Stay backend-only or go full stack?

How much front-end skills should you have as a Java backend developer?
Join this channel to get access to exclusive courses all taught by Koushik:
/ @java.brains
In this video, I lay out three different perspectives on how much front-end knowledge a Java backend developer should have. I share insights from both junior and experienced developers. Additionally, I also provide three considerations all developers should follow irrespective of their chosen path.
00:00 Introduction: The Dilemma of Front-End Knowledge for Backend Developers
01:35 The Evolution of Front-End and Back-End Roles
04:50 Three Contrasting Viewpoints on Front-End Knowledge for Backend Developers
04:57 Viewpoint 1: The Minimalist View
07:55 Viewpoint 2: The Full Stack View
12:56 Viewpoint 3: The Flexible View
16:13 Choosing Your Path: Recommendations for Backend Developers

[@swathisudarshan6665]

I have been a backend dev for almost 13 years now. I have never had to work on front end side of things. However i have been looking for a new position for the last few weeks now and as per what the recuriter says , even though the job maynot really require a full stack dev , when a hiring manager sees a resume that has angular or react vs a strong backebd resume that has no UI technologies, he always seems to pick the one with Ui. So as per the market right now, it may make sense to have some angular or react experience handy

[@Java.Brains]

Yup agree. As I mention in the video, knowing front end definitely improves your employability.

[@user-cv1pi1xq4w]

"good" advice - work more for the same salary...

[@Java.Brains]

@@user-cv1pi1xq4w Don't confuse more skills with more work. You can do the same amount of work on a broader range of skills and have better career prospects (including better salary).

[@Mahesh-yu3th]

​@Java.Brains if you want to describe yourself, Which kind of developer you are at work?

[@aishwaryaanand7816]

With the recent trend I have had multiple offers for backend since I specialize in it but lost some of the jobs, especially leadership roles like EM in both big and small orgs due to lack of UI knowledge. Its super hard to be on everything, but learning it when the opportunity comes is the way forward to go!

[@peterabiodunokusolubo1541]

As usual, you're always awesome. I love hearing from you kaushik keep up the good work.

[@Java.Brains]

Thank you so much 😀

[@svalyavasvalyava9867]

Awesome video and interesting approach to the topic. Thank you ☺️

[@skblabla]

This video was so relatable, I felt you were to talking to me directly . I was puzzled about this dilemma for a while. My obvious interest lies in the field of backend and ever since advent of microservices and need to handle larger amount of data, I am gradually moving from api development to data processing, like Storm, Kafka, Flink, Spark etc. I think this is also another jack of all category(which I love working in).

[@Jo70964s]

hmm. i wonder what he is eating

[@adewaleShotobi]

Full stack engineer here, my job as the technical lead for my startup requires that from me because i manage a team of engineers accross all stacks. Although i love doing backend :) , i can get the job done with frontend web or mobile. I appreciate that i had the opportunity to be trained that way. Again, Thank you Koushik for your great teaching and insights as always.

[@rajnishpsinha4683]

It was a great explanation of a very tricky question. Thanks a lot for this.

[@Java.Brains]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mallikutube]

Wow! So true, This is a very good info.

[@workbrand6245]

Very great advice!! Love it!!

[@Java.Brains]

Glad you liked it!!

[@JangBahadur3028]

Wow..good topic we were waiting

[@Java.Brains]

Hope you weren't waiting too long! 😁 Thanks for your comment 💙

[@nooruddinraotiwala353]

Exactly Relatable...truely agree with your views 🙂😉!!!

[@foruvasanth]

Master lecture as always

[@Java.Brains]

Many thanks!

[@woody-xm5ve]

I am tester and I worked mostly with java dev and this is what I noticed most of our dev never worked on html, css, and js. But every time they were going to worked on the front-end java spring is always in the conversation.

[@rajkumarvb2602]

Loved your new background ❤

[@Java.Brains]

Yay! Thank you!

[@varunraj1862]

Request to upload playlist on design patterns and low level design for java backend 😊. I really enjoyed the iterator pattern video. Expecting others to follow suit.

[@Java.Brains]

Thanks! I will try to do it

[@PerfactlyImperfact]

I am 12 years experianced java developer but I learned Python from one of the projects that helped me to understand JavaScript a lot and not to forget from Java brains. I learned TypeScript, ReacJS and NodeJS from you. I am currently working as fullstack capacity since 2 years. And I enjoy react+ts alot. Thanks to you.❤❤

[@Java.Brains]

Glad to hear my content helped in your full stack journey. Thanks for sharing! 💙

[@vlogithan8784]

Hiw much salary we can expect for a fullstack developer?

[@CheeseStickzZ]

Geeks bruv

[@anshulpandey1]

I would say become an expert in your tech but having some knowledge of frontend (like caching, routing, authentication etc ...) and cloud as well (like kubernetes, scaling, load balancing, monitoring etc ...) will definitely help in long run. 🧑‍💻

[@doweensbwambale]

great video full of knowledge

[@Java.Brains]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tradewithcpr1464]

I have 8 years Exp in front-end. I'm glad that i got opportunity to work in Java, Spring and Azure from last 2 years. Now i'm aiming for devops

[@vlogithan8784]

How much salary we can expect for a fullstack developer?

[@saeidkazemi8480]

Hello to Java Brain , Please Be more Active , We are continuously following you and your videos , please make more videos on All aspects of SDLC. Thanks in advance

[@Java.Brains]

I will try my best! Thank you :)

[@anyname8803]

in my opinion, nowadays Frontend has evolved remarquably especially with ES6 and JS Frameworks and it goes even in a faster pace than Backend. I am a Java developer, but i have Frontend technics in my Arsenal and finding the point in between is indeed tricky but it has its benifits. one of these benifits is a better coordination with Fromtend teams and provide them with the best support.

[@Java.Brains]

Have you seen the rate of feature additions lately - both in the Java language and the frameworks like Spring? The pace has picked up for both frontend and backend!

[@Sarmadfarhankhan]

Jack of all and master of none (fsd).... Backend developers should never worry about centring div. As you said, there is a lot more to learn and master in each field.

[@SuperKidontheblock]

Can you make a video showing the medium you use to keep your knowledge current on backend?

[@AmeyChittar]

Hi Kaushik. Nice video. Always adore the way you've done videos. Specially the Spring boot crash course one. I wanted to ask you one thing. Glad if you could make a video on the same. So basically I'm a Full stack developer currently working on backend with Spring boot. Im interested in both front end and backend. What would you suggest would be a good career in terms of front end or backend depending on your experience. If you have a good experience do being a backend developer make sense since front end is easy to hop onto. So the entry is easy, so we'll have a lot of competition. In the beginning of career front end is awesome since you can visuually see what youre doing. But after you have experience, does backend developer make more sense since youll learn about system design and entire application architectures instead of just focussing on front end. What are uour thoughts on this. Thank you.

[@Java.Brains]

You are right that the front end market seems more saturated and competitive than backend. If you already have backend expertise, it's a better option to make that your "base" or primary skill. Then expand to frontend as you make your way towards full stack. It's better to stand out backend developer than try to stand out in an oversaturated frontend market. It used to be the case that backend was a better path for future growth because it was more complex and involved system knowledge. Nowadays that is no longer true. Front end systems have grown in complexity too, and there is a pretty good path towards architect roles for front end developers too. Either way, as you grow towards becoming an architect, these separations become blurry.

[@AmeyChittar]

@@Java.Brains Sure. Thank you for the response Kaushik. The thing is I would love to continue as a Full stack developer. The only thing is if in the company I have choice of my primary skill set then which one would I need to choose. Thanks for that response👌

[@shaniradevshan4019]

Best topic ❤

[@Java.Brains]

Thanks!

[@sercan272727]

companies love to hear "full stack" on resume , although in most large companies even if you get hired as full stack you may not even work on one of them. its definitely near impossible to be expert in both but yea especially for any start ups you may want to build or work at , i think you gotta be expert at backend and proficient in front end and mobile technologies for sure. I wouldnt stress it for getting a job though. you will always find some position where you get to do either one or another

[@Java.Brains]

Usually jobs that require full stack usually have a primary need - either front end or backend. I agree, sometimes companies would like to have candidates who can do everything. But as long as you meet the primary requirement and prove your expertise well, you should still be a viable candidate

[@vjnt1star]

I am in France, I am at my core a backend developer and I can get around with basic HTML/CSS/Js but zero knownledge in the new frontend tools. When I started looking for a job a few weeks back I was shocked to discover that 70% to 80% of the job offers were for Fullstack engineers and as a result I could only apply to 20% of the job offers. It's a bit rough when not prepared.

[@ShivaKumarSatakuri]

Hello kaushik. Ever thought of doing KZbin shorts about various spring annotations and explaining the functionalities? Please do if you can. If this works, you can do the same for Jackson and Lombok annotations as well.

[@Java.Brains]

Interesting you mentioned this. I have something similar in the works - will try to release it this weekend. Stay tuned. Shorts are a good idea too! 💙

[@momahdy]

This dude is chilling

[@vinaykaushikinvisble]

Hi Kaushik, can you speak about your views on Backed Development + DevOps

[@tonycavanagh1929]

Depends, I have learned from end , but never really use it. Insead of front end. Learn docker, kubernetes , think micro services, I even learned Terraform to wire up AWS containers. The way I see it as a back end, I need to to know my REST.

[@AnamikaSingh-qf8su]

Looking forward to front end stack course on Java brains

[@PerfactlyImperfact]

There is.. there is javascript one, nodeJS one and reactJS code with me as well.

[@akshatkhandelwal9949]

Hi Koushik! Thanks a ton for this video. I am a 9 year experienced Java professional and helping my company with micro services architecture, cloud server infrastructure etc. I totally agree with your recommendation and moving to the same path viz. trying to understand how UI, browser, cookies etc work. There is one problem I face, I am unable to find some great sources for such things. There are bits and pieces on Udemy for these topics in between multiple courses but still a lot hard to find and go through every course. Do you know any resources where this can be made a bit easier ? I know I should spend time and I am already trying to that by debugging my application at work, youtube videos, blogs etc but a concrete source would really help. Aim is - I do not want to learn now to write a switch case in React or Angular but understanding completely how these things integrate with my APIs in detail. By the way, I was in a mainframe based support project for first 3 years of my career. I wanted to move into development, watched and learnt from all of your java/related framework videos and gave multiple interviews to move into such role. Your videos were my sole resource and they have made me a very confident developer and now a solution designer for backend side of things, Big thanks for this!

[@andreabondanini2509]

I had your same problems about not being able to find a path when I tried to learn new stuff. So I started to study from books and it helped me a lot. IMHO I consider books the best resource for learning.

[@Java.Brains]

Is this a hint to me to make a course about this? 😉 I do understand the frustration since it is not commonly taught as a thing on its own

[@Phoenix-od2bp]

@@Java.BrainsHi Kaushik, if you do can you please declutter all the buzz words around UI technologies. I hear vanilla JS, ReactJs, NodeJs,Typescript. What is the use of node and npm for frontend development.

[@akshatkhandelwal9949]

@@Java.Brains Can’t say No to that. It’s been so long that I have completed a good quality course. 😉 On a serious note, if you do get time - I would love to attend that course and will try to get it done by my entire team too. But if you can help me with some directions too, that would of great help.

[@LukaBr]

​​@@Phoenix-od2bpvanilla JS means pure javascript without any library or framework like react or angular. Typescript is a superset of JavaScript, it adds more features to the language plus static typing as Javascript has dynamic typing, usually people coming from the Backend choose Typescript because they are used to static typing. Node allows us to write JavaScript on the server side. NPM stands for Node Package Manager, from there you can install third party libs or dependencies to your Node project

[@kunalraman4515]

Hi Kaushik. Thanks for the nice video. I have one question on frontend technologies. Since there are quite number of technologies available now like React, Angular, Vue etc. Does it makes sense to learn all of them or just select any one and have expertise in that ?

[@godismyway7305]

It depends. Knowing all is good but React and Angular has almost a same purpose.

[@Java.Brains]

I suggest just picking one. As a Java developer, getting into frontend itself might feel like a detour (at least initially). Don't add more things to your plate till you get comfortable with it

[@kunalraman4515]

Thanks sir 👍

[@pmorah]

I work mainly on the backend. I have some knowledge in HTML, CSS and JS, but I would like to be better at designing UI and stuff, but CSS is very complex to me. I really suck doing pages that look pretty 😢

[@ibtehaj95]

CSS looks complicated, but it took me barely 3 weeks as a newbie (had BG in other languages) to learn, I get by fine :P. Besides, you don't need to master it, you only need to know enough

[@Java.Brains]

CSS is not that hard. Bit of a self-plug - Have you seen my intro course? javabrains.io/courses/html-for-absolute-beginners

[@pmorah]

@@Java.Brains thank you. I will take a look at it.

[@ibtehaj95]

Even though I, myself, am a Fullstack Dev, I think the role-based mentality is good. You should be able to work as a software engineer, not as any specific type of it. But I also agree that there should be one foundational skill that one should have, could be React/Angular/Java/NodeJS whatever.

[@Java.Brains]

Role based mentality intimidates some people because they lose a certain sense of self-identity. But yes, we are developers at the end of the day and we have solutions that need to be built

[@PeterAdiSaputro]

Hi, how long have you been a software developer ? So, which view point is best ? Is it true that we must confident enough that we already best in our back-end development skill before expand into the front-end ?

[@nikhilvijay6022]

Hi Kaushik!! I am planning to do a Bootcamp in Java spring boot + Devops. According to the market trends is java full stack a better option?

[@Java.Brains]

Depends on your skill level. If you are completely new, I recommend you focus on one instead of spreading yourself too thin

[@poojapatole3573]

I feel so exhausted just mastering the backend and thinking about front end is just scary. That’s Maybe because I have a block in my mind that I won’t be good at front end tech . There is so much to learn and so less time. I’m not being negative here but all this is overwhelming . I just want to enjoy what I do at least most of the time rather than thinking about the competition . Oh how good that would feel. To just be out of the race and only focus on yourself and your own growth. But there is constant pressure and it’s not from anyone else but from within. Sometimes I feel I need to take a break and clear my head and actually think how I want my career life to be. I’m a backend developer and I really wish to specialise in it but aaaahhgggrrhhhhhh the job requirements these days ! They want super humans , they don’t want people who are specialised in a field but simple want workers who know how to do everything. This is a great time to be alive with the internet and all but also the worst time.

[@poojapatole3573]

Btw I like the ending of your video. Very insightful

[@saik8635]

I love this guy; he provides the best holistic view of any topic. His in-depth knowledge in the industry speaks for itself. I have been in IT for over 21 years, so, as Koushik mentioned, I am one of those engineers who had to do some front-end work (JSP/servlets along with some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) in my early years, although mainly I was a Java engineer. However, I fully shifted to backend engineering in the last 10 years or so. Being a minimalist, I never had to learn any of those React/Angular or other front-end frameworks as part of my job. However, it is important to brand yourself as an expert backend engineer in the team.

[@tech_health_tips]

i like your new mic

[@Java.Brains]

Thanks! :)

[@praveens2272]

I am also a backend developer but not interested in front end side. DevOps stuff I am interested into.

[@Java.Brains]

Then that's what you should do. Keep learning and trying out new things. Maybe a few years from now, you find Data Science interesting. It's all good imo

[@steffenandersensahl9443]

Lol, I'm certainly one of those that is still working with jsp's and EJB's :-) Yeah!

[@Java.Brains]

Right on! You are a full stack engineer then :)

[@dhruvsinghkushwah5919]

Wow. I'm seeing loads of comments here and I've read every one of the discussions. I've had a different question in my head for a long time. AI and chat GPT. I love being a backend developer, and like you've mentioned in some of the comments, I will slowly commence to front end as well but my primary skill being backend. But now that things like AI and chat gpt are entering the market, one half of the world is sure I'll lose my job, and the other half is saying that learning backend frontend etc is still relevant. I just have 2 years of experience. All this ruckus is making me consider learning AI/ML etc. But it feels very forced. I still want to explore new backend technologies, new tech stacks, learn frontend etc. Can you please help me out on this? Btw, I'm really looking forward to more videos from you on bakcend and frontend! Like noSQL or Kafka etc. Thanks a ton for generating awesome content! Your videos have been of immense help!

[@ibtehaj95]

AI is extremely helpful, but it still makes mistakes in understanding the full picture. I just can't believe software devs will be replaced by AI, but I do think that using AI effectively will be crucial.

[@Java.Brains]

I think leaning towards AI is essential. But as a consumer. Not by switching to the AI field. Think how can you leverage AI to do your job better? If AI does replace programmers completely, switching to the AI field is not going to help you anyway :)

[@dhruvsinghkushwah5919]

@@Java.Brains thanks a lot for your response :). One last question (sorry). Is this attachment to tech stack in my case? That I wanna stick to backend but not venture into AI/ML field? I am certainly up for becoming an AI consumer though and I use chatGPT in daily life a lot for coding.

[@dhruvsinghkushwah5919]

​@@ibtehaj95 true. even I can't imagine that! Although even I strongly believe we should use AI effectively, but when seniors from the software industry (my relatives to be more precise) come to me and tell me to focus on switching fields altogether now, it gets scary :-). Not that I hate this field. It's just that it doesn't pull the strings the way backend/frontend development does!

[@ayushjaiswal4449]

In my college I have this course called Web Technologies and my man they made me use jsp, servelet and xml based work and really switching between this old era way of doing things vs now spring boot with thymeleaf and tailwindcss it's nightmare

[@Java.Brains]

It's sad that academics have such a huge lag in catching up with industry progress. It's always been the case even when I was in college couple of decades ago!

[@batsygaming]

Hi Kaushik I am a Backend developer with 2 years of experience now I am feeling kind of stuck in the sense that I don't know how to grow in the industry or what other things I should learn or do apart from DSA or LLD to grow myself as a professional do you have any advice for people like me who might be going through the same thing Thanks

[@Java.Brains]

Two years should have given you a good sense of the known-unknowns. What are some areas you see that you find interesting but don't have expertise in? Also start asking a lot of meta-questions. For everything you do, ask "Why?" and get to the level above.

[@AnandKumar-dc2bf]

What is ur opinion on Golang backend developer...

[@JohnDoe-ej6vm]

I spent 3 years learning the java backend. But when i got employed i was given a task 9n react.js which i successfully completed. And now it's been 10 months and i am stuck on the frontend. I am fedup now

[@GafarOlanipekun]

you like it or not the be a strong or senior backend as a java engnr before you go into learning any frontend framework. Here is the take as a backend engineer you must know htlml, css and a little of bootsrapp while starting out. believe me, this will help a lot. but going deep into javascript and the likes will waste your time and a distraction. I grow into a technical lead knowing only Java and took me 2 weeks to know to some level Javascript to be able to support the team and review code. I do like to say if at all as a backend you must even be familiar with devOps instead of learning frontend tech. Despite a strong Java engineer, as a lead i still have fullstack in my team who are even seniors. it depends on your focus and soft-skill set

[@priyanshuraghuvanshi8406]

i am a fresher and have knowledge of java backend(Spring framework, ORM , Database , build tool, RestAPIs) and Angular .Still finding it very hard to get job opportunities.🤔

[@Java.Brains]

It's hard to get job opportunities as a fresher. It's just the reality, albeit a sad one. Keep courage and keep trying, and you will succeed. Good luck!

[@ankeshkapil3129]

Due to the legagcy of java we need to work on legacy code which need knowledge of javascript as well as html

[@Java.Brains]

Yes, if you are working on one of those legacy JSP + jQuery projects, indeed!

[@MrAbhithepandey]

After listening only to the introduction of this video, I am commenting. Whether a backend developer should try to know about front end development depends on the following factors: 1. How senior/experienced backend developer you are. If you are a junior backend developer, then you should try to gain deeper knowledge, before trying to learn front end. If you are already a senior backend developer, you already have sufficient idea about the front end development, and just by trying for a few months, you can become a full stack developer. 2. Whether you are willing to work for your current organisation, or whether you wish to hop on to some other job, and want to impress the recruiter showing that you have the shallow knowledge of front end developer as well, as a backend developer. 3. Whether you want to work as a freelancer at Upwork like platforms. There is more demand of full stack developer at such freelancing platforms, because the clients are just small companies and they want to get rid of the responsibility of their website-related-works, just by hiring a full stack developer. Now, I am going to watch the video ahead.

[@Java.Brains]

Good points! What are your thoughts after watching? I'm curious to know!

[@ze3ub]

Is it still worth it to watch your 12 yr olds jsp,servlet , hibernate, spring playlist?

[@brajagopalmukherjee1588]

Sir i am bit new into backend development, started with nodejs express js ? Is it good things to learn go languages for backend ? As i donot lioe java i tried once

[@Java.Brains]

It's all good, although the JavaScript backend is more of a path to full stack. If you want to stick to pure backend and deepen your expertise there, I would suggest you chose Java. For the foreseeable future, I see Java as the king of backends in the enterprise.

[@JangBahadur3028]

You have my sympathy 😂 I'm still on jsp in oneold project

[@hamza201183]

And JSPs are cool!

[@sanje_23]

this maybe a fun meme but developing projects with jsp really helped me realize what flexibility java has and

[@Java.Brains]

At least you can call yourself a "full stack" developer since you technically are one. 😉 Your HTML and CSS skills can come in handy. Don't make the mistake I did and treat it as a chore. It's an area where you can add skills to your toolbelt.

[@jaja0117]

@javabrains please post tuts about Reactt.

[@Java.Brains]

Thanks, I'll try to make them

[@mintz347]

Is better in today crysis go for java or go to frontend where are oversaturated

[@Java.Brains]

Backend has less competition for sure. But I am not sure if that has a big impact at an individual interview level. In every interview, your chances will be based on how good you are.

[@CheeseStickzZ]

Looks nice on the CV sure but in my opinion there's too much on the backend to be an actual Pro at both, unless you're not doing anything else with your life, or the place you're working for isn't exactly running the big, scalable, enterprise applications. I prefer to focus on the backend / architecture / infrastructure. JS developers are everywhere and cheap

[@mani_tyagi10]

I want to be a Java developer but I get a job as dot net developer and I am currently doing it .I don't what I do know I am very confused .Any advice

[@Java.Brains]

Depends on how many years of experience you have. If you are new in the industry, it is okay to go where your opportunities take you and get experience first.

[@rocketleague2136]

To be truthful, one strong framework like Spring (together with knowledge you must have as a backend - Protocols, data Structures, servers and Db ) is already overwhelming. Who want to f*ck and add front end painting on that

[@yogeshkshirsagar5083]

Hi Java Brains team, I wanted to join reactive programming hands on online course. I tried to connect you through mail multiple times but no response from you. Can you please let me know how can I connect with you?

[@Java.Brains]

Sorry about that. You don't need to pay for the Reactive course by the way. The full course is available for free here: kzbin.info/aero/PLqq-6Pq4lTTYPR2oH7kgElMYZhJd4vOGI&feature=shared I'll respond to your email as well. If you are interested in other paid courses, I can help

[@vipinkoul595]

I learned "spring framework" from you .. when I couldn't understand a thing "Injection" 🙂

[@mta3555]

I'm looking for an internship as Junior Java Developer, need your help.

[@sadiulhakim7814]

I still like jsp

[@RKRaos63]

I need videos on "How much Java should a Java developer had to know?"😂😂

[@Java.Brains]

I have successfully written a for loop once 😜

[@knofi7052]

Anyone who can do I/O with a console is a full stack developer. 😂

[@ansariphysique8774]

Don't chew tobacco while giving lectures boy

[@Java.Brains]

I don't, but thanks for the advice.