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Back-end Guru or Front-end Fanatic?

Ben Halpern on April 07, 2023

The front-end and back-end of web development offer different challenges and opportunities. Which one do you find more compelling, and why? Let's c...
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Håvard Bartnes •

I never planned to work with either when I was a kid. I planned for a career in advertising. Then the www happened, and it was so much more exciting than print - and I was hooked.

For about half my life I've worked both front end and some full-stack. And I like both front and back end. Though I do find the psychology in creating good user experiences more fascinating than optimizing back end for clock speed.

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Erin A Olinick •

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Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard •

Backend for ever, at least until I can get over my fear of CSS.

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Vincent •

Tried Tailwindcss yet? I started Frontend with it and could never imagine writing a "normal" css file. 😅

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Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard • • Edited

Actually yes. So straightforward for CSS that it felt like cheating. I'll still colorblind and stuff though

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Ben Sinclair •

Back end for the most part, at least for my actual job, and I have fewer arguments over how things "should" be done with other back-enders.

Front-end can be fun, though; it's nice to have something you can show product stakeholders beyond a little green tick.

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Randall •

I am a full-stack developer by job title, but my interests and skills are pretty lopsided towards backend, and most of the work I do is backend.

To me, working on frontend inherently feels unproductive, because of all the time spent pixel-pushing and iterating on designs aspects rather than function. It's a perception thing, because I naturally don't care that much about design, and am more interested in function. I'm sure people who care more about design feel more productive than I do when doing frontend stuff.

Put another way, to me frontend feels like spending a lot of time perfecting aspects of a product that I feel are less important. So I really enjoy working in the backend, where I can focus on the "important" part (to me): making robust, clean code that fulfills functional requirements. For some reason I also especially enjoy working with databases, writing gnarly SQL queries and optimizing them, something that is entirely absent from frontend work.

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prajin10 •

By reading what you told about frontend it seems like you have barely worked with any functional part of programming like managing states , using hooks , state management tools. But u have done some css only . Dude, now we have framework like nextjs and more than 80% of companies in world can rely on this full stack technology unlike bigger corporations. So looks like your job is in danger, grow up.

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Randall •

I'm sorry if I upset you, it certainly wasn't my intention. Currently most of the frontend work I do is with Nuxt. I have also used React and Gatsby a fair amount. I have not used Next yet.

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Facundo Corradini •

I've been into front-end since it was simply called "web development". Love the psychology aspect of UI interaction, and I won't deny, it's pretty gratifying to know that your work is actually visible to the user.
That being said, I have a huge respect for the backend work, and I'm lucky enough to have a job that keeps me always broadening my knowledge throughout the stacks.
Just like I try to learn a new natural language per year or learn a new dance style per year, I also make sure to learn a new programming language or specialty each year.

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byby.dev •

backend by day, frontend by night!

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Paweł Świątkowski •

That's not exactly how this works. You can be an awesome front-end dev, master all the React hooks etc. But when the job requires you to program a micro-controller in ASM, you would probably be quite clueless, not to mention writing a good maintainable code. It's just too different from what you usually do.

And it can be very different between FE and BE too.

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Christopher Glikpo ⭐ •

It's important to choose a path that aligns with your interests and strengths, while also considering the job market and career opportunities in your desired field. Both back-end and front-end development are important and necessary components of web development, and having a strong understanding of both can be highly valuable in today's job market.

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Thomas Broyer •

I would define myself as "back of the frontend / front of the backend". Architecture of the frontend, and what goes over the wire, are probably what I enjoy the most. I'm definitely not "front of the frontend", I lack the "creative" skills that go with it despite being somewhat fascinated by what people manage to achieve. Wrt backend, I strive for keeping things simple (mostly monoliths, without frameworks)

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devshirt.club • • Edited

We've illustrated the struggle, personally I'm working as a backend.
Used to do frontend too, however i found out working with servers is much more enjoyable for me.

backend
frontend

 
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Paweł Świątkowski •

As we all know, simple is not the same as easy ;) Yes, things are easier now, because complexity is hidden and abstracted away. But it's still there and tends to bite in the most unexpected moments.

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Alex Lohr •

Front-end fanatic forever! (try to come up with a better alliteration, back-end boys!)

I have been doing Front-end for more than half of my life and I'm not exactly young anymore.

 
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Paweł Świątkowski •

I don't know when this was, but isn't the reason that things were infinitely simpler back then?

When I started there was no backend or frontend, but also fullstack was not a norm. There was a "web developer". Everything was server-rendered, with maybe some JS sprinkled on top. Frontend did not exist as a thing, hence there was no notion of fullstack. These are all contemporary terms, an anachronism if you will.

Today both stacks have a lot of complexity and perhaps there are some people that have an equally great grasp of both, but it's a rarity. Usually we all are T-shaped engineers with clearly distinctive specialization in one area over the other.

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Abhishek Keshri •

I would prefer specializing in backend while still having a working knowledge of frontend!

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Rachel Fazio •

I have definitely been a front-end fanatic forever, but am now realizing that I really want to develop my back-end skills more!

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Jonathan • • Edited

I dream of Backend and Full Stack, but for the time being, due to pay and experience, Frontend it is!

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Vincent •

Back-/ and front-end together. But with frontend it's just really rewarding to see what you build. I do however get caught thinking about design too long.

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Max • • Edited

I started my career in backend development, but now I work on both professionally and as a hobby.
I like backend > frontend

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Dipanjan Ghosal •

I love front end! Can't live without it. Backend is okayish

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Michalis Papamichael •

For me backend in any kind of way is more fascinating.

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Vicente G. Reyes •

Backend for life. I'm really not good in designing so I just sticked with the backend development.

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Simran Sharma •

I like to work with both Backend and Frontend. But as I'm also into designing, so I like to work with Frontend more, especially with React.