What is Backend Development? Skills, Salary and Roles
Last Updated :
26 Apr, 2025
Backend development is a blessing to all of us that we are able to get everything done by just sitting at home. Be it booking tickets, watching movies, or any sort of thing, backend development plays a major role in building an application. It is also one of the highly demanding professions in the IT industry.
In this blog, we'll be exploring backend development, along with the skills required to become a backend developer. Also, you will know the average salary offered to a backend developer, backend development being a high-paying career.
Let's begin this journey of backend development!
What is Backend Development?
Backend development is the development of the client-side (server-side) of the application. This process involves knowledge of APIs, databases, servers, and apps. APIs play a major role in backend development, it takes care of fetching the data from the backend and passing it to the frontend.
The actual operation in backend development is that it allows a database to communicate with the application, thus transferring the data to the frontend from the backend. In contrast to front-end development where customers can have a look at the UI, back-end development works on compiling code for the integration of a database with an application.
Who's a Backend Developer?
A backend developer is a professional who works on creating the server side of the web application. Backend developers build and maintain the application to process data and perform operations on the website. They are responsible for data processing, storage, and retrieval.
They must be skilled with fundamentals like programming languages (JavaScript, Python, Java), databases, APIs, servers, data structures and algorithms, testing, and debugging. They take care of the server side of the application working efficiently, securely, and reliably. Not only just technical skills, a backend developer should be strong in problem-solving skills to handle complex scenarios, time management, and other required non-technical skills.
Also Read: How to Become a Backend Developer in 2024 | A Step-by-Step Guide
Skills Required for a Backend Developer
Now, let's read some of the major skills that you should have as a backend developer:
1. Data Structures and Algorithms
Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) are the building block of an application, it is a must-have skill for backend developers. DSA plays an important role as it helps in efficient data processing, storage, and retrieval. You must be clear with the fundamentals from basic to advanced-level concepts be it linked list, stack, queue, trie, tree, etc.
Concepts you must be good at DSA for backend development are:
- Searching
- Sorting
- Stacks
- Queues
- Linked Lists
- Hashcode
- Tree
- Graphs
Planning for a backend development career? Ace your interview preparation and for that you must look at the guide on How to get started with DSA for BackEnd Developer Interview.
2. Programming Languages
Programming languages are the basic skill required for web applications, and various other purposes also. Thus, you must be very well-skilled with the programming languages used in backend development. Also they just know about Object Oriented Programming. Some of the popular programming languages used in backend development are given below:
Python and JavaScript are the most preferred programming languages for backend development. These languages are best because of their frameworks, libraries, versatility, simplicity, and robust capabilities.
3. Servers
The server is the part of the website where the data is stored, organized, and processed. The server takes care of the communication of the backend with the front end, sending and receiving information that is displayed on the web page. You must have a basic understanding of the server and its functioning.
4. Database Management Systems (DBMS)
DBMS acts as a crucial part of backend development as it stores, processes, and retrieves data. Backend developers use databases that act as an interface between the user and the database to create, read, update, store, and process data.
5. Knowledge of Frontend-Development
You must have a strong knowledge of frontend development skills to get into backend development, which includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, frameworks, libraries, UI/UX, etc. You must have basic experience of working with frontend development.
6. Knowledge of APIs
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are a set of functions and procedures, that act as an interface between two applications. It allows applications to communicate with each other, exchanging data, features, and functionality.
Types of APIs are:
- Monolithic APIs
- Microservices APIs.
- Composite APIs.
- Unified APIs.
7. Version Control Systems (VCS)
VCS, also known as source control, is a platform that keeps a record of all the changes made to a code file of a web application. You can edit, undo, and redo all the changes and switch to the required version.
Some of the popular VCSs are:
- Git
- Mercurial
- Concurrent Versions Systems
- Azure DevOps Server
Backend Development Frameworks
There are various popular backend frameworks used by developers, but there are only a few which are used extensively. Let's discuss about those:
- Node.js: Node.js, used for server-side programming, is a cross-platform, open-source JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. It is deployed for non-blocking, event-driven servers.
- Django: Django, written in Python, is a free and open-source back-end side framework that builds web pages efficiently.
- ExpressJS: ExpressJS is a JavaScript framework, which provides a set of features for building web applications. It is used to build a single page, multipage, and hybrid web application.
- Ruby on Rails: Ruby on Rails is a server-side, model-view-controller (MVC) framework written in Ruby. It provides default structures for a database, web service, and web pages.
Roles Offered to a Backend Developer
Several roles offered to a backend developer are given below:
- Must be skilled in creating, maintaining, testing, and debugging the backend of an application.
- Work on APIs, which enable the communication between the server and client side of an application.
- Builds reusable code and libraries.
- Manage the server configuration and database.
- Implementation of data protection and security.
A few roles offered to a backend developer are:
- Backend developer
- Full-Stack developer
- Software Engineer
- Java Developer
Career Opportunities of a Backend Developer
The career of a backend developer is highly demanding and high-paying. If you have the required skills and a will to explore deeper in backend development, this profession is a great choice. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, there's an expected rise of 23% by the year 2031. Many product-based companies hire backend developers and that too at a very good pay.
Looking for great courses on backend development, we have that covered. You can go for any of the two courses mentioned below and get your backend development career started:
Salary of a Backend Developer
The average salary of a backend developer in India is 8.8 LPA, where the influencing factors can be skills, location, experience, etc. According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a backend developer in India is INR 9.38 LPA, whereas in the U.S.A., the average salary is $103,096 per year.
The salary of a backend developer also depends on factors like skills, location, experience, and many other cases.
Let's look at the table given below to have a better understanding of the average salary of a backend developer as per experience:
Years of experience | In India | In USA |
|---|
Fresher | 3.7 LPA | $95000 |
|---|
<2-3 years of experience | 8.7 LPA | $110k |
|---|
>3 years of experience | 12.2 LPA | $112,768 |
|---|
>5 years of experience | 17.8 LPA | $165,000 |
|---|
Conclusion
Now that you know all about what is backend development, the necessary skills, roles, and salary required to become a backend developer. It's time to explore this wonderful exciting job opportunity and lead a great career ahead. Dive deep into the backend development career and get yourself placed at a product-based company earning a good salary.
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