As a software engineering student at the Flatiron school, I have learned more programming concepts and knowledge in my first month compared to how much I imagined I would learn. Early in the program, I realized one of the most important decisions I would have to make would come down to whether I would want to become a front end or back end developer. Front end developers focus on what users are able to see on the screen and back end developers are in charge of building and maintaining the infrastructure that supports it. The aim of this blog post is the break down the differences between the two roles and highlight the benefits and cons of both sides to help other aspiring developers “pick a side”.
Front end developers
Front end developers design and construct all the components on the browser. Often referred to as the client side, the front end use a combination of technologies listed above (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) so that user can see and interact with the web application. HTML provides the overall design of the webpage, CSS allows developers to style their applications to make them more attractive and interactive, and Javascript is used to the dynamic elements. The average salary of a front end developer in New York City on Glassdoor in 2020 is $89,044.
The primary focus of the user interface is to ensure that the sites information is easy to see in an efficient and relevant matter. Front end developers use their skills to create websites that can be navigated easily, appealing to users visually, and have useful features that are intuitive. These features can also include elements on the webpage, such as buttons, menus, pages, links, graphics, and more. These developers constantly face the challenge of changing front end technologies and therefore, they need to be constantly aware of how the field is developing. For example, Flutter, a programing language used to create apps for smartphones, has grown in popularity due to the increase in the use of apps that are used on mobile devices.
Back end developers
Back end developers are responsible for the server side of the application and the integration of all the features and components from the front end of the website. This side of the application deals with all the logic and that give a response to to the requests. This “behind-the-scenes” functionality of applications connect the webpage to the database, manages connections, and responsible for the application itself. The responsibilities of a back end developer can include writing APIs, writing program that alters specific databases, create libraries, and much more. The average salary of a back end developer in New York City on Glassdoor in 2020 is $112,693.
Backend development can be either object oriented (OOP) or functional. Object oriented programs execute statements in a specific order and popular backend languages are Java, .Net, and Python. Functional programming is more “action” based and uses declarative language (order of statements does not matter). It is often used for data science, and popular languages are SQL, F#, and R.
Full Stack developers
A full stack web developer is a programmer who is capable of developing both the client and server software. These people should know how to program browsers, servers, and databases. Therefore, these developers utilize a combination of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and one or more back end languages (most specialize in one back end language, such as Ruby, PHP, or Python). In addition, full stack developers experience easier employment, higher salaries, and more opportunities of advancement opposed to front/back end programmers. The average salary of a full stack developer in New York City on Glassdoor in 2020 is $115,578.
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