Behan kumar

Posted on Dec 8, 2024 • Edited on Mar 26

My journey as a Full-Stack Developer

#react #node #javascript #beginners

I wrote the first version of this post in December 2024. I was still learning, still figuring things out, and honestly had no idea what I was doing.

A lot has changed since then.

Where I started

I started with the basics — HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Then slowly moved into React, Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. Every concept felt hard at first. Buffers, RESTful APIs, async programming, deployment — each one was a wall I had to climb.

I didn't have a mentor. No bootcamp. Just documentation, YouTube, and a lot of debugging at 3 AM.

What I built

Instead of just following tutorials, I started building real things.

Pairly — a real-time chat platform built from scratch using React, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and Socket.IO. Not a clone. Not a tutorial project. A real app with real users across multiple countries. 395+ commits since June 2025 and still actively building.

Live at: https://pairly.chat

Chat App Admin Dashboard — a production-ready admin panel with real-time analytics, user management, content moderation, security controls, and billing. Built with React and Material UI.

Live at: https://chat-platform-admin.vercel.app

Brandora — a full-stack digital agency platform with GSAP animations, Node.js backend APIs, and MongoDB. Fully responsive and deployed.

Live at: https://brandora-agency.vercel.app

Portfolio — my personal developer showcase built with React, GSAP, and Material UI.

Live at: https://behan.vercel.app

What the journey actually taught me

Building is the only way to learn. Reading documentation and watching tutorials gives you knowledge. Shipping a real product gives you understanding.

The difference between knowing React and building a production app with React is enormous. You learn about CORS errors, environment variables, deployment failures, socket reconnections, JWT expiry handling, and a hundred other things that no tutorial covers.

I also learned that consistency matters more than talent. Some days I wrote 50 lines. Some days I wrote 500. But I showed up every day.

Where I am now

I'm a Full-Stack Developer actively seeking my first professional role. 6 months of job hunting, still no offer — but I'm not stopping.

I'm currently learning DSA, building new features for Pairly, and applying to companies every day.

If you're a fresher going through the same thing — you're not alone. Keep building. Keep shipping.

Connect with me

Portfolio: https://behan.vercel.app
GitHub: https://github.com/behan05
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/behan-kumar-25151b2ba/

Drop a comment if you're on a similar journey — I'd love to connect!

Top comments (6)

Shaktijeet Sahoo • Dec 14 '24

Hi, Behan! You are on a good path. Here are some suggestions for you to try out:

Front-end

Go for motion instead of GSAP if you want to move forward with React.
Try out Redux but also try other state management libraries like Zustand and Recoil (from Facebook itself). Because for small projects you'll want simpler state management and Redux will be an overkill.
Along side React try out other libraries like Vue and Solid. You won't use them much but you'll get a better understanding of the web and React by learning what problems the libraries were created to solve.

Backend

You are probably using mongoose to interface with MongoDB. Try incorporating the official mongodb driver to know what mongoose is doing behind the scenes.
Use zod for data validation in Express requests. Saves time from manual validation and errors and also helps with autocompletion and stuff.
If you aren't already, it's a good time to start learning TypeScript (applies to front-end too but in general TS with React is a bit hard for beginners, or was for me). Save you a lot of time in debugging run time errors.
[Additional] When developing backend projects try incorporating OpenAPI docs for the endpoints. There are automation tools for that but I suggest trying out vanilla things first. (Saves you from writing Postman collections)

Common

Regex is a must. From data validation (not email, never email) to database queries.
In production applications, always keep a lower or longer supported version of libraries. For example React 19 offers a ton of features but isn't compatible with other libraries that depend on react. For production, you might want to stick with React 18. It's just an example, you can use React 19 in production of there are no dependent libraries, ofc.
Try and learn about different steps and parameters in a web request. From making a request to getting a response. Things like url, protocols, DNS, load balancers, web servers (Apache, nginx, etc), hosts, ports, listener, request (and params like header, query, body, path, cache, etc), response, status codes and their uses, how the browser or consumer (fetch, axios, etc) respond to responses. A basic understanding of how these things work will take you to a next level because everything on the backend part is basically a wrapper around these things. If possible take a look at how html is rendered. (rendering engines like Blink/Gecko/Webkit and js engines like V8/Spider monkey/JavascriptCore)
Cloud computing. It's a mandatory skill if you want to bag a job as a full stack or backend developer.

Behan kumar • Dec 14 '24

Hi Shaktijeet Sahoo! 👋

Thank you so much for this thoughtful and detailed feedback! 🙏

I really appreciate you taking the time to share these valuable insights with me. They’re incredibly helpful, and I’m excited to incorporate some of these ideas into my learning journey.

Here’s what I plan to explore based on your suggestions:

I’ll definitely look into using motion libraries for React, and I’m keen to dive deeper into Redux and other state management tools like Zustand and Recoil for more flexibility.
The idea of working with the MongoDB official driver is great, and I’m excited to see what’s happening behind the scenes with Mongoose!
I’ve heard a lot about Zod for validation in Express, so I’ll definitely give it a try.
TypeScript is on my radar, and though it’s a bit daunting, I know it’s a worthwhile investment for improving my code quality.
OpenAPI docs sound like a great tool for backend development, so I’m eager to explore that as well.

Your comment has given me a lot to think about and some excellent direction to move forward with. Thanks again for the encouragement, and I’ll keep pushing forward! 🚀

Looking forward to more conversations with you.

Mohammad Faisal Deshmukh • Dec 10 '24

That's amazing Behan! I too am on the same learning journey as you for web development. I am currently working on another tech but want to do what I'm truly interested in!

Behan kumar • Dec 10 '24

Thank you so much for your kind words! 😊

It's great to hear that you're exploring web development too. Following your interests is always the best path, and I'm sure you'll do amazing things in this field.

Feel free to share your journey or any projects you're working on—I’d love to hear about them and learn from each other!