How to Become a Web Developer in 2022

Hello, welcome, and in this article am going to show you how to become a Web Developer in 2022. There are numerous companies out there who are ready to pay a large sum of money to have a web developer in their company. You may say in 2022? I say Yes in 2022!. There are also a good number of companies and businesses that require web developers to help create a website that will represent their businesses online.

Before we talk about how to become a web developer, let's quickly look at who a web developer is. If you are ready to sail with me, then let's dive right in

Who is a Web Developer?

A web developer builds World Wide Web applications. In other words, someone who develops or builds websites or web applications is a web developer. The act or process involved in making these websites or web apps is known as Web Development.

There are three kinds of web developers, Front-End Web Developers, Back-End Web Developers, and Full-Stack Web Developers.

Front-End Web Developers

Front-end web developers are involved in making the visible parts (interface) of a website or web app (client-side). What visitors of the website or web app see and interact with is built and maintained by a front-end web developer.

This includes the beautiful designs, animations, form fields that we see. They can also be called client-side web developers.

Back-End Web Developers

Back-end web developers are involved in building the unseen parts of a website or web app (server-side) i.e the server. These guys are lovers of logic, data, technical construction of websites.

Let's say you fill a form in a web app and then receive a notification that the email is already registered. Now you are thinking, how did this website know my email is registered. Well, a back-end web developer figured it out.

Full-Stack Web Developers

These guys do both the work of a front-end web developer and that of a back-end web developer; they basically do everything.

Okay, now you know the three kinds of web developers, I think it's time you decide which one you love most and that one you love most is what you should do. I will be referring to these three guys again, and by then you should have decided.

How To Become a Web Developer?

To become a web developer, there are certain skills or languages that you need to be familiar with. There are languages we use to communicate with computers as web developers and these are the languages you need to learn. There are a lot of languages but you don't need to learn them all.

Most times, it is at this point a lot of beginners mix essentials with inessentials and tend to miss the right path. By now you should already know what kind of web developer you want to be, and following that path is what matters and that is exactly what we will be doing now.

For each of the three kinds of web development, I will show you the languages/skills required and those that are optional, I will also recommend the one you should learn how and where to learn it for free or with a paid plan depending on your budget.

Skills/Languages To Become a Front-End Web Developer

They include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Bootstrap, Tailwind, ReactJS, VueJs, etc. Let\'s analyze where each of them belongs and what they do.

Of the above, there are three basic skills to learn that almost the others require you to know before using them. Follow the order below;

1. Markup Languages

You will agree with me that every website or web app has a web page, and every web page contains content (well-structured content). A markup language is what web developers use to structure content on web pages. Simply put, it is what they (web developers) use to display texts, images, buttons, forms, audios, videos to the clients (visitors of the website).

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is an example of a Markup Language. HTML is the language I recommend you learn as it is most widely used. HTML5 is the latest release of HTML and a lot of companies are making use of HTML5. So you might wanna learn HTML5 as well.

Where do I learn HTML? W3Schools has a very concise tutorial on HTML and HTML5 for free. Check them out. On average, it shouldn't take you more than 3 weeks to learn HTML if you can dedicate at least an hour to studying daily.

2. StyleSheet

As markup languages display texts, buttons, images, etc, stylesheets style these contents and make them look organized and beautiful, very beautiful.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is an example of a StyleSheet and it is what you should learn because it is most widely used and required by companies looking for web developers. CSS3 is the latest release of CSS and lots of websites are making use of its features, it will do you more good if you learn it.

Where do I learn CSS? Again W3Schools has a very concise tutorial on CSS and CSS3 for free. CSS is very easy to learn, it shouldn\'t take you more than a month if you dedicate 1 hour daily to learning it.

3. Scripting Languages

Interactions, behaviors, etc of web pages are made with scripting languages. For Example, when you click a button on a website and then something pops up. A scripting language basically automates task executions.

An example is JavaScript. I will confidently recommend you learn JavaScript. It is widely used in all aspects of development i.e Web Development, Mobile Development, Desktop App Development.

TypeScript is also a great option to learn along with JavaScript.

Where do I learn JavaScript? You can learn JavaScript at W3Schools for free but sincerely that will not be enough. You will need to go wide and as well as have some daily growth activities to get involved with.

A lot of people say JavaScript is hard, honestly, that is as a result of the approach they used. I heard someone say He has been on JavaScript for three years. Learning JavaScript for three years? That must be frustrating.

Don't get me wrong though, learning JavaScript never stops. The same way being a student never stops. But this is about the basics, that's terrible in my opinion. So if you use the wrong approach, you may fall victim to depression, confusion, etc.

Learning JavaScript is tricky but it's not difficult. All you need is to follow the right path and use a good course or tutorial. You may find w3schools difficult to use, so I recommend you use CodeCademy.

CodeCademy gives your projects and exercises to practice with as you learn JavaScript.

Web Frameworks & Libraries

The road-map so far is thus, HTML => CSS => JavaScript. Not HTML => JavaScript => CSS nor JavaScript => CSS => HTML. With the above skills you can build a fully functional static website. Exciting right?

This is the point where you need to build projects with what you've learned. It will help you become better at each of these languages.

You need to follow the order. When you are done with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; then you may wanna consider some frameworks and/or libraries.

There are numerous web frameworks and libraries for CSS and JavaScript out there but have in mind that their primary job is to make coding easier and faster for you. You can learn web frameworks through their documentations for free. Click on any framework or library mentioned below to access their documentation.

CSS Frameworks

Styling a website can take days, weeks, or even months. But with CSS frameworks the duration becomes lesser and the workload becomes easier. CSS frameworks have already built-in style templates that you just need to tap into your HTML. TailwindCSS is a better and popular option Here is a good list of other CSS frameworks.

JavaScript Frameworks/Libraries

Libraries like ReactJs, or frameworks like VueJs should what I'd say you consider learning. ReactJS is widely used, so you should consider learning.

So far the road-map is HTML => CSS => JavaScript => ReactJS. With the above skills you can build a fully functional dynamic website (web application).

Skills To Become A Back-End Web Developer

The languages popularly used for back-end development includes Python, Rust, PHP, Java, etc.

If you already know JavaScript, you do not need the languages listed above to become a back-end web developer. Simply learn NodeJs.

NodeJS is a JavaScript run-time environment that runs JavaScript on your machine rather than the web browser. With NodeJS you can build servers for your website without learning another language other than JavaScript. NodeJs is by far the easiest to learn, with dedicated 1 hr daily to learning; you will complete it in less than two weeks.

Learning NodeJs is not the end, you need to learn some other NodeJS frameworks like ExpressJs or Fastify(https://www.fastify.io). These frameworks won't take you more than a week to learn the basics.

Also for the back-end, you need to learn a database language/system. You can either learn SQL or NoSQL or both (though not necessary). I recommend learning NoSQL and an example of NoSQL that you should learn is MongoDB.

So to become a back-end web developer this is the roadmap NodeJS => ExpressJS/Fastify => MongoDB/MySQL

Skills To Become A Full-Stack Web Developer

To become a full-stack web developer, you basically need to know everything, and here is everything

HTML => CSS => JavaScript => ReactJS => NodeJS => ExpressJS => MongoDB/MySQL

CodeCademy offers a premium course to learn everything listed above and other goodies to become a full-stack web developer.

A tool for you

Finally, there is a tool I made to go along with this article. It provides a roadmap for you who wants to be a web developer. It shows you what you need to learn, and in what order, and where to learn them. The resources there now, is way more than what you find in this article.
So head there, and see for yourself. It's free to use. and it's called devRoadMap.

You can also contribute to the resources on GitHub. I hope to feature more dev roadmap on this website soon.

Conclusion

Choosing between front-end, back-end or both should be based on what you love doing. If you love designing, content structuring; do well to go for front-end dev.

If you love logic, data analysis then go for back-end dev. If you love both, then full-stack is for you. Becoming the one you love is what makes programming fun for you.

Alright, that's it. Thank you for reading, I will see you in the next article. Don\'t forget to hit me up and follow me on Twitter @elijahtrillionz.