If you are looking into becoming a web developer you may have heard the terms front end, back end, and full-stack – but what do they mean?
Front-end web development, sometimes called client-side development is the act of developing the part of the website that the user (you) can see. A front-end developer creates all of the parts which the user interacts with, from buttons and forms to images and animations – anything you see on the internet was made by a front-end developer.
A front-end developer will either work with a UI/UX designer or is often in charge of the actual design of the website and makes decisions about layout, the format of the information, and ease of access. This is often a challenge, especially with the rise of mobile devices as the webpages have to be made compatible and easy to use on different page shapes and sizes. There are also challenges as different browsers (think Chrome, Firefox, Safari) can display certain aspects of a webpage in different ways or may support different tools.
Front-end developers now also work on the front-end of mobile applications such as Instagram and Facebook too!
Back-end web development – also known as server-side development – is the partner component to front-end web development. Back-end web developers do all of the necessary things that the user does not see. Back-end developers write code that handles things like account creation, login, profile-fetching, profile updates, placing orders, sending emails, and many more things.
Back-end web developers create all of the parts which allow the front-end to be glued together, you may never see their work but they are essential in running a website!
Often the lines between back-end and front-end become blurred – this is where Full Stack Developers come in. They do a combination of front-end and back-end development in order to create a whole website. Generally, these skills take slightly longer to learn and Full Stack Developers will have slightly less in-depth knowledge than front-end or back-end developers.
If you are interested in an excellent (free) course to become a web developer check out The Odin Project here! https://www.theodinproject.com/
They have a discord chat full of people learning web development, who will be more than willing to help you on your web development journey.