Overview

If you're new to programming, this guide will teach you about backend development. It's broken down into easy-to-understand steps so you can learn at your own pace and get help when you need it.

As a beginner, this roadmap will provide an overview of what you need to know to start with backend development.

What really is a backend?

A program on someone’s computer that can handle the front-end requests.

This means that the backend communicates with the database to store and retrieve information. Backend code is what makes your website responsive or interactive.

It can be written in any programming language. (JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, etc)

Suppose a waiter specializes in interacting with customers (the user interface kind of work) and a cook specializes in kitchen work (the backend of the store).

Get started with backend development

Coding is one of the most important skills you'll ever need to know, so we've broken it down into bite-sized pieces for you to learn at your own pace and get help when you need it.

Things need to know before you start working with backend development:

Computer Networks

a. How does the Internet work?

b. Difference between HTTP vs HTTPS?

c. Browsers and how they work?

d. What is all about hosting?

e. What do you mean by DNS and how it works?

f. Learn a little bit about the OSI model.

Reference:

• https://www.pephub.tech/blogs/computer-networking-cheatsheet-last-minute-notes-3a2ae987

Operating System

a. Terminal Usage

b. Memory Management

c. Process Management

d. Thread and Concurrency

e. Basic Terminal Commands

f. Version Control System (Git)

Reference:

• https://www.pephub.tech/blogs/operating-system-cheatsheet-last-minute-notes-ded81d0b

Basics of Frontend

a. Learn about HTML, CSS, SCSS

b. Basics of Javascript

c. Basics of CSS frameworks and JS frameworks

Reference:

• https://www.pephub.tech/blogs/guide-to-frontend-development-with-resources-e3e86a0e

Proper Roadmap of Backend Development

It's essential for developers to know an application's structure. Users interact with the frontend, while the backend generates the code that runs it. The backend ensures that everything looks decent internally while the frontend ensures that everything appears good externally. You must have some programming experience before learning how to use an API.

 For Basic level - First of all, Learn a Language

To advance their coding abilities, backend developers must master a programming language. Starting with a programming language's fundamentals—syntax, variables, data types, functions, objects, and execution—is a good place to start. Apart from them, be sure to become familiar with its peculiarities.

The most widely used programming languages for an application's backend include:

• JavaScript (Node.js)
• Java
• Python
• Php
• C#
• Go
• Ruby on Rails

For Basic level - Then Learn, a Database

A database is a structured information collection that is often stored electronically in a computer system. The two main types of databases are SQL and NoSQL. Where NoSQL databases are document, key-value, graph, or wide-column stores, SQL databases are table-based.

1. Relational / SQL Databases:

a. MySQL

b. PostgreSQL

c. Oracle

d. SQLlite

e. Microsoft SQL

2. NoSQL Databases

a. MongoDB

b. Cassandra

c. Firebase

d. ElasticSearch

e. Amazon DynamoDB

For Basic level: Learn to use version control systems: 

The process of monitoring and managing changes to software code is known as version control, commonly referred to as source control. Version control systems assist software development teams in tracking changes to source code over time. Also, learn about these concepts:

• Basics of git
• Learn to use Github
• Know about Repository Hosting Services

For Basic Level: Learn about API

A collection of operations known as an API (Application Programming Interface) enables software programmes to interface with microservices, operating systems, and external software components. To put it simply, an API transmits a system's request from a user and returns the system's response to the user.

• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) based services
• XML based

• REST (Representational State Transfer) API
• Exchange of data using either XML or JSON

For Intermediate level - Now Learn a backend Framework

For each programming language, frameworks have been created to speed up the development of backend applications. You can learn any framework below according to your preference:

•  Node.js (JavaScript runtime environment that enables software developers to launch the frontend and backend of web programs.)

• Django (a group of Python libraries that are appropriate for both the front end and the back end of a quality Web application.) 

• Laravel is recognized as one of the greatest PHP frameworks for creating online applications. It facilitates the creation of fantastic apps with an expressive but basic syntax.)

• FastAPI (FastAPI is a framework for creating RESTful APIs in Python. FastAPI uses type hints and Pydantic to validate, serialize, and deserialize data as well as to automatically create OpenAPI documents. It is compatible with Uvicorn and Gunicorn and offers complete support for asynchronous programming.)

• Spring (For the Java platform, the Spring Framework serves as both an application framework and an inversion of control container. Although there are extensions for creating web applications on top of the Java EE platform, any Java application can use the framework's core features.)

•  ASP.NET (a web application framework created by Microsoft that enables developers to create dynamic webpages It enables you to quickly create web applications using a fully featured programming language, like C#.)

• Ruby on Rails, (a Ruby programming language-based open-source framework. RoR allows developers to create web applications without having to completely rewrite any existing code.)

For Intermediate Level: Know about Authentication Methods:

1. HTTP Authentication Schemes (Basic & Bearer)
2. API Keys
3. OAuth (2.0)
4. OpenID Connect

References:

• https://www.xenonstack.com/blog/api-authentication-methods

For Intermediate level - Learn some advanced topics on Database:

• Learn about ACID Properties
• Learn about CAP Theorem
• Transactions
• Normalization in Database
• Indexes in Database and their functionality
• Learn about Sharding Strategies

References:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5faMjKuB9bc
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxCzCOWd7aiFAN6I8CuViBuCdJgiOkT2Y

For Advance level: Know about Web Security 

The Internet is a hazardous environment! We frequently hear about denial-of-service attacks making websites unavailable. Millions of passwords, email addresses, and credit card numbers have also been exposed in other high-profile cases, putting website users at risk for both financial loss and personal embarrassment.

These (or any other) types of attacks are what website security is there to protect against. The act or practice of safeguarding websites against unauthorized access, use, modification, destruction, or disruption is the more precise definition of website security.

Learn about these concepts:

• HTTPS
• SSL
• CORS
• Know about Hashing Algorithms and how you can use it.
• SHA-256
• SHA-1
• MD-5

References:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5q0xgxmRd8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcLW5d0KAYE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBDZgTNpXY

For Advance level: Know about Backend Testing

Backend testing is a technique for testing software or web applications by checking their server-side or database code. You should be aware of the following tests:

• Integration Testing
• Unit Testing
• Functional Testing

Good to know: Deployment / DevOps

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) represent a culture, a set of operating principles, and a set of practices that enable application development teams to deliver code changes more frequently and consistently.

A general, reusable solution to a regularly occurring problem in software architecture within a specific context is what is known as an architectural pattern.

Learn about these concepts:

1. Web Servers

1. Ngnix
2. Apache

2. Virtualization

1. Docker
2. Kubernetes

3. Hosting

1. Free Services:
2. Netlify
3. Heroku
4. Vercel
5. Github Pages (For Static hosting)

b. Paid Services

1. AWS
2. Azure

5. Serverless (FaaS)

6. Load Balancing, Monitoring, Security

7. Github Actions

8. SSH

Next Steps:

After you have completed the full roadmap, it's time to build a large real-life application. You can accomplish this by working on open-source projects. I recommend you some projects that you can start building.

• Initial level application:

1. School management system
2. Task manager
3.  Movie wishlist

• Realtime application:

1.   Blogging Website
2.   Social Media website
3.   Video Chatting app
4.   Collaborator or Google Docs 
5.   Shared Whiteboard

Conclusion

You can follow a general outline of important topics on this blog. Keep checking back for fresh blogs on backend interview preparation. Additionally, if there is a subject that you specifically want us to cover, kindly let us know. If you have any queries, then feel free to connect with me on my LinkedIn profile - Shubham Dutta. Please get in touch with me if you have any inquiries.