How to Become a Web Developer - Rahul Loyal Dalmas

 

How to Become a Web Developer 

What is web development?

Web development is the process of building websites and applications for the internet, or for a private network known as an intranet. Web development is not concerned with the design of a website; rather, it’s all about the coding and programming that powers the website’s functionality.

From the most simple, static web pages to social media platforms and apps, from e-commerce websites to content management systems (CMS)—all the tools we use via the internet on a daily basis have been built by developers.

Web development vs software engineering

A hurdle to those wondering how to become a web developer is all of the jargon and buzzwords—including for the role itself! Some people introduce themselves as software engineers, others web developers, and others software developers! Are there major differences between them?

While generally software engineers tend to work more on operating systems and web developers on internet-based technologies, the reality is a little bit different. Both roles share programming languages and technologies, and as a result which term is used can depend on the location, the industry, and the company.

To give you a rough sense of the fluctuating popularity of these terms, this graph from Google Ngram Viewer charts the evolution in popularity of the three terms as they’ve appeared in books:

What does a web developer do?

The role of the web developer is to build and maintain websites. Web developers can work in-house or freelance, and the specific tasks and responsibilities involved will vary depending on what kind they’ll be. If you want to learn how to become a web developer, you may have to decide whether you’d like to become a frontend, backend, or full-stack developer. Full-stack developers specialize in both the frontend and backend; we’ll go into more detail about what a full-stack developer does later on.

Web developers are responsible for building a product that meets both the client’s needs and those of the customer or end user. Web developers collaborate with stakeholders, clients and designers in order to understand the vision: how should the final website look and function?

A large part of web development also revolves around identifying and fixing bugs in order to constantly optimize and improve a website or system. Web developers are therefore keen problem solvers, regularly coming up with solutions and workarounds to keep things running smoothly.