Top Full Stack Developer Skills For 2023

We’re in a golden era of digital media, and every brand and company knows it. Nearly every piece of media is consumed digitally today, and companies are aware of the critical role web developers play in gaining customers, maintaining them, and staying relevant.

Full stack developers have the perfect set of versatile skills to make them uniquely appealing to big businesses. With an understanding of frontend and backend development, a full stack developer can fill the ever-expanding need for competent web developers.

Whether you plan to kick off your career with an intense coding bootcamp or by pursuing a degree in computer science or web development, you’ll need plenty of skills to succeed in this role. We’ll walk you through what a full stack developer does, the skills they need, and how you can break into this lucrative career.

What Does A Full Stack Developer Do?

Full stack developers are the most versatile web development professionals. There are three categories that a web developer generally falls into. Before we dive into that, let’s cover what web development means.

Web development refers to the tasks associated with building websites for hosting via the internet or intranet. There are many complex tasks involved in this process, but to put it simply, web developers create everything associated with websites to make them fully functional for users and easily accessible for developers to go back in and update them and fix issues going forward.

Three types of professionals are generally involved with web development; backend, front end, and full stack developers. As the name implies, a full stack developer hands both front and backend development and must have complete knowledge of each.

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What Skills Does A Full Stack Developer Need?

Since a full stack developer needs to be proficient in frontend and backend development, they need a wide range of technical skills. Frontend development involves all functions of a website that a client can interact with, while backend development refers to the server side of things.

As a full stack developer, you’ll be expected to deal with everything involved in setting up and maintaining a website. Full stack developers must understand all layers of web development and be proficient in creating and maintaining these layers.

To do this, you’ll need to be skilled in multiple computer languages and programs and some soft skills. Let’s discuss in more detail the skills required to be successful as a full stack developer.

Computer Languages

Since full stack developers are responsible for creating the front and backend of a website, they need to be proficient in all relevant computer languages. This generally includes HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

HTML is necessary for adding web content and developing the structure of web pages. With CSS, you’ll be able to design and style the website to match the business’s needs and vision.

Javascript has a wide variety of features that full stack developers rely on for creating websites, such as functions, prototypes, higher-order event delegation, and closure, so knowledge of this tool is non-negotiable.

HTML, CSS, and Javascript are primarily for frontend development, and a full stack developer needs to have the proper knowledge of backend development languages.

This generally includes but isn’t limited to, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Java. Your coding skills need to be top-tier to succeed in this role, and full stack developers need to keep up with their coding knowledge as new frameworks, libraries, and tools are launched.

Web Architecture

Since full stack developers are entrusted with creating the front and backend of a website from scratch, they need to be highly skilled in web architecture. Web architecture is essentially the conceptual structure of websites.

Web architecture involves ensuring all website levels are stacked properly and running efficiently. You must know how to properly structure the code, categorize the files, structure data in databases, and perform other necessary computational tasks.

Database Storage

Every web application requires a database for storing data to ensure developers can later access the data. A full stack developer needs to understand all the ins and outs of databases, including how to design and maintain a database and manipulate queries.

To be efficient in their role, full stack developers must understand NoSQL databases, web storage, and relational/non-relational data characteristics.

Design Skills

Person outlining a design on white paper

The frontend aspect of a full stack developer’s job requires them to have decent design skills. No one will visit a website that’s difficult to navigate or unappealing. You must create a website that functions well and looks appealing to users.

A website that’s been properly designed will attract and retain more users, so this skill is essential. Full stack developers should have knowledge of basic design principles regarding UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) design, prototypes, and scalability.

Soft Skills

While a strong grasp of technical skills is essential for full stack developers, it’s equally important for someone in this role to have a solid set of soft skills. You must have the ability to think analytically, be patient, pay attention to detail, be self-motivated, and possess excellent time management skills.

Just like technical skills, many of these soft skills can be taught. You can always learn to be more patient or structure your time better, so don’t be discouraged if you haven’t mastered the soft skills yet.

How To Become A Full Stack Developer

Becoming a full stack developer requires mastery of the skillsets we discussed. Many people choose to go to college to learn the necessary skills. A bachelor’s degree in computer science or web development is a common path to becoming a full stack developer.

However, that isn’t the only option. You could also try teaching yourself some of the skills needed for this position. Some aspects of computing language, web architecture and other skills will be too complex to teach yourself. When you reach this stage in your learning, an excellent option is to attend a coding bootcamp. These short, intensive programs will teach you what you need to know and provide opportunities to get started in your field.

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Start On Your Path As A Full Stack Developer With Coding Bootcamp

If you’re ready to begin the journey necessary to becoming a full stack developer, then you should consider signing up with our coding bootcamp. Our short, intensive courses will teach you everything you need to know while providing invaluable networking opportunities, resume preparation, and more!