Are you looking for a career in Backend Development? To build complete applications beyond the user-interface companies need rockstar back-end developers.
All the app data is stored and processed on the back-end. Back-end development is everything that happens behind the scenes. It is a variety of things like the databases, the business logic, the API layer and pretty much everything other than the user-interface
The average salary for a back-end developer is $123,689 per year in the United States. In this post, let’s learn about what it means to be a Backend Developer using Python.
Choose A Programming Language (Python)
Before you begin architecting your backend, you need to decide which programming language you plan to use for your application. Depending on the programming language, there are a whole bunch of skills that you need to acquire to become a successful back-end developer.
Python Stack
Python has been a beloved language for developers for many years now. Today, many schools are now teaching Python as the first programming language to students, because of its easy syntax. Generally, Python is a perfect choice if you have a calculation heavy API.
If you decide to pick Python to build your backend, here are the skills that you need, to complete learning it.
Pick a Python Framework
There are several Python frameworks and each framework has its own pros and cons.
Python has two types of frameworks: Full-stack frameworks and micro-frameworks.
When considering which framework to use, step back and look at the size and complexity of your project.
If it is a large application with lots of complexities and features, you will benefit from picking a full-stack framework. If your app is going to be small and simple you can consider a micro-framework.
Let’s look at some of the top Python frameworks and you can pick one of them for your backend development.
Option 1: Full-stack Framework — Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. It comes with utilities and features that enable you to focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel. It’s free and open source. This is the most popular choice of python web framework today.
The popular databases that Django works with are PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and Oracle, but third-party drivers allow you to use others as well.
Choose A Database
Irrespective of the programming language that you choose to use for your back-end, it will always need a database. Any app that you build will need a database. This is where the data is stored. There are two major types of databases: SQL and NoSQL.
SQL databases are more popular. Facebook, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb use SQL-driven databases — to name just a few. So, to be a successful back-end developer you need to know SQL inside-out.
There are several options to pick from, and I am listing the most popular databases here.
Option 1: MongoDB
MongoDB is the most popular document database and is very commonly used as the default database for Node.js. It is a NoSQL database, that is way more flexible than a SQL database.
Option 2: MySQL
MySQL is another common relational database that is used popularly in the tech industry.
Option 3: PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is another powerful, relational database system that is used widely.
