How to become a full-stack developer in 2020

Mdiouf
2 min readJul 18, 2020

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Photo by Zan on Unsplash

In this article, we’ll talk about the skills you need to become a full-stack developer in 2020. The web development world is changing fast so you need to adapt and keep an eye on what is happening.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a full-stack developer is 68,000$. This is a sought after skill and if you want to become a full-stack web developer, here are some skills to learn.

The basics: HTML CSS & JavaScript

You need to know the basics of web development. And these basics are HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You need to know how to use these languages to create nice websites that have functionalities. Knowing these languages will give you a good start and help you build good projects to showcase.

If you want to learn about these three languages, here are some websites:

  • Codecademy
  • FreeCodecamp
  • Udemy

Backend: PHP, Node JS and Ruby on Rails

Becoming a full-stack developer means being fluent both in the front-end as well as in the backend. If you are starting out, I recommend learning PHP. Then you can learn Node Js or Ruby On Rails.

Let’s see when these languages are most suitable:

PHP is a server-side language that powers most of the top websites in the world. In fact, 80% of all the websites in the world use PHP. Some of those websites include:

  • Yahoo,
  • Facebook,
  • WordPress,
  • Wikipedia,
  • Canva

If you want to learn PHP, then here’s a course that would help you do so.

Ruby on Rails is a framework of the Ruby language. It helps you build web applications in a short amount of time.

Ruby on Rails powers websites like Shopify and Twitter. And it’s also preferred by startups because Rails allows you to develop an app very quickly.

Node JS is a Javascript runtime environment that runs in the server. It’s fast and suitable for real-time web applications like chatbots. Today, more and more companies and startups are using it. Some examples include Netflix, LinkedIn, or Paypal.

Depending on your goals, you might choose one between these three. But if you don’t know where to start, choose PHP. You can always decide to learn another language.

Learn a framework: React or Vue JS

React is the most popular front-end framework right now. Vue JS is a popular one as well. You can learn React from platforms like LinkedIn learning or Codecademy.

Being a full-stack web developer means being knowledgable in the front-end and back-end. You need to stick to the process even if it's not easy.

To get good at web development, build the most projects you can, and never stop learning!

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Mdiouf

I am a full-stack developer with a passion for technology and learning new things. Founder of JavaScriptLearned.