Master Modern Backend Development: A Complete 2024 Roadmap

Today's web development has changed dramatically, leaving many newcomers confused; this series aims to guide you in mastering specific roles during the development process.

About a week ago we published "Modern Frontend Development – 2018" and promised a "Backend and DevOps Roadmap". This article fulfills that promise, presenting a modern backend developer roadmap. If you haven't seen the frontend roadmap, you may want to check it first.

Previously, backend roadmaps simply listed technologies without clear direction or learning order. We have redrawn the backend roadmap in a progressive, step‑by‑step manner, similar to the frontend approach, to provide better guidance.

Below are the detailed roadmap diagrams:

We will now break down the roadmap into individual chapters.

Before starting, although HTML/CSS are not listed in the diagram, we recommend that users have basic HTML/CSS skills to write simple pages.

1. Learn a Language

There are many language options. For beginners, we strongly recommend a scripting language because of high demand and ease of learning. Python is the best choice due to its rapid growth and abundant job opportunities.

2. Apply What You Learn

The final learning method is hands‑on practice. After choosing a language and gaining basic knowledge, start building small programs to become familiar with it. Example projects include implementing common bash commands, scraping Reddit’s /r/programming and saving JSON, exporting directory structures to JSON, generating directories from JSON, and automating daily tasks.

3. Learn the Package Manager

Once you understand the language basics and have written sample programs, learn its package manager to use third‑party libraries and publish your own. For Python, learn pip; for Node.js, npm or Yarn; for PHP, Composer; for Ruby, RubyGems.

4. Standards and Best Practices

Each language has its own coding standards and best practices. For Python, study PEP 8 and Google’s Python style guide. Node.js communities have their own conventions, and other languages follow similar patterns.

5. Security

Master security best practices by reading the OWASP guide and understanding common vulnerabilities relevant to your chosen language.

6. Build Projects

With language fundamentals, best practices, security knowledge, and package management, start developing your own libraries. Publish Python packages to PyPI or Node.js packages to npm, then contribute to open‑source projects on GitHub.

Refactor code to apply best practices

Fix known bugs

Add new features

7. Testing

Learn the different types of testing and their purposes. Begin with unit testing and integration testing, and understand concepts such as mocks and stubs.

8. Test‑Driven Practice

Write unit tests for all programs you develop, especially those contributed to on GitHub, and learn to measure test coverage.

9. Relational Databases

Study how to store data using relational databases. First, understand key terminology like keys, indexes, normalization, and tuples. Choose one database to master—MySQL is recommended for beginners, with MariaDB and PostgreSQL as alternatives.

10. Hands‑On Project

Create a simple application that incorporates everything you have learned. For example, build a basic blog platform with features such as user registration & login, creating, viewing, and deleting personal blog posts, ensuring proper access control, writing unit/integration tests, and adding indexes to optimize queries.

11. Learn a Framework

Depending on your language and project type, select an appropriate framework. For Python, Django is recommended for full‑stack development and Flask for micro‑services. For Node.js, Express.js is the most popular choice.

12. Framework Practice

Refactor your blog application using the chosen framework and integrate testing code.

13. Learn NoSQL Databases

Understand what NoSQL databases are, how they differ from relational databases, and why they are needed. Popular options include MongoDB, Cassandra, RethinkDB, and Couchbase. Start with MongoDB.

14. Caching

Learn to implement application‑level caching using Redis or Memcached, and add caching to your blog application.

15. Create RESTful APIs

Study REST principles, read Roy Fielding’s REST dissertation, and learn how to design and implement RESTful APIs beyond simple HTTP endpoints.

16. Authentication Methods

Learn various authentication mechanisms and their use cases, including OAuth, Basic Authentication, Token Authentication, JWT (JSON Web Tokens), and OpenID.

17. Message Brokers

Study messaging systems and understand when and why to use them. Popular choices are RabbitMQ and Kafka; start with RabbitMQ.

18. Search Engines

When applications scale, simple queries become insufficient. Explore dedicated search engines, each with its own characteristics.

19. Learn Docker (Containers)

Docker provides a consistent development environment, keeps systems clean, speeds up coding, and simplifies deployment testing. Start learning Docker now.

20. Web Server Knowledge

Understand the differences, limitations, and tuning methods of various web servers as you encounter server‑related issues.

21. WebSockets

While not mandatory, WebSocket skills enable real‑time web applications, such as live updates to blog lists.

22. Learn GraphQL

Study GraphQL APIs, understand how they differ from REST, and why GraphQL is sometimes called “REST 2.0”.

23. Explore Graph Databases

Graph databases offer flexible modeling for relational data and provide high‑performance queries. Investigate Neo4j or OrientDB.

24. Keep Exploring

During learning and practice, you will encounter topics not covered in the roadmap. Stay open and hungry for new knowledge. Remember, practice is the key to learning—keep coding, and you will improve over time.

Original English article: https://ogmcsrgk5.qnssl.com/vcdn/1/%E6%8E%A8%E9%80%81%E6%96%87%E7%AB%A0%E9%95%BF%E5%9B%BE/201804/modern-backend-developer-in-2018-6b3f7b5f8b9.png Translator: rApeNB