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Discussion on: Skills required to be a full stack developer: a checklist

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vlasterx profile image
Vladimir Jovanović

"Full stack" title has certainly degraded over the years.

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allthecode profile image
Simon Barker

Now I think about it I might say the opposite is true. 10 years ago full stack mainly meant: JS/HTML/CSS, PHP, SQL and Apache. Now it covers DevOps, infrastructure as code, Node, React/Angular/Vue and NoQSL and SQL. The list and requirements on full stack is rapidly approaching "IT Department"

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trunghieu99tt profile image
Trung Hieu Nguyen

:D I don't think so, who defined the definition for "full stack"? At the beginning, I think that title is for people who can handle both backend and front-end stuffs. You can write HTML, CSS, you can do things with database, write API,... Yeah, at that time you can call yourself a full stack developer. All the technique you mentioned above I think it's more relevant to "senior full stack developer" who can cover a lot of things from front-end to back-end, and know a little bit about DevOps
At the end of the day, it's just a title, why people care so much and make a lot of arguments about that?

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allthecode profile image
Simon Barker

Meh, I think people learning to code and looking to get their first job care quite a bit about getting a good idea of where the rough demarkations lie to help them on their way. Something we all fall into as experienced devs is forgetting the confusion of what everything was when we started. Back in 2006 when I first started it took me two days to realised that a blog was just a website with some software to manage the content and that was like an epiphany for me at the time.

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allthecode profile image
Simon Barker

In what way?

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vlasterx profile image
Vladimir Jovanović • Edited

In order to be a full stack, you have to cover a lot of ground. As time passes by, sheer amount of topics you need to learn have become mind boggling, not just for the full stack, but for the front end or back end alone. It is so vast that no one with a sane mind has the time to keep up any more - once you think that you have mastered one area, you have fallen behind in all others.

Before, you became full stack when you have mastered your occupation and then decided to horizontally branch out and learn more. For example front-end dev who has decided to learn back-end dynamic language, database and server setup; or back-end who has decided to learn devops, CSS, JS and UI/UX.

Just by looking who calls themselves full stack today and by looking at your list, I can conclude that people learn 5% of what they actually need in order to be called this way. Once "full stack" was a matter of an intellectual prestige, but today every junior who doesn't know fundamentals, but knows to use frameworks and basics can call themselves like that.

So, the title has degraded a lot. Once you needed a knowledge equivalent of an PHD and today you need knowledge on a level of an elementary school.

I have 20 years of experience in the industry and can easily be called full stack, but I know how much I don't know and that I don't deserve to call myself like that. Anyone who claims the opposite still haven't seen how big this ocean is, especially those who rely on frameworks to achieve this title.

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toobig4u profile image
ROLAND KIRALY

Nowadays if you know backend, you considered a full-stack. I mean chances are slim anyone knows backend without any knowledge of frontend. You can pretty much fabricate the front app mixing a bunch of premade components and adding a bit of logic and state management.

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vlasterx profile image
Vladimir Jovanović

That's what I'm telling you - those are superficial skills, this is why bar has been lowered for this title and why those "full stack" devs are just a shadow of what full stack devs used to be. Those developers have no idea how to properly build front end or even use CSS without frameworks. Centering a div is a science fiction to them ;)