An Ultimate Guide to Full Stack Development | Software Stack | Advantages |

Hello and welcome back to my article, today we are going to talk about full stack developer. It will excite you or make you curious about why you should make a career in Full Stack development. So, in this article, today, we will look at everything related to Full Stack development. We are going to see what does it mean by Full Stack development? The advantages of becoming a Full Stack developer? We are going to check two examples: I am going to take two examples of a Full Stack developer, what does a Full Stack developer know? And then, I am going to discuss the difference in salaries between a Full Stack developer and a software developer. So, if you are interested in becoming a Full Stack developer, if you are interested in getting the highest paying jobs in software, then read this article till the end.

What is Full Stack Development?

Even though Full Stack Developer has become a common term today, there was a time when an engineer had to write code for the Front-End (UI), Back-End (Code, which connects the Front-End application with the database), as well as design the database. All this compressively is today known as Full Stack Development.

So, Full Stack development is nothing but knowing, how to write a Front-End code (for this we need to know the front-end technologies), how to design user interface, how to create an application where the user can interact with applications. So, after front end development, we need to know the backend development, which is the server-side code that takes care of all the business processes, which takes care of handling all the transactions between the database and the front end. And then, we need to know, how to create a Database, and then how to interact with the database using that code.

Who is a Full Stack Developer?

So, a Full Stack developer is a person, who knows how to program the browser, using JavaScript (or jQuery), Angular JS, React, or Vue. They also know server-side programming like PHP or ASP, .NET, Python, or java, or maybe Node.js. They also know about the databases, for example, SQL database, or MySQL database, or some of the new databases, like MongoDB. A person who knows all these programming languages and databases, and can write a code on Front-End, Back-End, and who can also develop a database, is a Full Stack developer.

Ok, Fine! But do you need to learn all these front-end Technologies? No, first you need to know about a software stack. What is a software stack? A software stack is a group of software components that work together or a group of subsystems that work together to build a complete application.

So, Let's see some of the popular software stacks.

1). LAMP stack: It means you need to know JavaScript, Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.

2). LEMP stack: It means you need to know JavaScript, Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP. Nginx is similar to a web server which is similar to Apache

3). MEAN stack: It means you need to know MongoDB, Express, Angular JavaScript, Node.JS

4). Django stack: which stands for Python, Django, and MySQL.

So, in today's world, you need to pick any one of the stacks in which you can become better so that using it, you can become a full stack developer. If you keep learning all the different Front-End technologies, it is not going to help you.

First, learn anyone of the frontend technology, and then look at the stack, after that learn the back-end coding for the same technology. And then you learn the database technology, which can work with that software. Now that you have learned a complete software stack, which makes you a full stack developer, your chance of getting the highest paying job in the software industry is going to be very high.

So, I will talk about two examples:

One is a Full-Stack web developer with React, and the other one is a Full-Stack web developer with Django.

So, before I tell you about a Full-Stack web developer with React or a Full-Stack web developer with Django. You need to understand that the three front-end technologies, that you need to know as any software engineer is, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

You need to know these three technologies because these technologies are used in any kind of web development. So, all the software stack uses HTML for front-end, which means you need to know it well.

1). If you are a full-stack web developer using React, then what does it mean? It means that on the front-end side, you know how to work with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as React. React is just a set of JavaScript libraries, which helps in making the front-end development faster. On the server-side, within the React you need to know either Express JavaScript, or NodeJS, or a combination of Express and Node JavaScript.

And on the Back-End, you need to know the MongoDB database, now this is also called the MERN stack, which stands for MongoDB, Express, React, and Node JS.

So, when you are becoming a full stack web developer with React. Using React, you need to learn how you are going to build a single page web application. You will need to know, how you can design a responsive web application using React, and then on the server-side, you need to know how you are going to use Express or Node JS to write the CURD operation.

CURD operation stands for creating, update, read, and delete operations from the database. And then you need to know how to handle the restful application. On the database side, you need to know how to work with MongoDB, how to design a database within MongoDB, and how to connect this database using your node JS or Express JS, with the frontend that you designed with the React. That is what will make you a full stack web developer with React.

2). Similarly, if you are a full-stack web developer with Django. Django is a framework that's written using a Python programming language. Django is a set of libraries, which has both front-end codes, as well as back-end code.

The idea behind Django is that it is quick to deliver software using the Django framework, and when you work with Django Framework, you are using it with the front end technologies, you are using it for the server-side coding. And on the database side, either you are using MySQL, or SQL light, or MongoDB, whatever Django can work with.

These were the two different examples of a full stack developer, using either react or Django. There is a much different software stack, you can search them on Google or comment down below, and I will write a separate article on all of them so that you can know, what are the different software stack, under which you can become a full-stack web developer.

Advantages of a Full-Stack Developer

1). They know both client-side programming and server-side programming, which means that you need one software engineer to handle both sides of coding, which makes it easy for a software development project.

2). These programmers can create a prototype rapidly, which is a need for most of the software product companies, and even the services companies.

3). If you are a full-stack developer, then you can also help other team members, who are not full-stack developers. Suppose if there is somebody who is working on the frontend side, and they get stuck with some code, or they are facing a bug. Now you being a full stack developer, can pinpoint the bug and explain it to the frontend developer or the backend developer as required.

4). A full-stack developer reduces the cost of the project. The amount of interaction required for a big project or a complex project is very high. So for companies, this is an important thing, which reduces the cost of the project. This is the reason they are giving a higher salary to full-stack developers.

5). It reduces the time; this is the reason the cost comes down. If there are too many different people working on the same project, then it becomes difficult to communicate and deliver any application on time. So, it drastically reduces the time required for the development.

6). The full-stack developers can switch between front end development and backend development as per the requirement. They may be hired as a full-stack developer but can be working only on backend code, or they are hired as a full stack developer and may be working on the frontend side most of the time. But, when there is a need, and there is a requirement to switch from frontend to backend, a full stack developer can do it with ease, and this is an advantage to the company.

7). They can adapt to new technologies very fast. Technologies using artificial intelligence, or machine learning, or Robotics, or automation, or the capacity of drones or the internet of things, these new technologies require someone who can understand the different ways of using them. And a full-stack developer can do it in a better way, because they have worked in all areas of software development, right from frontend to backend, to deployment, to database, and everything.

So, these were the seven advantages of becoming a Full Stack developer, because of which companies are ready to pay a very high amount of salary to a Full Stack developer. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, do share it with your friends, or colleagues, or anyone who is thinking to pursue a career in Full-Stack development. Also, don’t forget to check out my other articles related to emerging technologies and the required certification courses for them.