Backend Development Roadmap

The command line (terminal) is a text-based interface for interacting with your computer. Instead of clicking through folders and menus, you type commands to navigate, create files, install tools, and run programs.

Python is a beginner-friendly, general-purpose programming language known for its clean syntax. It is widely used in backend development, data science, automation, and AI.

Node.js lets you run JavaScript outside the browser — on servers, command-line tools, and backend services. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking model that handles many connections efficiently.

Git is a version control system that tracks changes to your code over time. GitHub is a platform built on Git that lets you store code online, collaborate with others, and manage projects.

JavaScript is the programming language of the web. It runs in every browser and lets you make pages interactive — respond to clicks, validate forms, fetch data from servers, and build full applications.

A database stores your application's data in an organised way. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard language for interacting with relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite.

A REST API is a set of endpoints that let clients (like a frontend app or mobile app) interact with your server using standard HTTP methods. It is the most common way to build backend services.

Backend frameworks like Express (Node.js), Django, and Flask (Python) provide the structure for building web servers and APIs. They handle routing, middleware, request parsing, and more so you do not start from scratch.

Authentication verifies who a user is (login). Authorisation determines what they are allowed to do (permissions). Together, they protect your application and its data from unauthorised access.

Deployment is the process of making your application available on the internet. DevOps basics cover the tools and practices for reliably getting code from your machine to a production server.

Backend security covers the practices and tools that protect your server, API, and data from attacks. It includes input validation, encryption, secure headers, and protection against common vulnerabilities.

System design is the process of planning the architecture of a software system before building it — how data flows, where things are stored, how services communicate, and how the system handles growth.