Full-stack developers continue to be hot property across firms
We wrote several months ago that full-stack developers are in big demand. We went back to industry to check how the demand is now, and we found that demand has only become stronger, both in India and the world.
Pravin Yashwant Pawar, assistant professor of computer science at BITS Pilani’s Work Integrated Learning Programmes division, says full-stack developer roles have become one of the most sought after because of the tremendous growth potential and attractive pay-scales. “A survey conducted last year by popular online developer community platform Stack Overflow found that 50% of the respondents to the survey were terming themselves as full-stack developers. One can see over 10,000 job openings on popular portals for job hunters like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Naukri and the like for fullstack skills for a wide range of experience levels,” he says.
What exactly is a full-stack developer? Ed-tech platform upGrad’s MD & co-founder Mayank Kumar says full-stack developers are proficient in both front-end and back-end development, and are also experts at a variety of coding niches – from databases to graphic design and to UI/UX management. Think of the backend as the plumbing of the website or app you are using that deals with data storage and processing, and the front end as the interface you interact with. It’s this versatility and ability to work on different aspects of web or app development that makes them so sought after.
When it comes to programming languages to learn, Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder of Great Learning, says a full-stack developer needs to have in-depth knowledge of at least one programming language. “Java and Python are the most widely used programming languages. Object oriented programming, data structures, algorithms, database design, and server-side framework are crucial from a backend software development point of view. HTML, CSS, Javascript and AngularJS/ ReactJS from a front-end point of view. Apart from this, cloud computing fundamentals, Python basics, and SQL are highly sought after in the market today,” he says.
Apart from programming languages and software developer tools, there are other factors that are equally important when it comes to becoming a successful full-stack developer, says Skandh Gupta, senior software engineer at Optum Global Solutions. “Two personal characteristics that always top my mind are curiosity and zeal to learn. One should always focus on two questions: Why? and How? Curiosity helps you gain knowledge of technologies and how the application functions. The question “Why?” to every single step – from choosing tech to designing the application – gives deep knowledge of the flow of the application, and “How?” helps you gain insight on all parts of the application, like front-end, back-end, web architecture to designing applications, servers, databases and test and debug. Full-stack engineers know best practices of engineering excellence and where to apply what,” he says.
Aspiring full-stack developers do need to be aware of a few potential hurdles during their journey though, says Girish Dhanakshirur, IBM distinguished engineer & CTO of IBM India Software Labs. And all of them relate to the rapid changes that take place in the tech world. “First, rapid innovation in browser and server technologies leads to languages and frameworks evolving quickly, hence they must constantly keep their skills current across several technologies. Second, as open-source libraries make up almost all full-stack frameworks, there will be instances when they are not updated. Full-stack developers should be willing to debug and update such libraries when bugs are found. Finally, at times, as part of transitions, developers will end up inheriting projects and source code developed in a language and framework different from the one they are familiar with. In such circumstances, full-stack developers should be able to skill up and switch to deliver on the projects. ”