Getting started as a backend engineer

I get this question at least 3 times every week: “How do I become a backend developer?”

Let me begin by stating that this is 100% my opinion and definitely isn’t a solution that’ll work for everyone, but I’ll try to put it in a way that’ll be helpful to most people.

Which of these people are you?

How would you describe how you’d like your journey to go?

1. [0] Backend engineer with an interest in machine learning/AI
2. [1] Backend engineer with hopes of becoming a full-stack engineer
3. [2] Backend engineer interested in delving deep into the core of programming

0

If you see yourself in this category, you definitely should start with python. I usually advise most people to take this route because you can hardly go wrong.

If you decide to be a full-stack engineer, you will still be fine. You want to delve deeper into programming concepts? You’re still on the right path.

Steps

1. Learn python: If you’re a “youtube” learner, a visual person, I’d say you should take a look at Mosh’s python tutorial on youtube. That should give you a good start. A simple text-based alternative I’d recommend is Tutorialpoint’s python tutorial. After getting the basics, you should solve problems with python to improve your skill. Checkout https://www.101computing.net
2. Get a mentor: Get a mentor. You can easily do that by joining a tech community. If you know no one personally, you can literally go to Twitter and tweet “I need a mentor” and throw in a hashtag “#100daysOfCode”.
3. Version control: That should be git. I mean there are others, but learn git. And learn how to use github. What is git? Ugh… Think of it as a way to keep track of the code you write. A way to go back in time to a version of your code that didn’t have problems. It also helps you to store your code on a platform like github. What is github? Okay, check that out on google! I’ll advise you watch a video on what git is and then checkout this tutorial.
4. Learn SQL: This is the language that no one really talks about but everyone uses. This is how to learn to communicate with databases and how you teach your software applications to do same. Check out w3school’s SQL tutorial. Here’s a book I’ll recommend.
5. Learn to build REST APIs: What are REST APIs? Exactly, you probably should get a mentor at this point! Just kidding 😂. This is what you should be good at building as a backend engineer. REST is a protocol web applications use in communicating and that’s all I’ll say here. I’ll advise that you read a few articles on this or just watch a youtube video and then jump into learning Flask — a python framework for building REST APIs. You should really just take your time and use the documentation but of course you can take watch a youtube video for starters.
6. That’s it. VeRy SiMple. Basics done, time to take a look at ML a bit don’t you think? Here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/. Sign up and choose the ML path. 300 hours! I know it’s hard, but it’ll be worth it.

1

You could go through 0.1 to 0.4 above (points 1 through 3 under the 0 heading) and then learn HTML, CSS, Javascript in that order and that should work fine.

Alternatively, you could start with programming basics with javascript. Once you understand the basics, you can go into building APIs.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of recommendations for this category of people, but I’d say:

1. Learn basics of programming with JavaScript. Check this tutorial out. If you would like to jump straight into something visual before coming to javascript (usually a path that’s risky) you can learn HTML, CSS basics before you start with javascript. I’d recommend w3schools for that approach.
2. Get a mentor
3. Version control: Go to 0.3
4. Sign up to freeCodeCamp and take the backend certification course.
5. If you got a mentor and you’ve been learning javascript, you should’ve somehow gotten some HTML and CSS basics at this point. If you haven’t, you should do that.
6. Learn SQL: You should’ve done some basic SQL too if you’ve come this far. Go to 0.3 above to up your game.
7. You’ve been playing around with JavaScript for a while. It’s time to pick up a frontend framework. Hopefully the frontend certification on freeCodeCamp should help. But feel free to hack together a ReactJS app. Yes I recommend starting with React.

2

I was this type. I started with C because of school and now I’m at Ruby. I won’t put you through such a wicked journey, don’t worry. I recommend you start with C# or Java. Let’s go with C#.

Steps:

1. Learn C#: For basics, I’ll recommend Mosh again. He has a 1 hour C# tutorial that should help. Here’s a great book I recommend after that video.
2. Get a mentor
3. Version control: Go to 0.3
4. Learn SQL: Yup! I’m not repeating that!
5. Dotnet Core: If you’ve come this far, well done! Time to start using a web framework that should help you build powerful web applications but first… I recommend you read on REST APIs and MVC before you start. Once you’re ready. I recommend the documentation here too. But you can get started with a simple tutorial on youtube like I’d do.

Whichever type you are, you probably should read 0 first. One assumption I made while writing this is that you’ll read that first before jumping to whichever one you are. Don’t ask me why 🙃

You should also take some time to learn basic HTML and CSS. I kept missing that in some parts of this article.

Hopefully this gets you started. All the best adventurer!