An annual survey was done by stack overflow which is the largest and most comprehensive survey around the world. nearly 90000 developers took a 20-minute survey to understand the developer’s favourite technologies to their job preferences. So on the basis of survey 50% of respondents identify as full stack developer.

Full Stack developer is a booming field and most demanded developer job around the world. So here is a most comprehensive guide on how to become Full stack Developer which includes everything from what is a full stack developer, job responsibility, key skills and courses.

What is a Full Stack Developer?

A full stack developer refers to a person who understands and has at least the basic skills to develop a complete product from start to finish. Full stack developer develops a solid foundation for working with servers and host configurations, performing database integrations, and creating dynamic, data-driven websites. This path requires extensive knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Git. One should be familiar with each layer of a 3-tier model consisting of 

1. The database layer
2. The presentation layer which consists of the main front end portion which deals with the user interface.
3. Business logic layer mainly consists of back-end portion of an application which deals with data validation.

According to the job search site indeed a Full-stack developer are among the most in-demand by employers right now in terms of the open job posting.

What is an Average Salary of Full Stack Developer?

According to a survey done by indeed,  The average salary for a Full Stack Developer is $110,848 per year in the United States. Salary estimates are based on 12,297 salaries submitted anonymously to Indeed by Full Stack Developer employees, users, and collected from past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months. The typical tenure for a Full Stack Developer is less than 1 year.

According to acewebacademy  In the past 1 year, the demand for full stack developers has increased by 30%. A full stack developer can earn up to 30% more than a regular developer depending on his experience level.

Job Responsibilities of Full Stack Developer:

Full Stack Development is the best career prospect today with unlimited growth and scope. The national Indian median salary was around 76K $ pa according to Glassdoor.com.

All you need to do is get cracking on your skill set by doing a full stack web development course, earn your certification and through your job experience and continued experiential learning keep pace with newer iterations in technology.

Here is the list of common responsibility for full stack developer

1. Develop and test
2. Be a Team player  
3. Develop code form technical specifications received from the manager or team lead
4. Producing well – Organized, optimized, and documented source code.
5. Skilled with debugging existing source code to develop a polished product
6. Build new features using modern web technologies and frameworks
7. Ensure the reliability and security of the web application
8. Versatile and passionate to handle new problems as we continue to push technology forward.
9. Working closely with other staff, such as project managers, leads, Ux designers and other developers.
10. Collaborate with other programmers to design and implement features.

What are the Key Skills to be a Full Stack Developer?

Skills required if you want to get hired as a full stack developer:

1. 1. Front end technology: One should master front end technologies like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript. Knowledge of third party libraries like jQuery, Angular 2, 4, 5  and React JS is must.
   2. Development languages: Front end developer should know at least one server-side programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, .NET etc.
   3. Database and cache: Good knowledge of various DBMS technology like MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, SQLServer have widely used also knowledge of caching mechanisms like varnish, Memcached, Redis.
   4. Basic design ability: The knowledge if designing is also recommended and should know basic prototype design and UI/UX design.
   5. Server: A better understand and ability to handling apache or nginx servers
   6. Working with API: Knowledge of web services or API is also important for full stack developers.
   7. Version control system (VCS): A version control system allows a full stack developer to keep track of all the changes made in the codebase. The knowledge if git helps full stack developer to understand how to get the latest code, update, and make changes in other developer’s code without breaking things.

Addition key skills:

1. Experience with javascript libraries ( react, angular) CSS frameworks (Bootstrap, semantic UI)
2. Proficient with version control software like GIT
3. Strong Understanding of fundamentals like data structure, algorithms, internet security
4. Knowledge in REST & LAMP & MERN & MEAN
5. Good knowledge in spring web services application
6. Complete understanding of automated processes for building testing, document and deploying it at scale
7. An awareness of security concerns is important
8. Experience of Amazon web service
9. Strong communication skill along with that good at writing.
10. Should possess good code testing quality

Top rated courses for developing skills to get hired for full-stack developer job:

Taking a course can be the best option to prepare and keep learning new things to remain relevant because new technologies join foray frequently. Taking online or virtual courses are an easy way to keep upskilling.

Since the main objective is to learn theory and get practical exposure covering each aspect of web development.
choose the courses that offer the following:

1. Excellent and experienced faculty
2. A flexible schedule that matches your time
3. Practical projects as part of the curriculum
4. Tutor for doubts clarification  (individually or in groups)

List of Free and Paid Courses:

1. FreeCodeCamp:

FreeCodeCamp is a very good site for learning Full Stack Development by writing your own code, building real projects. It also provides certificates

FreeCodeCamp full stack development course mainly divided into 3 modules.

1. Front End Development Certification [HTML, CSS, Responsive Design, Javascript, jQuery]
2. Data Visualization Certification [SaaS, React, D3]
3. Back End Development Certification [Git, NodeJS+Express, MongoDB]

There is a number of projects at the end of each submodule, which helps to understand the topics much clear.

Features of FreeCodeCamp :

1. well structured curriculum
2. Extensive module in-depth learning of programming which takes 2080 hours to complete the entire course
3. Build real-time projects by writing live code
4. This also   algorithmic problems and some of them are much challenging, this will help you understand to solve the challenges
5. Complete the 1200 hours of code and get a certificate and you will get to build a series of solution for nonprofit.

2. Udacity: (Become a Professional Full Stack Developer)

In this program, you’ll prepare for a job as a Full Stack Web Developer, and learn to create complex server-side web applications that use powerful relational databases to persistently store data.

Key features :

1. Intro to programming
2. Front end developer
3. Introduction to Python programming
4. Introduction to algorithms
5. Version control with Git
6. Intro to HTML and CSS

Duration: 4 Months

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE: To enrol, you should have experience with Python Programming (or another object-oriented programming language), Programming with JavaScript, Git/GitHub, HTML basics, and Data Structures including Lists, Arrays, Dictionaries.

Rating: 4.6/5

Cost: 22,299/month

3. Coursera

This certificate course created by The Hongkong University of Science and Technology will enable you to master front-end and hybrid mobile development for implementing a multi-platform solution.

Courses are Divided into 4 part, you will learn how to use Bootstrap 4, React, React Native and server-side development using Node JS, Express and MongoDB.

The best part about the program is that you can try it for free, and only need to pay after trying it out for a week.

Duration: 16 weeks, 6-8 hours per week

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Key USPs –

1. Hongkong University has been ranked no. 1 in Asia
2. A comprehensive program consists of a project to test and implement all that you learn in the program
3. You will learn frontend web, hybrid mobile app as well as server-side development, all in one program
4. It’s an intermediate specialization, ideal for all those who’ve already been doing full stack development for a while now