The boundary between front-end and back-end?

Question

Backend

Here's a newbie question...
Let's say I want to become a front-end developer. I learned html / css3 / sass / less / standard js and then also a library like react, (for example, say), learned webpack and gulp, read about MVC and other development models. But here's the question? If I want to make a later SPA or PWA application for my portfolio, then how can I actually do it myself in terms of backend? After all, you need not only the logic that, say, functions in the browser, but also the whole logic of CRUD operations and requests on the backend. Let's just say that no application (as far as I know and have been told) should be directly connected to the database and such an application needs an API. So I need to learn how to write API services, interaction between databases, etc., so that my application can generally exchange information with the server. But isn't that already Back-End? Should a front-end developer be able to write and understand API architecture, etc. at all? Of course, you can always connect directly to some phpmyadmin and write a couple of stupid CRUD operations there, MySQL queries and play with them. But after all, in order for the application to work in real time, you also need to invent some kind of web-sockets or ajax requests, do all this through the API and not directly, etc., etc. But isn't that what Backend developers should already know? do all this through the API and not directly, etc., etc. But isn't that what Backend developers should already know? do all this through the API and not directly, etc., etc. But isn't that what Backend developers should already know?

I would be grateful if someone could explain this line to me and could tell me how to make a portfolio without knowing the backend and not knowing how to write my own API services.

Answer 1

Everything is simpler:
1. Creating UI / UX, markup, styling and front-end logic is front-ender.
2. What does "the logic of the front" mean? It's JS and front application architecture.
3. To correctly create an architecture, you need to understand all possible interfaces for interacting with the backend. Then, arrange them for data exchange with the back.
4. To do this, you need to know: what protocols for data exchange with the server are provided by the browser, what data transfer formats are used, the logic of the functioning of communication with the back: "request-response" (in different modes: request / stream, synchronously / asynchronously, etc.). and how to use them all together correctly.
Up to this point - it's all front!
Further, as soon as the data has left the browser environment for the network, the backing begins.

Answer 2

Whatever they say, the backend can remain a completely black box only for the layout designer, with reservations.
A front-end developer, even from a junior level, is already actively working with receiving, sending data, interactive interfaces, and so on. You need to understand how and why some things work there. It's good to be able to do something simple quickly. I'm not saying it becomes a full stack in the full sense of the word, BUT. On the good side: the front-end middle and above the level can be called a full-stack with a stretch, just with a big bias towards the front part.
It's just that even a serverless direction makes one understand the processes taking place on that side to some extent.
Well, in any case, in the case of active practice and development, you yourself will come across the fact that sometimes you even need to climb and write some of your simple scripts.
I will note separately, this does not mean that you need to fall headlong, trying to become a full stack. know everything etc. No, I mean that understanding the work of the backend, and therefore the ability to do some things, will and will come with active work and growth of you as a specialist.
The same applies to the same soft skills and managerial skills.

Answer 3

The front should not go into development there, well, except that you need to know and be able to work with different types of API, but if you do it for yourself, you will have to learn)

Answer 4

The point is not in basic knowledge, but in specialization.
Writing a simple stub server should not be a problem for a senior frontend, but it is not necessary to get into the wilds of fault tolerance, clustering, backend performance and learn several frameworks and dozens and hundreds of libraries.
Therefore, the line is drawn at the level of mid-specialist and above.
The higher level you are, the easier it is to find a more “clean” front-end work in a project where other people are involved in the back-end, and you negotiate conventions with them through UML or another convenient way.
Well, or there is still a full-stack path.

Answer 5

Over the past 5 years, it seems to me, js has taken a big step into the world of backend development. And now, for a front-end developer, not only standard html/css3/sass/less/js, but also knowledge of working with backend,
such as NodeJS and ExpressJS, have become mandatory.

Answer 6

as an api stub, json-server is suitable
or you can make requests to the firebase database directly.
If you need backend logic, and not just data, then backend frameworks are already needed.
You need to know the backend from the level of "made a couple of projects" to the level that is enough for your tasks.
https://habr.com/en/post/306716/

Answer 7

If you want to rummage normally, take it and understand how web applications / sites are completely arranged. No division into frontends and backends.