My journey as a Full-Stack Developer

Hello, everyone!
I’m Behan, a Full-Stack Developer currently learning web development. I’ve been focusing on front-end technologies like JavaScript, GSAP, and React, and back-end tools like Node.js and MongoDB. My goal is to create interactive web applications that are both functional and engaging.

Along the way, I’ve faced challenges, such as improving my English and understanding complex topics like buffers and RESTful APIs. But I’m determined to keep learning, and I’ve gained a lot of valuable knowledge in the process.

Right now, I’m working on a couple of projects, including an API checker tool, and I’m excited to keep progressing. My next goal is to dive deeper into React and Redux.

I’d love to connect with other developers who are also on a learning journey or have experience in the technologies I’m exploring. Feel free to share your tips or advice!

Webdevelopment #JavaScript #Nodejs #React

Comments

[Shaktijeet Sahoo]

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

Front-end

1. Go for motion instead of GSAP if you want to move forward with React.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. You are probably using mongoose to interface with MongoDB. Try incorporating the official mongodb driver to know what mongoose is doing behind the scenes.
2. Use zod for data validation in Express requests. Saves time from manual validation and errors and also helps with autocompletion and stuff.
3. 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.
4. [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

1. Regex is a must. From data validation (not email, never email) to database queries.
2. 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.
3. 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)
4. Cloud computing. It's a mandatory skill if you want to bag a job as a full stack or backend developer.

[Behan kumar]

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]

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]

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!

[Mohammad Faisal Deshmukh]

Definitely buddy!! 😊

[Dmitrii Artemev]

Hey mates!

Looking for something on MERN stack?
corbenykt.github.io/mern-frontend/
There is also GitHub uploaded code