Coding Tracks:
Frontend developer:
They are proficient in working with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They are responsible for developing the user interface, the view of the application with which the end-user interacts upon. It is a plus for a front-end developer to have strong design skills to facilitate the user experience. Some popular front-end technologies are; Vue.js, Npm (node package manager), Ionic, React, Bootstrap, Angular, and Flutter.
Backend developer:
They are proficient in core (usually statically typed) programming languages and have an in-depth understanding of client-server communication. Usually, backend development includes:
- API design and development
- database management
- management of client-server interaction and server management
- administration of infrastructure and environments.
It is a general perception that a backend developer should have some frontend knowledge as well, since it allows you to visualize how backend data will be rendered to the user. Some popular programming languages for backend development are Ruby, Java, C++, Python, and PHP. Following are some of the popular backend frameworks: Django, Laravel, Rails, and ASP.NET.
Full-Stack developer:
When a person works on both the frontend and backend of an application, they are typically called full-stack developers. A full-stack developer is responsible for coding the front-end of the application using HTML, CSS, JS, Angular, Vue, or other front-end development technologies. They are also responsible for the programming and management of servers using languages and frameworks like PHP, ASP.Net, and Node. Moreover, is it also their responsibility to administer the database using SQL, SQLite, or MongoDB.
DevOps Engineer:
They are technical gurus who are there to bridge the gap between the developers and the IT staff. DevOps are often core assets of any agile development environment, responsible for automating a team's code releases and deployments.
The track to becoming a DevOps engineer often goes through the full stack developer track. A full-stack engineer has better chances of becoming a DevOps engineer because of the experience and understanding one gets from seeing the full architecture and its reliance on infrastructure. Some of the popular DevOps tools are Git and Github, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes.
Software Architect:
A software architect is responsible for the high-level design of the product or application. They are responsible for setting:
- technical standards
- the choices of tools and platforms
- the bar for code quality.
A software architect is a more "prestigious" title and generally considered a higher-skilled job than a full stack developer or a DevOps engineer. It requires extensive experience in the engineering field since they need to see the big picture.
In short, they are responsible for designing the architecture of the software on which the whole system is going to be built. Therefore, designing the architecture requires extensive experience. Surprisingly, much of the work is no longer in the actual coding implementation. Rather, it is usually in the creation of design documents and diagrams.
There are certain visualization tools that are used for designing the software architecture such as Google Docs, Draw.io, Visual Paradigm, and Lucidchart. However, these tools are just to visualize what a software architecture proposes. Therefore, there isn’t any tool that can be learned to become an architect. It comes with experience and research.
QA Engineer (automation):
Maintaining high software quality standards is a very delicate job. Therefore, it is always good practice to have a dedicated resource for maintaining the reliability and correctness of the software. Someone needs to work on ensuring that enhancements don't break existing functionalities and that the existing system works flawlessly.
This is where the Software Quality Assurance Engineers come. They are responsible for testing the software application from the end user's perspective to make sure that everything is working as intended. Software testing can be done manually as well as automatically.
An QA with good coding skills can become an automation engineer who is responsible for automating the software testing. A manual tester would spend days in regression of a large application. However, an automation engineer could get it done in one click. The following are some of the more popular tools for front-end automation: Cypress, selenium, and UFT. POSTMAN, Rspec (for Ruby-based apps), and Selenium.
Data Scientist:
A data scientist is responsible for finding the hidden patterns out of the huge streams of available data. As the media loves to say, data is the new oil in the 21st century. Data scientists are technical people who specialize in refining this oil to understand hidden information.
Becoming a data scientist requires a good grip on mathematics and statistical concepts as well as any core programming language, preferably Python. Following are some of the programming languages that a data scientist should master: python, R, SQL, and Javascript.
Data Engineer:
They are responsible for extracting and managing the data that would be used by the data scientist. Their job usually involves the ETL process: Extract, Transform, and load. They maintain the data warehouses and focus on maintaining the infrastructure and architecture for data generation. A data engineer must have a good grip on ETL tools, SQL, and programming with Python/R.
Ethical Hacker:
Why wait for a third-party who may not be our well-wisher to exploit the weaknesses of our system? Ethical hackers are responsible for intentionally penetrating the system to explore the system’s vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Ethical hackers are a part of a software development team in Reputable software houses. This usually involves pen (penetration) testing, network security. An ethical hacker should have a good grip on programming languages especially, JS. Following are tools that are used for ethical hacking: Nmap, Kismet, Nessus, and NetStumbler.
Database Engineer:
They are responsible for designing, managing, and monitoring complex databases. A database engineer is expected to have an excellent grip on database technologies, programming languages, hardware, and security aspects of the database. They work on the security, scalability, and stability of the databases.