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How to become a Backend Developer

Becoming a Backend Developer is an in-demand career path. It requires deep expertise in Backend and a strong network to carry you along. Here are some resources to help you on your journey.

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Why should you become a 
Backend Developer?

Backend Developer

Demand for experts in Backend is growing rapidly. Companies are looking for people with deep expertise in the field of Backend to help them build their products and services.

As a result, Backend Developers are in high demand and command high salaries. According to leading sources, the median salary for a Backend Developer is $120,000 and a senior Backend Developer can earn up to $150,000. Even entry-level positions can command great salaries.

No wonder that interest in a career in Backend is growing rapidly. Explore the resources below to learn more about how to become a Backend Developer.

Table of Contents

Best books to build Backend understanding.

A well-written and thorough book can be an amazing path to build deeper understanding and also act as a handbook as you discover the internet's vast resources.

These are our and our experts top picks to get started building career-relevant skills.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

Data is at the center of many challenges in system design today. Difficult issues need to be figured out, such as scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability. In addition, we have an overwhelming variety of tools, including relational databases, NoSQL datastores, stream or batch processors, and message brokers. What are the right choices for your application? How do …

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Microservice APIs

Microservice APIs teaches you practical techniques for designing robust microservices with APIs that are easy to understand, consume, and maintain. You'll benefit from author José Haro Peralta's years of experience experimenting with microservices architecture, dodging pitfalls and learning from mistakes he's made. Inside you'll find strategies for delivering successful API integrations, imple…

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Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems

Microservice technologies are moving quickly. Author Sam Newman provides you with a firm grounding in the concepts while diving into current solutions for modeling, integrating, testing, deploying, and monitoring your own autonomous services. Youâ??ll follow a fictional company throughout the book to learn how building a microservice architecture affects a single domain.

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Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

In this practical and comprehensive guide, author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate this diverse landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of…

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Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Noted software expert Robert C. Martin, presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Martin, who has helped bring agile principles from a practitioner’s point of view to tens of thousands of programmers, has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code “on the fly” into a book that will …

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Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

Patterns allow designers to create more flexible, elegant, and ultimately reusable designs without having to rediscover the design solutions themselves. Highly influential, Design Patterns is a modern classic that introduces what patterns are and how they can help you design object-oriented software and provides a catalog of simple solutions for those already programming in at last one object-…

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Courses to deepen your Backend skills.

These days, courses are no longer a sequence of videos. They are usually accompanied by projects and a learning community, keeping you accountable and on the path.

Our experts recommend these courses, from free selections to paid programs.

Python Bootcamp: From Zero to Hero

Learn Python like a Professional Start from the basics and go all the way to creating your own applications and games. Create games with Python, like Tic Tac Toe and Blackjack! Learn advanced Python features, like the collections module and how to work with timestamps & Build a complete understa…
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Advanced Python

Over time, Python has exploded in popularity, from being an obscure scripting language to becoming one of the most popular, and widely used languages in the world. In this Advanced Python tutorial, you'll learn advanced topics, a knowledge of which will set you apart from the greater number of P…
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Meta: Introduction to Back-End Development

This course is a good place to start if you want to become a web developer. You will learn about the day-to-day responsibilities of a web developer and get a general understanding of the core and underlying technologies that power the internet. You will learn how front-end developers create website…
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Back-end Development

Every web or mobile app has 2 parts: a front-end and a back-end. The front-end is what the user sees and interacts with. The back-end is where the data gets processed and stored. The average salary for a back-end developer is $121,112 per year in the United States. There are many technology stacks …
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Get help with your learning journey

Learning through online courses can be challenging. Get 1:1 guidance from an experienced mentor who can help you stay accountable and answer your questions along the way.
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Back-End Engineer

Back-end developers deal with the hidden processes that run behind the scenes, building APIs and databases that power the front-end. Includes Node.JS, Express.JS, PostgreSQL, Back-End, SQL, Security, and more.
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Backend Master Class [Golang + Postgres + Kubernetes + gRPC]

In this course, you will learn step-by-step how to design, develop and deploy a backend web service from scratch. I believe the best way to learn programming is to build a real application. Therefore, throughout the course, you will learn how to build a backend web service for a simple bank. It wil…
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Get the guidance you need to become a Backend Developer

There is no better source of accountability and motivation than having a personal mentor. What used to be impossible to find is now just two clicks away! All mentors are vetted & hands-on!

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Rudra Purohit 🇺🇸

Senior Software Engineer at Uber
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Hi! I'm Rudra. I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Uber with 8+ years of experience. In the past five years I've worked at Uber, have a proven track record as a SWE and technical leader. Along with building products, helping others grow has always been a huge passion of mine …
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Matt Smith 🇺🇸

Production Engineer at Meta
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I work at Facebook as both a Production Engineer which is a hybrid role between a Software Engineer and an SRE as well as a pure Software Engineer. I've worked on the upstream Linux Kernel as well as Meta's custom AI/ML ASIC stack. I have 15 years of experience building …
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Olivia Ifrim 🇬🇧

Senior Staff Software Engineer at Personio
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Riccardo Amadio 🇮🇹

Senior Data Engineer at AgileLab
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I'm a Senior Data Engineer with 12 years in the IT fields. Specialized on Modern Data Stack and Data Architectures. I worked with 500 fortune companies creating Data Architecture that scale over petabytes of data.
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Qi Li 🇺🇸

Distinguished Engineer at Palo Alto Networks
5.0 (10)

With over 15 years of dedicated experience as a Machine Learning Engineer, I have honed my skills in developing comprehensive ML/AI solutions for prominent companies, tackling some of their most critical business challenges. My journey has taken me through leading projects such as developing the ML infrastructure for Airbnb’s Trust …
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Bhumi S 🇺🇸

Software Engineer at Independent
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Hi there! 👋 I’ve been unofficially mentoring developers for many years now. I’ve learned many things the hard way or the slow way in the last 15 years working as a software engineer. Any week that I can meaningfully help someone else on their programming journey is a good week …
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