How to Become a Software Engineer: 5 Front-End Skills to Know
Front-end software engineers use CSS, HTML and JavaScript to build the front-end, which is what a user interacts with on an app, software or web browser; it’s all of the visual aspects. Contrast this with the back-end, which powers the front-end or user interface behind the scenes.
Here are the five skills you should know to become a front-end software engineer.
What are CSS and HTML?
Front-end software engineers use CSS and HTML to build layouts for apps, software or web pages.
- CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheet. Front-end software engineers use CSS to style web pages.
- HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language. Front-end developers use HTML to define the building blocks of web pages.
Let’s say we want to build an application like Instagram. A typical layout for our photo-sharing app might look like this:
The building blocks of the page are the image and some text. There is some text for the username and a block of text for a message or caption. Finally, there are icons to like, comment and share.
A front-end software engineer uses HTML to add these building blocks to the web page. They then use CSS for the visual effects, such as making the username font bold. Additionally, CSS can make the image round, add padding around the image, change the color of icons, and define what happens when you hover the mouse over icons.
Front-end developers can also use CSS to create animations.
What is JavaScript?
Because most web pages are interactive, a front-end software engineer should know how to use JavaScript. JavaScript adds functionality or specific behaviors to web pages. For example, a photo-sharing app would use JavaScript to allow users to like a post.
JavaScript is a programming language, but CSS and HTML are not. Because CSS and HTML are not programming languages, software engineers can’t use them to tell computers what to do. CSS and HTML define the building blocks and style of the page.
Every web page on the internet is built with CSS, HTML and JavaScript.
How to become a front-end software engineer in six months
If you spend three to five hours a day studying and coding, you could have a reasonable understanding of CSS and HTML in about a month and a half. You should start your journey to becoming a front-end software engineer with CSS and HTML.
After you learn CSS and HTML, you will learn JavaScript next. JavaScript can take another month and a half to learn at a functional level. While you won’t be a master in JavaScript in six weeks, you will have a reasonable understanding, which should help you learn more as you work on different projects.
Once you have a foundation in CSS, HTML and JavaScript, focus on front-end frameworks and libraries. Because building a website often includes repetitive tasks, front-end software engineers typically use frameworks to work more efficiently.
Popular frameworks or libraries include Angular, React and Vue. These frameworks or libraries come with a lot of code that you can reuse on your web pages.
- React is great for beginners. It is the most popular tool among front-end software engineers. Once you learn React, you can quickly learn other frameworks, libraries and tools.
You can probably learn how to use React in two months or less. Next, you should study version control systems, which front-end software engineers use to keep track of the project history and work collaboratively with others.
Common version control systems include Git, Mercurial and Subversion, but Git is by far the most popular tool used by most software development teams. Git can be learned in two weeks.
The bottom line
You can become a front-end software engineer in about six months. The five skills you need to learn to have a basic working knowledge are CSS, HTML, JavaScript, React and Git. Combined, these languages, frameworks and systems are used by the majority of front-end development teams.
This article was written by Shahan Chowdhury for HackerNoon and was lightly edited and republished with permission.