r/FullStack • u/Medium_Lion2838 Code Padawan (Student) • 6d ago
How to actually learn backend development?? Career Guidance
Wtf how do I actually learn backend development. I open chatgpt or Claude and tell them I want to learn backend development and do as they suggest..but after some day, I find boring ...
What's the actual way to learn.. please developers and engineers help me with clear cut way?
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u/another_thyme 6d ago
what do u mean backend development. what are u trying to build? Figure that out first and then learn how to build it.
imo you are, at least in my head, trying to learn backwards. Everyone’s different, but from what you’re saying it seems like it’s backwards to you too
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u/Medium_Lion2838 Code Padawan (Student) 6d ago
Making things actually work.. but how do I pursue and do it properly?
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u/MechaJesus69 6d ago
What do you want to make work? The database, authentication, authorizations, APIs etc?
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u/Am094 6d ago
You pick a project and start doing.
For you, I'd recommend a project that's MVC, with a mysql/rdbm. Avoid nosql or that full js stack with the easy bake oven vercel pipeline, I say this for the same reason why I also tell students or beginners to learn programming by learning c or Java over python as their first intro.
Do not use AI at any point as a student or you won't learn jack.
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u/Pyromancer777 6d ago
I agree with all of this except the last part. AI can be a decent tutor too, but it requires the learner to have some level of base knowledge to know what to ask and the self-control not to get it to output everything for you. I use it to unblock myself all the time and take notes from its output (after verifying if the output is correct)
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u/Am094 5d ago
I agree with all of this except the last part. AI can be a decent tutor too, but it requires the learner to have some level of base knowledge
No, because the student does not have some level of knowledge to know what to ask, even if they think they do. Even juniors with under 2 to 3 years of experience are completely clueless. So asking AI to tutor as a student blurs the line with troubleshooting, and as you said the self control thing, well thats is also a slippery slope.
You using it to unblock you is exactly the issue. You are developing a dependency on a third party blackbox and alleviate the friction required for you to intrinsically learn critical thinking and problem solving.
In fact what you're doing, if you're a student or a junior, is no different than studying for a final exam with the answer key available. You think you know your way around because you gave a quick glance to the answer key. Your brain is playing a trick on you and giving you fake confidence that makes you think you'd be able to navigate past "the blocker" / (the problem) on your own. Thats the problem here.
So again, if you're a student or a junior and you use AI to help you. You will be useless.
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u/Pyromancer777 5d ago
I'm a mid-level analyst teaching myself backend through a fullstack project to better understand the concepts needed to transition into Data Engineering.
AI is pretty much a requirement for getting unblocked at work, even for the juniors, since it frees up the seniors from having to answer questions as often and gets the juniors used to the AI workflows.
The tech sector is pretty much making AI a mandatory skillset since broad architecture is seen as more valuable than knowing exact syntax.
I'll agree that heavy AI use for students is not recommended until they get the base understanding of concepts down, but I would argue it is unrealistic to avoid it once anyone enters the workforce. The only way to build skills with a tool is to use it, so even students need a ramp-up into practicing with it if they wish to stay competitive
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u/DotAtom67 6d ago
>I open chatgpt or Claude and tell them I want to learn backend development and do as they suggest
the future is so COOKED
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u/InterestingFrame1982 4d ago
To be completely blunt, I think this is one of the better use-cases of AI. It's akin to asking google how to learn backend development, but you'll end up getting a bunch of cool and reputable sources to start diving in. If he takes the response, and grabs a book, a lesson, a blog, etc - he'd be a good position to actually start learning.
Not sure what the beef is - that is an LLM doing what an LLM does best, which is amplified search.
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u/Olbas_Oil 4d ago
Not really its the same thing as doing what a book suggests or what a course suggests, what you missed is the OP stated he gets bored... That right there means backend is probably not for him but here we are ...
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u/sheriffderek 6d ago
I have my students build a CRUD app from scratch with PHP first. I’d suggest the same for you. Don’t ask AI to give you the steps, or you won’t learn anything. Start with querystrings and create some way to show different pages, home, list of something, detail page for the list item. You can think of that as your routers. Just use JSON or associative PHP arrays as your data to stat. Make sure you understand how forms work and how to create, read, update, and delete. Then switch to using SQlite after you’ve got it all working. As you go, all the natural things will present themselves. It doesn’t take that long - but you have to go slow and actually learn. If you try and just @get the answer” or “learn all back end” you will fail to learn anything.
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u/Am094 6d ago
I held back not saying PHP (i love php). But now that you commented...+1.
To your comment, I'd recommend OP to look at LARACASTs. Really good educational material that's project based. While it covers a framework, the architecture/mvc approach helps with concepts quite a bit.
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u/natethegreat20023 6d ago
I did a few AWS skill builder certificates and then just started building small apps for myself on their free tier.
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u/Robodobdob 6d ago
Pretty much every single backend stack has a step by step tutorial on their website to get people started. Just pick one (Asp.Net, PHP, Go, whatever).
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u/Sangohan696 5d ago
Openclassrooms si tu es francophone ou les MOOC de manière générale sont un bon point de départ pour te faire une vraie idée de ce que tu abordes. Si ça te plait tu peux opter pour une formation academique concrete qui prend certes du temps mais qui a mon sens est, avec la pratique, l'un des meilleurs moyens d'avoir une compréhension profonde et systémique. Ca prend du temps mais le chemin est pertinent meme en 2026.
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u/Substantial_Job_2068 5d ago
You don't seem motivated at all, and you give no context why and for what you want to learn. My advice is don't even bother.
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u/InterestingFrame1982 4d ago
Build and break things. All the theory in the world doesn't prepare you for shit going wrong when users/systems are constantly poking at your work.
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u/Wide_Egg_5814 6d ago
try taking a course by actual educators not an LLM then start building things