web Development Master Guide

Learn what is website development, and the difference between front-end and back-end website development. Best web development jobs for beginners and top web developer skills.

What is Web Development? Full-Stack Web Development Master Guide

What to Expect?

  1. What is Web Development?
  2. Front-End Development
  3. Back-End Development
  4. Full-Stack Development
  5. Roles and Responsibilities of a Web Developer
  6. Should you pursue a career in Web Development?
  7. How to pursue a career in Web Development?
  8. How to Become a Web Developer?
  9. Where to learn these Web Development Skills?

What is Web Development?

Web development, also known as web design, refers to tasks related to creating, creating, and maintaining websites and web applications running on a web browser. In web developer skills, languages are the building blocks programmers use to build websites, applications, and software.

If you are a total newbie, the web development scope may seem daunting but we can assure you that after going through this master guide, you will have enough information and knowledge to excel in a web developer career.

A Web developer career is strongly associated with the work of designing website features and functions (often called web design), but the term web development is generally reserved for the actual construction and programming of websites and applications. A web development job can be mainly bifurcated into 3 streams i.e. front-end web developer, back-end web developer, and full-stack web developer.

To learn how to be a Web developer, you need to understand the process by which websites are created and maintained; it is the work done behind the scenes to ensure the site looks appealing, works fast, and provides a cohesive user experience. For learning these important web developer skills, we have also hand-picked some of the best web development courses further in this guide that will help you learn how to be a web developer.  

Front-End Development

A web developer career in front-end covers everything from creating a simple page of text in HTML to creating sophisticated, responsive HTML5 websites designed for accessibility across various browsers, devices, and screen sizes.

Front-end web developers, also known as client-side developers, are the ones responsible for producing the HTML, CSS, and Javascript of a website (or web application) that helps users easily interact with a website.

It is a front-end developer's job to code the front-end of a website or app; that is, the part of a website the user sees and interacts with. These developers work on the client-side, or user-facing, of websites, programs, and software: in other words, the thing the users see.

These Web developer skills services enable users to interact with applications from multiple locations, rather than being tied to one particular workstation for their applications environments.

Back-End Development

Back-End Developers are responsible for using coding languages to build code that makes a web app work as it should. Back-End Developers write code focusing on functionality and logic powering the applications they are working on, and the technologies they are working with are never seen by users directly.

The backend developer understands the framework created by backend engineers, concentrates on features or tasks that allow the software to develop, and is someone who makes use of the technologies required for developing the products on the backend side of any site.

To keep a server, application, and database all communicating with one another, backend developers use backend languages such as PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, and.Net to create the application, and tools such as MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server to locate, store, or modify data and serve it back to the user in the front-end code.

Full-Stack Development

Full-Stack Developers or 'Full Stackers' are responsible for both the front end and the backend, and they have to understand how the web works at all levels to define how client-side and server-side would be interconnected.

Full-stack web developer skills help them to optimize for performance, detect issues before they happen and help team members to understand the various parts of the Web Service.

A web developer career in full-stack refers to the one who designs, creates, and maintains the foundation of an entire system - right down to the very bottom of it. Having this jack-of-all-trades kind of person on your team will help you get projects off (and down) to a great start.

The best part? There's no need to look elsewhere for additional application support because they already know everything there is to know about all aspects of creation, upkeep, and maintenance in order to get your project up and running smoothly!

Roles and Responsibilities of a Web Developer

Entry-level web developers generally maintain, troubleshoot, or build websites, drawing on their programming and graphic design skills and knowledge. Depending on the job, web developers can specialize in either front-end development, which involves designing sites and producing content or back-end development, which involves writing code to make site functions work.

Entry-level and freelance Web developers may sometimes be able to get by on only HTML and CSS skills, but more advanced positions typically require knowledge of more sophisticated programming languages, such as Javascript, Python, and Ruby.

Generally, Web developers specialize in writing lines of code, using various programming languages that differ depending on the task at hand and the platform on which they are working. Web Developers are usually found communicating with clients, planning the web layout, compiling the code to implement the site's functionality, and creating or adding verbal or visual content to the coding structure.

Should you pursue a career in Web Development?

If you know a programming language and you have database experience, then there is nothing stopping you from landing a web development career, it will only grow as web development jobs are an excellent gateway into several other exciting technical careers.

There are certain qualities about a web development career, like the job availability and the basic salary, which makes the choice an ideal one for someone looking for a job with security and high earnings. Those considering how to be a web developer are sure to find the relatively high median salary inspiring.

As discussed above, several career paths can take place in the Web development scope, including Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack Web Developer, as well as language-specific roles like Python, Ruby, and Java developer.

The web developer job requires using various code languages to create websites that are functional, usable, and visually attractive, as well as meeting other project specifications.

How to pursue a career in Web Development?

If you are looking to learn about Web Developer skills and jobs for the first time, it is recommended that you acquire valuable programming and database skills that you can apply for a career in web development across a range of industries, or pursue an advanced degree.

While front-end, back-end, full-stack, and other web development jobs all broadly describe the various roles that web developers may perform in a business, there are all sorts of other job titles you will see either that are tied directly into those roles, or that involve using web development skills in some other way.

You do not have to be a technical wizard or have an endless list of formal qualifications; a web developer career is very much within reach if you are enthusiastic about web development and are ready to learn. If you truly want to learn how to be a web developer, you will need to structure your education and practice with real-world projects.

How to Become a Web Developer?

To become a Web Developer, you will have to learn related and relevant web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, popular content management systems, and web frameworks. You will need to learn from an ever-growing array of tools and technologies to understand how to create more dynamic & interactive websites to increase your web development scope.

Did you know that from the simplest, static webpages, to social media platforms and apps, to eCommerce websites, to content management systems (CMS); all of the tools that we use through the web every day were built by web developers.

Some choose certification programs or web development courses online instead, but professionals looking for profitable positions should get an associate's degree or bachelor's in web development, computer technology, computer science, or similar fields.

Take a free HTML online course, or sign up for a specialized Advanced Professional Certificate in Web Development, a multi-course specialty designed to launch your career in this exciting, profitable field. Learn about the latest web developer skills and online web development courses, including accelerated online courses on web programming that will aid you in how to be a web developer.

Where to learn these Web Development Skills?

You can learn these skills on your own with online Web Development courses or even YouTube videos as there is no dearth of learning materials on the Internet if you're working towards a career in this field, but self-learning through resources like youtube lacks the structure required for a stable web developer career.

These free resources might give you exposure to interesting content and that's a plus, but if you're dead set on learning web development skills from either a beginner or intermediate level, we recommend going through one of the countless Best Web Development courses available on platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning.

These platforms offer an added benefit: they provide in-depth coverage of this topic while allowing their students to receive a certificate of completion upon finishing the Best Web Development courses!

For your convenience, we have handpicked several courses from which you can choose which one is most suitable for learning web developer skills and improving your web development scope.