How to become Full Stack Developer in 2022: A Complete Guide

The growing opportunities in the tech domain are fueling the enthusiasts to secure a highly recognized job role. Among all, Full Stack Developer is the most go-to choice profession in the world. A career with a high pay scale and exposure to work in multiple fields of web development.

The demand for Full Stack developers is rising tremendously not just in India but worldwide. If you dream to make your space for such a high profile, then here’s the complete guide on how to become a Full stack developer in 2022.

Let’s walk you through a step-by-step guide to kickstart your career in Full Stack Development.

Chapter 1: Career as Full Stack Developer

This Section is going to give you all the ultimate know-how for the below questions.

What is Full Stack development?
Who is a Full Stack Developer?
What does Full Stack Developer do?
What is the salary of a Full Stack developer?

The answer to these questions is going to act as your mentor for a career in web development.

Stay tuned to break into the first step!

What is Full Stack Development?

The concept of Full Stack Development is based on two domains: Front end and Back end development. As the name suggests, Front end development is the visually appealing interface of the website or web application where visitors interact. It includes elements like theme color, graphics, forms, buttons, and so on. Since the front end is designed for the target audience, it is known as client-side development.

The back end consists of all the comprehensive logic and coding that helps the website run faster, respond quickly, and enhance the user’s browsing experience. The back end is the internal architecture consisting of the logical infrastructure and data storage of the site. So, it is known as Server-side development.

A career in Full Stack Development gives the enthusiasts a 360-degree experience of a web project from start to finish plus recognition for the whole project.

Who is a Full Stack Developer?

A Full Stack Developer onboards a company’s vision and develops a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the form of a website or web application. Full Stack Developer works on all aspects of the front end and back end while managing the database to store, retrieve and calculate results for the end-user.

Full Stack Developer is popularly known as a T shape person who is specialized in one technology while being also a master of multiple programming languages and tools. This helps a full stack developer to work in all web development fields.

There is so much demand for such an experienced generalist in the IT industry especially in top tech companies like FAANG due to their ability to perform a broad set of responsibilities.

What are the Full Stack Developer roles?

A Full Stack Developer performs a broad spectrum of roles and is widely experienced in taking the success of the company to the next level.

Work from concept ideation to the final launch of a project (even ahead).
Ensure all technical concerns by tackling both disciplines of the front end and back end of the website or application.
Implement the breadth of experience across technology and choose the best that suits a specific project.
Ensure that the website is equally responsive on all devices known as Cross-Platform Optimization.
Keep testing the system and debug if required to maintain consistent efficiency.
Try and test new technologies to increase the performance of the project.

Now, a question pops up here, why do companies hire full-stack developers instead of hiring a team of front-end developers and back-end developers, after all, a team of specialists can better accomplish a project? The answer lies in the coming points.

Why do companies hire Full Stack Developers?

1. Profitable

Companies wisely invest in human resources to streamline the process and to get better output at minimum cost. IT companies prefer one multi-developer rather than having many developers on a project. This reduces operational cost and development speed.

The emerging tech startups are not willing to hire a developers team. They either hire a full stack developer to manage all the tech concerns or work with a freelance full stack developer on a contractual basis. This gives them a reach to a wide array of talent while being light budget.

2. Vast experience

Full Stack developers are considered top-of-the-line engineers due to their multi-domain expertise in the front end, back end development, database management, testing, debugging, and so on.

Their experience in vital technical and management skills gives them an advantage over the other developers. Full Stack developers are updated with the market status and handle a wide area of technical concerns for the company.

3. Project responsibility

Since full stack developers work on the entire project from ideation to final presentation, they are highly responsible for accomplishing goals. Unlike other developers whose tasks are pre-defined don’t look at other aspects of the project. Here, as the task is divided between individuals so it is difficult to track the responsiveness of each member.

Full-stack developers are concerned with the project and can go even the extra mile to make it successful. As one person is handling all the aspects so it is convenient to maintain proper communication in the company.

4. Management skills

Full Stack Developers are not only proficient with a programming language but also work with an entrepreneurial spirit. They are known for their ability to identify and solve problems creatively and bug-free.

As responsible for the overall project, they communicate with other departments to better understand the goal of the project. Their technical and project management skills help in creating an end-to-end solution for the company.

5. Better output

A Full stack developer takes care of the project with full dedication and coordinates with the other members. It increases efficiency in the workflow and takes less time in achieving the goal.

In the case of a bigger team, there is a chance of chaos in streamlining the workflow. If the coordination breaks among developers, it leads to a loss for the company.

(Infographic: summarize the above points)

The above points gave you a clear idea of why Full Stack developers are more in demand than a team of specialized developers. Companies hire full stack developers due to their flexibility of holding multiple job titles. Some of the common positions are listed below.

Back end developer
Front end developer
Full Stack developer
Software development engineer
Junior Full Stack developer
Senior Full Stack developer
Technical consultant

Full Stack developer salary in India

Ultimately, knowing a career in numbers seems like actual worth.

According to Indeed, the average Full Stack developer salary in India is INR 7,56,155 per year.

The average salary of a Full stack developer in the US is $1,03,826 plus a $4200 cash bonus per year.

Salary of Full Stack Developer: Based on Experience

Salary criteria depend on the number of experienced years. Companies are curious to hire freshers due to their enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

A full stack developer salary in India for freshers is INR 3,75,000 per year
A full-stack developer salary in India with 1-4 years of experience is INR 5,53,006 per year.
A senior full stack developer salary in India with 5-9 years of experience is INR 13,75,689 per year.

Infographic: Summarize above and below points in chart form

Salary of Full Stack Developer: Based on Companies

Tech companies rigorously hire full stack developers to meet their increasing client base.

Tata Consultancy Offers INR 4,52,846 per year
IBM offers INR 6,59,371 per year
Accenture offers INR 5,30,241 per year
Wipro offers INR 4,20,826 per year
Infosys offers INR 4,24,000 per year

This chapter gives you a holistic view of what a Full Stack Developer’s career looks like and what responsibilities you need to take on your shoulders while handling the company’s technical concerns.

Chapter 2: Understand Fundamentals

We have glanced at the career as a full stack developer and why this profile is high on demand in the tech industry worldwide.

Now, to make you more aware of technical details, this section will give you a clear understanding of what skills, language, and technologies are to be learned to get on the roadmap to a career in full-stack development.

Let’s get straight into the skills you must acquire!

7 important Full Stack developer skills

(Infographic: summarize the below points)

1. Programming languages

A developer’s foremost strength is the ability to write clear and data-driven codes. In other words, you need to be a code wizard.

Now, in the case of a full stack developer, they are the expert of not only one language but a must-have experience of different sets of other programming languages. Front-end languages like HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Back end languages like Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, and so on.

2. Libraries and frameworks

A library is a collection of a pre-written set of reusable functions for the development of computer programs while a Framework is a collection of libraries that forms the infrastructure of the project.

Libraries and frameworks are prewritten codes by other programmers based on a set of rules. These are bug-free, save time and cost for other developers to achieve productivity while working on a project.

A full stack developer needs to be well versed with different libraries and frameworks for front end and back end development together with programming languages to build a digital solution.

3. Testing & debugging

Testing is performed to check if code contains errors whereas debugging is done to locate and fix these errors. Testing and debugging are important to run the code systematically by fixing all the flaws in a web project.

Since a full stack developer works on all the aspects of the project, there is always a hidden risk for defects while launching the project. So a full stack developer must have the skills to analyze even minor bugs in the code and remove them to ensure the quality of the website or software.

4. Version control system

Program development is an intensive process, it includes writing a source code with lots of edits or changes by a developer or group of developers.

It is essential to track down all the modifications done in the source code in order to retrieve them whenever required. The version Control system provides protection against any system crash or data loss.

As a full stack developer working on multiple facets of a project and sometimes onboard other developers to delegate the tasks. In that case, they must choose the right VCS among Local, Centralized, and decentralized VCS as per project requirements and to avoid data crashes.

5. Problem-solving skills

As a full-stack developer, you have to manage multiple roles simultaneously. So, it’s important to have attention to detail on every task of the project.

Full-stack developers work on creating solutions for the problems the company is trying to address. This broadens your perspective and develops your analytical thinking towards complex issues.

6. Design skills

Solving a problem with an attractive, easy to interact user interface makes a full stack developer ahead in demand.

Developers majorly work around:

High-level design: It involves building system architecture, design database, and prototype of the website and software.
Low-level design: It focuses on the user interface and gives the high-level design a detailed view. Low-level design is done after High level.

7. Project management skills

A person working on multiple domains must have management skills to accomplish the goal. Full Stack Developer coordinates a project from scratch to finish. So, they must have communication skills, interpersonal skills, and motivational skills.

The above points demonstrate the overall skill set of a full stack developer. Now let’s categorize the technical fundamentals based on Front end and

back end development skills, programming languages and tools to be learned to get started with your preparations.

Front end Development

Front-end development involves creating an attractive, easy-to-use interface for websites and web applications. Below are the skills required, programming languages, and tools to be used to make the client-side interface.

Front end development skills

Ability to create a responsive design
Experience with content management systems
Experience with Object-oriented programming
Proficient front end programming language

Programming languages

HTML: Derived by Hypertext Markup Language, it is used to give a structure to a web page. Using HTML, developers can design the different elements of a webpage like content, paragraph, images, lists, tables, and so on.

CSS: It is pronounced as Cascading Style Sheet, used to enhance the visual appearance of a web page. CSS code shapes the elements of the webpage more presentable by dropping some colors, font style, size, spacing, background, and many more.

Javascript: It is a scripting language used to insert some complex features on the web page and give it a live effect. It offers features like animated graphics, content updates, interactive maps, and so on.

Front end technologies

CSS toolkit: It is an extensive collection of the latest technologies for front-end development like HTML5, CSS3, and SASS. The toolkit makes a web project mobile-friendly with responsive design and semantic markup.

Angular JS: It’s an open-source framework used to develop dynamic web applications. AngularJS is based on HTML & Javascript. It converts static HTML into Dynamic HTML.

ReactJS: It provides efficiency in building single-page applications and helps in improving communication between the client & server-side.

Foundation: It is an open-source framework that helps in building responsive websites, apps for any device. Foundation consists of code snippets that are semantic, readable, flexible, and customizable.

Material UI: An open-source framework to develop a high-quality digital experience with fonts and graphics. It provides bold and crisp designs through extra elements like cast shadow and reflecting light.

jQuery: It is a JavaScript library that represents all the elements of a webpage in a tree structure. jQuery simplifies the syntax to perform the task easily.

Infographic: A hierarchical type image

Back end development

The back end development involves creating a workable infrastructure for a website or application. It also collects, stores, and retrieves data from database systems. Let’s dive straight into the back end development skills you need to master in upcoming years.

Back end development skills

Detailed attention to a project statement.
Basic exposure to front end technologies
Develop functional design in database management.
Handle an experience of testing and debugging.
REST API and Low-Level Design to support the overall project.

Back end languages

PHP: It stands for Hypertext Pre-processor. PHP is a server-side scripting language used to develop websites & applications. It can build a better static & dynamic website.

Python: Python is a high-level programming language used to achieve multiple goals from machine learning to website creation, software testing, automating tasks, and conducting data analysis.

Java: Java is the most popular programming language used as a computer program for developing android apps, software and websites in a fast, secure, and reliable way.

Back end technologies

Django: It is an open-source Python web framework. Django is designed to help developers save time and build a secure and maintainable website.

Spring: Spring is a Java framework that offers comprehensive infrastructure support for developing web applications. It makes Java programming faster, simple, and secure for everyone.

Spring Boot: Spring Boot is a tool built on top of the spring framework. It is popularly known for its autoconfiguration to create a standalone application.

NodeJS: It is an open-source environment that runs on various platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, and so on. NodeJS can create dynamic page content, collect data and perform various actions on the database.

ExpressJS: It is a NodeJs framework used to easily design web applications in less time and run on the browser.

Hibernate: It is an open-source Java framework to simplify the application development to interact with the database.

Mangoose: It is a library for MongoDB and NodeJS. Mongoose manages relationship data and provides its validation whenever required.

Database management technologies

MYSQL: MySQL is a relational database management system used to collect, modify and retrieve data in tabular form. It helps in managing a large chunk of data and processing it, to obtain results.

MongoDB: MongoDB is an open-source NoSQL database management system. Unlike relational databases, it is a document-oriented database and stores information in a documented form.

DynamoDB: It is an Amazon Web Service database system. It’s a NoSQL database capable of collecting and retrieving a large amount of data and managing a load of website traffic by maintaining high performance.

Types of the Technology Stacks

Stack is a collection of libraries and frameworks used for front end, back end, and database management.

1. MEAN STACK

It is a Javascript-based collection of technologies. It consists of one Front end tool and three back-end tools.

MEAN stack derived from:

MongoDB: A NoSQL database used for back-end development to store, modify and retrieve data.

ExpressJS: A framework built on NodeJS used for back-end purposes make web applications easier to manage.

AngularJS: A front-end-based Javascript framework to create web pages using HTML language.

NodeJS: Back-end development language helps in running code efficiently on external browsers.

2. MERN STACK

It is another widely used stack framework to build applications. It includes a high-end ReactJS tool for front-end development.

ReactJS is a JavaScript library to build the user interface. It is used to build multiple pages and feature-rich applications.

Market Overview

Till now you got the complete overview of Full Stack development skills and technologies. Let’s have a look at the market status to get a real picture of the most preferred technologies used by full-stack developers worldwide.

Stackoverflow survey 2021 shows Javascript is the most commonly used programming language for 64.96% of developers worldwide. The list continues with HTML & CSS holding 2nd preference.

For the web framework category, React.js is on the top of the podium with 40.14% developers as its regular users.

MySQL is the preference of 50.18% of developers when talking about Database management systems.

Infographic: A visual representation of the above points

It’s a time to wrap up the fundamentals and look forward to implement what we’ve learned from this chapter. Let’s see how you can take forward steps to master the art of full-stack development.

Chapter 3: Beginners Roadmap

Knowing fundamentals is a great way to identify the structure of a full stack development course you’re going to take in the upcoming time.

But how to identify your needs and strategize your preparation as a beginner? This section is going to give you an ultimate full-stack developer roadmap you can follow to ease up the process of starting over.

Identify your goal and timeline

Set your goal before hitting the first step towards your career as a full stack developer. It will make you aware of the technologies you should learn. Your goal could be like:

Work in a top tech company
Become a freelance developer
Want to develop your own website/application
To be a tech consultant for the organizations

Now, how much time are you willing to dedicate before hitting your first income as a full stack developer? You must glance at these points to clear up your vision.

If you’re a working professional then better to go with a part-time strategy.
If you’re a student or an enthusiast then go for full-time preparations.

With a part-time schedule, you can learn full stack development in 6 months. While full-time preparation will take just 3 months.

After the technical aspect, you should look out for ways to implement your skills in real-time by creating small projects.

Learn programming languages

A roadmap infographic

Select your learning format

Assume your level, needs, financial capabilities and select the right learning source. These are crucial for your learning process and to achieve the best possible results.

Here are the most common learning sources, have a look and interrelate them with your needs.

1. Coding Bootcamps

Coding bootcamps are highly intensive short-term and live courses that offer you the latest training for skill development.

Bootcamps help you gain technical and practical skills with real-time implementation. It’s a quick and proficient way to learn full-stack development for absolute newcomers as well as people with career gaps.

The duration of coding bootcamps is between 3 to 6 months and is more cost-friendly than a 4 years degree program. Bootcamps provide options of part-time, full-time, virtual training, and in-person bootcamps.

If you’re a passionate tech enthusiast, make sure to explore Bootcamp by PrepForTech which dives you into all the most demanding full stack developer skills, programming languages, latest tools, and technologies.

2. Online Courses

If live training programs are not your priority and you want flexible learning hours then you can opt for online courses.

You’ll get access to pre-recorded sessions, additional resources, and a FAQ section to post your queries. These self-guided courses will help you learn technical aspects like programming languages, libraries, frameworks, etc. with certificates to boost your profile.

You can explore the most popular online platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and EDX at a satisfactory cost or even free. Likewise, there are private organizations offering well-structured online courses with access to their community groups to solve queries and build networks.

3. Books and Online resources

If you’re still figuring out and hesitant with paid courses or bootcamps then free online resources are your option. Stackflow says, 60% of developers learned coding from online resources at a very early age.

Although, books in the tech industry are not considered a reliable source. The latest technologies failed to get accommodated in long back published books.

Here, you can strategically plan your preparation by referring to online resources like Youtube videos to know the latest online technologies and learn selectively from books. You need to be careful in what you’re learning is relevant for present and future innovation.

4. Computer degree

Four years degree program is a great way to set a strong theoretical and practical base in stack development. This option is open for those yet to pursue an undergraduate program. As per the Stack overflow survey, 65% of developers hold Bachelor’s degree in Computers to create a base in development.

If you’re a non-graduate and have the capacity to enroll in a degree program then make it a target to focus on learning the latest technologies. The main course structure is outdated to be considered relevant for their application at present.

Chapter 4: Intermediate and Advance phase

After completing the beginner’s roadmap, you’ll reach the Intermediate step. It is all about building projects and leveling up your portfolio.

Advance Stage is an ultimate goal of a developer to make a website and web applications to enable them on the internet smoothly without any glitch.

Let’s see how you can achieve these two phases and become a job-ready developer.

1. Build Projects

A full-stack developer is an experience-oriented career. The more you develop the right skillset the higher the chances of you getting hired.

Building projects helps in securing knowledge gained from education, courses, and boot camps. It retains your fundamental learning through practice.

Working on small real scenario-based projects is a smart choice to explore your strengths and work on weaknesses. Stay aware of the latest technologies and leverage the advantage to work around them.

Here are 7 ReactJS project ideas for you to work on:

Social media app
E-commerce app
Real-time chat app
To-do list app
Calculator
Meme generator
Personal blog

Don’t forget to create your portfolio on GitHub to showcase your work. It enables recruiters to check your proficiency for the full stack developer role.

2. Testing

Testing is an integral step after a rigorous coding process to ensure accuracy and achieve results.

Testing is done with three purposes:

Device and browser response: One of the purposes of testing is to check the website or application working on multiple devices and screens. This is to ensure the best experience for the users in assessing the application anywhere. Browser testing is done to ensure the project runs on different browsers to access a large set of audiences. It attracts huge traffic from the internet.

Automation testing: It checks the overall performance of the website and application. Different elements on the website are created to perform their specific functions like click buttons to redirect on other pages, forms to collect data, a chatbot to interact with visitors, and so on.

Automated testing uses technologies to assess the working of the project from the perspective of the end-user. Some of the most widely used automation testing tools are, Avo Assure, Kobiton, Test rigor, Subject7, etc.

Debugging and error reporting: Bugs are more likely to appear in codes to hinder project performance. Many tools are used nowadays to detect the availability of bugs in the project and report them to the developers. Bug reports are available vis different mediums such as Slack, teams, discord, email, and so on.

The most common bug testing tools are Clickup, SpiraTeam, Bugherd, Userback, Zoho, etc.

3. Deployment & DevOps

The role of a full stack developer is not only limited to creating websites or web applications, but also delivering them to users. It means to deploy your project on a public server and make it live on the internet.

Deployment is an application delivery process that involves Domain and Hosting integration.

DevOps is a combined practice of developer and operations. Developers create applications and Operations to maintain their stability.

Full-stack developers look after both tasks which are to create web projects, deploy them on the internet and operate for better speed and user experience.

Chapter 5: Be a job-ready developer

The final chapter is all about making you an industry-ready developer.

The knowledge you’ve gained through full stack development courses and building projects needs to be marketed.

The essence of learning makes sense only when you’re able to communicate it to the recruiters.

The steps coming ahead will guide you through the process.

1. Practical Exposure

Having practical experience is critical in securing a full stack developer role in top tech companies.

Internships help you stay aware of the latest technologies and market status. A great way to work under the mentorship of industry experts.

If you’re occupied in your current job and want a balance between job and passion, then taking freelance projects works out best. The projects will give you an opportunity to work in various domains.

These steps will boost your portfolio and make you stand ahead in the competitive job market.

2. Interview Preparation

The recruitment process in top tech companies is rigorous, especially in product-based companies.

The 5 stage recruitment involves resume shortlisting, exploratory calls, technical rounds, and HR interviews.

A multi-level process verifies a candidate’s knowledge, skills, personality, and experience. If you’re technically experienced with analytical skills then it’s time to start preparing for the interview.

Here we came at the end of the Full-stack developer roadmap but your journey starts now. It is very clear that the preparation is going to be very intense with programming, technologies, and their implementation in the real world. With patience, perseverance, and the right strategy, your real roadmap is going to be much easier.

If you’re reading this it means you’re curious about full stack development and aspiring to get your dream job in top tech companies. So make sure to check out PreForTech coding and interview Bootcamp programs to embark on your passion.