How to Know if You’re a Full-Stack Web Developer

Back when I was interviewing for my current role, the notion of calling yourself a Full-Stack Web Developer came up, and the interviewer asked me what I thought it meant. My answer was pretty simple: it’s just the idea that given enough time, I could create and deploy the whole application by myself.

This would include designing, coding, and testing the

• front-end,
• back-end/API layer,
• data access layer,
• authentication/authorization,
• communications architecture (polling?, web sockets?), and
• application security pieces.

Then, you have to be able to deploy it — somewhere. Perhaps you’re not an expert in cloud operations, but you should at least be able to stand it up live on the internet, ideally via CI/CD.

Does it matter which stack you choose? No.

Are there Junior, Mid-level, and Senior Full-Stack Web Developers? Of course.

In short, to consider yourself a Full-Stack Web Dev, be able to affirmatively answer the question:

“Given enough time, could I develop and deploy the entire application myself?”

P.S. “develop” above of course includes writing tests. After all, no self-respecting web developer skips writing tests.

Image Credit: “Web Development Technologies” by daniel_iversen is licensed under CC BY 2.0