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All about Back-End Development!

September 13, 2023

What comes to your mind when you hear the words like “Unsung heroes”, “Underdogs”, and “Underrated”? Don’t say “Royal Challengers Bangalore” for Pete’s sake. Probably, nations like Morocco and Japan in international football competitions and Newcastle United and Brighton in the Premier League in recent times; Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”, which is his criminally underrated film; Intelligence agents or spies of your country who are changing the international affairs landscape under shadows. And, there is another group of folks who are doing the works that are of great importance in complete silence. They are known to the Tech world as “Back-End Developers.” The Unsung heroes of the modern world.

What is Back-End development?

Back-End development encompasses the creation and maintenance of the behind-the-scenes components that power websites and applications. This domain involves tasks such as configuring servers for hosting, designing and managing databases, and crafting the code responsible for processing user requests and generating dynamic content. Back-end developers also play a crucial role in establishing APIs for seamless communication between different parts of an application or with external services. They implement security measures, optimize performance, and ensure scalability for applications. Additionally, they handle tasks like authentication, error handling, and monitoring system health. Database migrations and rigorous testing are part of their responsibilities, making them instrumental in building robust and reliable server-side systems.

Key aspects of the Back-End Development:

Here's a breakdown of the key aspects of back-end development:

  • Server: Back-end developers work on setting up and configuring servers to host websites and applications. This includes choosing the appropriate server hardware and software, such as Apache, Nginx, or Microsoft IIS.

  • Database management: They design and manage databases where data is stored. This involves creating database schemas, defining tables, and writing queries to retrieve and manipulate data. Common database management systems include MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Oracle.

  • Server-Side Logic: Back-end developers write the code that handles requests from the client-side (front-end) of the application. This includes processing user inputs, performing calculations, and generating dynamic content to be displayed on the user's device.

  • APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): They develop APIs that allow different parts of an application or different applications to communicate with each other. APIs enable data exchange and integration with third-party services.

  • Security: Back-end developers are responsible for implementing security measures to protect the application and its data from various threats, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and data breaches.

  • Performance Optimization: They optimize server-side code and database queries to ensure the application runs efficiently and responds quickly to user requests. This involves caching, load balancing, and other techniques.

  • Scalability: Back-end developers design the architecture in a way that allows the application to scale horizontally or vertically as needed to handle increased traffic and load.

  • Authentication and Authorization: They implement user authentication and authorization systems to control access to certain parts of the application or data based on user roles and permissions.

  • Error Handling: Handling errors gracefully is crucial. Back-end developers implement error-handling mechanisms to ensure that the application can recover from unexpected issues without crashing.

  • Logging and Monitoring: They set up logging and monitoring systems to track the performance and health of the application, helping to identify and resolve issues quickly.

  • Database Migrations: Over time, as application requirements change, back-end developers perform database migrations to modify the database schema without data loss.

  • Testing and Debugging: Back-end developers write unit tests and perform debugging to ensure the reliability and functionality of the server-side code.

Why do we need a Back-End?

Well, for the uninitiated, these are the reasons:

  • Hosting

  • Central Data Access

  • Privacy & Security

  • Integration

  • Resource Constraints

  • Cost Distribution

If you want to know more and if you’re reading this while you commute, read here. If you want to dive deeper like a Titan Submersible, here is an informative piece on the importance of Back-End by a Front-End Full stack Engineer.

Types of Back-End languages :

Well, there are many languages that can be used in the Back-End Development process. But, the choice of languages really depends on the requirements of the project/firm and personal preferences. So, here are the languages that are being used:

Roles of Back-End Developers:

They qualify for roles such as

  • Back-End Developers/Engineers, as usual

  • Database administrator(DBA)

  • Security Engineer

  • API Developer

  • DevOps Engineer

  • Site Reliability Engineer(SRE)

  • Full-stack developer

  • System Architect

  • Data Engineer

  • Cloud Engineer

And numerous other roles

In summary, back-end development is an essential part of creating websites and applications, concentrating on the infrastructure and server-side logic that runs the software. To create reliable and effective back-end systems, you need to be knowledgeable in a variety of programming languages, frameworks, databases, and server technologies.

Meme from imageflip.com

Further Readings:

  1. 10 skills to become a Backend Developer in 2023

  2. Backend Engineer Vs. backend Developer. Dishoom!

  3. Top 10 Backend Technologies that you must know in 2023