Backend - Pg. 2
What is in a Back-End Developer's Job Description?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
What's it like being a back-end developer? Well, it's different depending on which developer you ask.
Your Architecture is Bad, So Make It Easy to Change
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Have you ever started a new software development job and thought:
How does HTTPS encryption work?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTPS is an extension of the HTTP protocol. HTTPS secures the data transfer between client and server by encrypting all of the information communicated.
I Didn't Explain Clearly, but Still Don't Learn Frameworks First
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
I wrote an article about not starting with frameworks that got some attention from /r/programming on Reddit yesterday. While a good number of people must have enjoyed the article (some people upvoted? idk) I was rightfully blasted with a lot of criticism. Here are some of my favorite comments:
If You're Learning Back-end, Don't Start with Frameworks
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Look, I don't hate frameworks. I'm not as starry-eyed as some other developers, especially when it comes to back-end frameworks, but I don't think there's anything wrong with using tools that make you productive. On the contrary, I'm always trying to find tools that make me as productive as possible.
What do Frontend and Backend Development Mean?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Soon after you dip your toe in the water of software development, you're guaranteed to come across the terms "frontend" and "backend". There are also frontend and backend developers, but what's the difference? What do frontend and backend mean?
What is Backend-as-a-Service?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Plenty of people have heard of SaaS, or Software-as-a-Service, which is simply software made available by a third party over the internet. Think Salesforce, WordPress, or MailChimp. And most people know what a "backend developer" is, that is, someone who is responsible for things building server-side systems like user authentication and data storage.
The Top 22 Backend Technologies to Learn in 2026
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
A backend technology is anything used server-side to build stable and efficient web architectures. Back-end technologies include programming languages, databases, communication mechanisms, or frameworks that make up the building blocks of a web application's back-end.
The 8 Top Back-end Programming Languages for 2026
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
A backend programming language is what a programmer like you uses to create internal systems that work in the background of a web application. Backend developers make a lot of money and are growing in popularity and desirability.
How Much Do Backend Developers Make?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
The short answer? On average, backend developers make either $82,462, $95,472, or $104,865 per year in base pay depending on who you ask. (I asked Glassdoor, Indeed, and Salary.com respectively.) StackOverflow uses medians instead, and their survey suggests the backend developers actually make upwards of $175,000 per year.
The 6 Best Backend Project Ideas for Beginners
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Want to become a backend developer? Not surprising. Backend developers enjoy an average base salary of $160k per year, not to mention comprehensive benefits. And best of all? You no longer need a four-year degree to learn backend development. With the help of some of the best backend projects, you can prepare yourself for a backend development job in about nine months, even if you're a total beginner.
Should You Learn Front-end or Back-end Development First?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
So you want to get into web development, and you keep hearing about "front-end" and "back-end" positions. The question is, which should you learn first? As someone who's held both front-end and back-end positions, and even been a hiring manager, read on and I'll give you my thoughts.
The 7 Best Backend Bootcamps of 2026
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
So you're looking for the very best backend bootcamp of 2026. You're not alone – most backend engineers earn over six figures according to Glassdoor, plus they have wide and varied job prospects. It's a good gig.
Backend Engineer vs Data Engineer: What's the Difference?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
The sexiest job title of the decade, data scientist, has spawned about a dozen equally sexy but somewhat confusing and overlapping job titles. The primary offshoot of a data scientist is a data engineer. Let's talk about the difference between a data engineer and a back-end engineer, because frankly, the lines can get quite blurred.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Back End Developer?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
I get really frustrated when I see people and companies online selling unrealistic dreams when it comes to coding education. It's quite lucrative when you're in the edtech industry to heavily exaggerate (or even lie) about how long it will take for learners to get job-ready. I teach backend development skills at Boot.dev and try my best to give students realistic goals they can reach for.
Death, Taxes, and Database Migrations
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Earlier in my career, I would come to a new project and inevitably a hectic migration would be underway. It's not always a "stop the world" change, it can be as simple as switching from NPM to Yarn, but something is always changing. I used to naively believe my managers when they said cute things like "just this once" or "we'll finally have our dependencies up to date."
What are UUIDs, and are they better than regular IDs?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
In the context of back-end web development, an ID is just a unique identifier for a record of data. For example, each user on a website will have its own ID. If the site is a social media platform, then each post will also have a unique ID.
Backend Developers are UX Designers Too
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Too often I neglect the idea of UX design in backend work. The goal of user experience design is to give users a product that's easy to use. In the world of front-end development, that typically means making it obvious how to navigate your site, using commonly-understood icons, or implementing well-contrasted colors for foreground and background, making your site easy to read.
HMAC and MACs - The Inner Workings of JWTs
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
HMACs and MACs are authentication codes and are often the backbone of JWT authentication systems. A Message Authentication Code (MAC) is a string of bits that depends on a secret key and is sent with a message to prove the message wasn't tampered with. HMACs are a more strict version of MACs that offer additional security benefits.
Building Alerts with Percolate Queries in ElasticSearch
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Once upon a time, a company I worked for had a problem, we had thousands of messages flowing through our data pipeline every second, and we wanted to be able to send real-time emails, SMS, and Slack alerts when messages matching specific criteria were found. A simple solution built using ElasticSearch's percolate queries ended up being our saving grace.
