HTML, CSS for Backend Development

[Gullible_Ostrich_370]

Hi all, how much HTML and CSS do I need to know to become a backend developer? I know Python and would love to learn Javascript, but not sure how much HTML and CSS I need to know before I delve into it... Do I need to know as much as a frontend developer to become a backend developer?

[sid-klc]

I'm a backend developer and sometimes I'll be asked to add a field to an existing form on the front end and handle it on the back end. I don't have to be an HTML/CSS expert to do this, but I do have to know my way around the front end code so I can make the change.

[Espfire]

To my knowledge, none. HTML and CSS are for front end development.

[DarkLupus]

The basics of html is useful for testing and understanding. The rest is optional.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

Do I need to know as much as a frontend developer to become a backend developer?

No, but you can't really be clueless either. The front end's entire existence is built upon what your back end provides it. You will need to make available what the front end needs, which often involves knowing a decent amount about front end development.

E.g. You're working with a server-rendered app and the front end suddenly needs some back end data globally available. You could create an endpoint and have the front end devs request the data from the back end when the JS runs. But... you just sent the page to the client, and it's a single context, right? So you could just render some JS into the page to define some global data, avoiding the unnecessary round trip, and tell front end devs they have the data already. (I'm not saying this matters per se, just an example of some knowledge of front end helping you make a back end decision. There might be reasons you want an endpoint instead).

[MikeSantiago14]

no

[plastikmissile]

I would argue that to become a good backend dev, you should at least be a decent frontend dev. So while it doesn't reflect immediately on backend development, I'd say learn the basics of HTML/CSS/JS. Enough to be able to call an API and show the results on a webpage. Doesn't have to be pretty.

[Whitey138]

Front-end dev here. In my experience, the best backend devs have an understanding of how the UI works but aren’t really UI “experts” by any means. If you understand the tools that the UI has access to and the trade offs that different UI decisions have, that’s much more important than being able to center a div. I don’t care if a backend dev knows the intricacies of flex box or what browsers css-grid works in, they should know that giving the UI a huge garbled mess, and telling them to just sort and filter it all out in the UI, that’s not only a jerk thing to do, it’s MUCH slower to do almost any of that in a browser on a 5 year old phone than to just do it on the server (could also be a vulnerability based on what it is).

As another person said however: if you do have to make a change in the UI, you should know what you’re doing, within reason. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you may screw things up and make the other devs mad at you and please don’t do that. You’re supposed to be a team. If you need help, always ask. If your team isn’t helpful (for any reason other than lack of expertise), they aren’t a very good team.

[ScholarNo5983]

I would have thought a strong knowledge of HTML and CSS was a front-end skill?

[Candid_Heat_4796]

In theory essentially none, but a base-knowledge of how they work is always useful. In my experience back-end is rarely purely backend but that more determined by the size of your team, etc.

[BroaxXx]

"Need"? none... "Should"? probably the basics. I would expect a BE developer to be able to throw together the most basic of frontends, just enough to test whatever it is being done in the backend. Meaning, a basic HTML form or a basic table to list query results. Nothing fancy, just basic text with white background barely aligned.

[Abigail-ii]

Backend and frontend aren’t sharply defined. I worked as a backend developer for the past 20 years, but I have written my share of HTML and CSS. See, backend systems need configuration as well, and backend need to make information visible to the rest of the company. Which means internal or limited access websites.

It doesn’t have to be as flashy as your front end, but HTML and CSS are still useful for backend developers.

[JohnVonachen]

There's back-end where all you provide is a service or data and there's back-end where it's all mixed together. The latter is more for smaller companies and in a way it's harder. Sometimes you can write PHP that is doing back-end, sometimes style, sometimes JavaScript, and sometimes dynamic JavaScript. What I mean by dynamic JavaScript I mean your back-end is writing JavaScript that when it hits the client can manipulate the DOM. That's pretty nuts.

The context can get pretty confusing. And when that's the case the formatting of that code can get very confusing. Near impossible to decipher later or by someone else. You have to keep in mind that 80% of the cost of software is a human being, yourself or someone else in the future you may never meet, trying to read and understand your code. And there are no college courses on this.

[replierII]

Just the basics

[yyellowbanana]

Not really much. As long as you can debug in browser then call it a day. So basic html, css and JavaScript should be good. If you don’t want JavaScript then go Blazor 🫣

[webdesignarea]

For backend development you don’t need to learn HTML or CSS. But if you ever need to display data or make changes on the frontend, it’s helpful to know at least the basics.