Become a Backend Developer in 2021
A few days ago a friend of mine asked me, how do I become a Backend Developer? therefore I tried to write this article to be able to tell a little about the world of “Backend Developer”.
Things you should know people who work as backend developers are known as the best problem solvers, a position where a developer in charge of designing software from the server-side deals with logic and databases using special programming languages. The programming languages used as examples are PHP, Python, NodeJS, Ruby, etc.
Here are the things that you must learn to become a Backend Developer, this article is of course written based on references, and what will be used here are sourced from the https://roadmap.sh/backend website, actually this reference is no longer an open secret for friends who join the community, so just briefly, it can be seen from the following picture:
Very much isn’t it :), Let’s break down and explain each step in the section below
Stage 1: Learn the language
There are many choices in programming languages that can be learned. Such as PHP, Javascript, Go, Java, Ruby, etc. For beginners who have just entered the backend world, I recommend focusing on learning only one language. You can start by learning algorithms, data structures, Design Patterns, and some basic commands in writing programming languages.
Stage 2: Standard Level
Furthermore, at this stage several important things must be mastered by a Backend Developer in general, namely:
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Cloud and basic Operating System Try to learn about the basics of running an operating system, especially Linux because most servers use that operating system. Also understand how to use SSH, VPS, Command-line, Nginx, Apache, etc. All of these things need to be understood because they will be your main weapon is starting to set up an application development environment.
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SQL or NoSQL databases Learn how to create data using a relational database. Before studying this, first understand the basic theory of databases such as keys, indexes, normalization, tuples, etc. I think there are several options tools that you can learn such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB (NoSQL). But if you learn one, the other should be pretty easy.
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Rest API and Auth Method Understand REST and learn how to create a RESTful API, how it works, and also the best practices that need to be implemented regarding performance and security. In the RESTful API, some terms need to be learned, namely the GET and Create, Update, Delete and POST methods. if you use it correctly, it will be a plus in itself. In addition, it is necessary to know how to do fire testing using Postman, one of them. This tool will help you a lot with API testing, especially when you are creating microservices.
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Version Control System One version control system that is widely used is GIT, Git is a version control system (Version Control System) is a software project created by Linus Torvalds. His job is to record every change to the project file that is done by many people or alone. Git is also known as distributed revision control (distributed VCS), where the Git database is stored not only in one place. By using Git everyone involved in coding the project will keep a Git database, making it very easy to manage projects both online and offline. In other words, Git is actually in charge of monitoring all changes that occur to project files, then storing them in the database.
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Web Security After studying the points above, the next most important step is to learn how to secure a website. Web security is one of the knowledge that you must have as a backend developer. Starting from basic knowledge such as authentication, authorization, cryptography to specific things according to the platform we are developing. Discussions about web security can be very long and detailed, but basic knowledge is a good provision to start developing a system.
Stage 3: Advanced Level
At this stage you have mastered and become a backend developer, it will not stop there, to become the next level backend developer you must be able to provide comprehensive solutions related to the needs of a project, able to implement specific solutions by considering cases complex events that occur in the system held by him. Here are the skills you must learn to move up to the advanced level and one step ahead of the average backend developer: 1. Search engine 2. Message Broker 3. Web Socket 4. Containerization and Virtualization 5. scaling
Stage 4: Keep Learning
Once you start learning and practicing, you’re bound to come across things that I didn’t cover in this article. Keep an open mind and keep learning new things. And remember the key is to practice as much as you can. It will look scarier at first and you may feel like you are not grasping anything but that is normal and over time you will feel that you are getting better.