After two years working mainly with front-end development using React, Typescript, and other modern tools from the JavaScript ecosystem, I recently started a transition to the back-end world — specifically using Java and Spring Framework.
In this post, I’ll share the main technical challenges I’ve faced, the tools I'm using, and how I'm balancing all of this with my Software Engineering degree and personal projects.
🌐 From Components to Endpoints: The Mindset Shift
On the front-end, my daily tasks involved UI/UX, state management, and API integration. Now, in back-end development, the challenges are quite different:
- Business logic
- Data management (SQL/NoSQL)
- Building RESTful APIs with Spring Boot
- Authentication and Authorization
- Monitoring, logs, and performance
- Clean architecture and best practices like SOLID, DDD
This transition demands a more analytical and systemic mindset — which is both challenging and rewarding.
⚙️ Tools & Technologies I'm Using
| Area | Tools/Technologies |
|---|---|
| Language | Java 17 |
| Framework | Spring Boot, Spring Security, Spring Data |
| IDE | IntelliJ IDEA |
| Database | PostgreSQL, MongoDB |
| Testing | JUnit 5, Mockito |
| APIs | Swagger, Postman |
| Others | Docker, Git, GitLab CI/CD |
🔍 Technical Challenges I Faced
- New Language: Java is more verbose and requires more attention to structure and types.
- New IDE: Switching from VSCode to IntelliJ took some time to get used to.
- Higher Complexity: Architecture and design patterns are key in back-end development.
- Microservices: Understanding service communication, isolation, and resilience has been a big leap.
🎯 Expectations and Career Goals
This shift isn’t just technical — it's also strategic. I want to become a high-level full stack software engineer, and for that I need to understand:
- Application security
- Performance and scalability
- System health monitoring
- Decision-making in distributed architectures
🕒 Balancing Work, University, and Projects
Studying Software Engineering helps me a lot with theory. But combining college, work, and self-study requires time management, patience, and resilience.
One strategy is to always keep personal projects going — building APIs, experimenting with microservices, and applying concepts in real scenarios.
💡 Advice for Others Making This Transition
- Start small: Build basic APIs and expand gradually.
- Learn the fundamentals: HTTP, databases, architecture principles.
- Test everything: Robust testing is essential in back-end development.
- Don’t give up: The learning curve is steep, but your system-level understanding will grow immensely.
🚀 In the next posts I’ll share practical code examples using Spring Boot and testing with JUnit/Mockito. Follow me here on Dev.to to stay tuned!
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