Getting started in backend development

Nathan Luong | December 2, 2022 9

Pre-requisite

Before getting into backend development, make sure to familiarize yourself with the following concept and technologies:

  • VSCode: Most professional software engineers use VSCode as their primary development editor. VSCode comes on top with its endless support and plugins for web dev and especially backend-related work.
  • Python:
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    By survey
    , both Python
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    Flask
    and
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    Django
    are in the Top 10 most popular backend framework. With its beginner-friendly syntax and amazing support from the community, learning Python is the easiest entry to backend development.

Starter Projects

👉 String Reverse REST API (★☆☆☆☆)

Task: Create a RESTFUL API that reverses a string on requests

Purpose: Getting familiar with REST, browsers, servers and local development.

Intermediate Projects

👉 Todo List App (★★☆☆☆)

Task: Create a todo app where users can add, remove, edit and manage todos.

Purpose: Getting familiar with the front-end/ back-end dynamics, as well as front-end Javascript.

Hint: Todos do not need to be stored in a database, a text file on the backend side should work.

👉 Real-time Stock/Crypto Price Monitoring (★★★☆☆)

Task: Create an application where users can monitor real-time stock/crypto prices in USD.

Purpose: Getting familiar with WebSocket, and real-time rendering.

Hint: It's easier to use a front-end framework (like ReactJs) to help with DOM manipulation and real-time UI rendering.

Advanced Projects

👉 Social Media Clone (★★★★☆)

Task: Create a social media clone of choice (Facebook, Instagram, Spotify) that deals with authentication and complex CRUD operations.

Bonus Point 💸: Try containerizing your app and host it on AWS, GCP, or Azure.

Purpose: Consolidate your understanding of authentication, webSocket, and stateful backends. Getting familiar with industry-standard cloud providers.

👉 Some cloud-based software with serious scale (★★★★★)

Congratulation 🎉, if you are at this point, you are a rock-star engineering student. Since most of these projects are local and self-hosted, it would be difficult to practice your backend skills without any actual volume. My suggestion is to start looking into industry-leading technologies, such as Kafka, K8S, etc., as well as mastering one cloud provider (AWS for me).

Thanks for your time! 😄