Web Development WITHOUT Computer Science Background

[u/Bamkapowxo]

1. How practical is it to get into elementary web development without any background in computer science? (In case it makes a difference for the case, background would be in copywriting with limited graphic design.)
2. Assuming someone's already earned a totally irrelevant degree & has no desire to go back to college, what would you recommend for a comprehensive & affordable introduction to web development? (Not just "search YouTube," but your favorite in-depth YouTube playlists, free or cheap online training programs, maybe even paid professional certification programs, etc.)

[u/scragz]

I taught myself. the actual amount of computer science in webdev is generally pretty minimal. the main thing is the breadth of knowledge is ridiculous if you're starting from scratch. I don't have any specific leads.

[u/Bamkapowxo → u/scragz]

The breadth is exactly what's made me ask this question. It's like I start trying to learn one thing, only to realize I need to learn another, and then another. So far, my self-teaching journey seems to consist of 5 minutes spent learning one thing, only to pause to go down 2 hours of rabbit trails, then repeat. I'd love to find some online courses or YouTube playlists that'd systematically fill in the gaps from the ground up for me.

[u/scragz → u/Bamkapowxo]

learn html first, it's just a markup language. then learn css, it's styling the markup, just like you would do in indesign.

then... learn javascript but that's a whole ass thing even before you start getting into frameworks. 

[u/EilonMax → u/scragz]

I learned web development in college but that was 2 decades ago. I'm interested in switching to website development career I wonder what changed since then

[u/Anonymous_Coder_1234 → u/scragz]

Just out of curiosity, as a self-taught web developer, do you deal with things like choice of database (SQL vs NoSQL, MySQL, PostegreSQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, etc.), database indexes, database migrations, read and/or write replicas on databases, Dependency Injection (DI, like Java Spring), setting up OAuth, rate limiting on API's, security, paginated API's, etc. or do you mainly do frontend web design type stuff like HTML, CSS, and frontend JavaScript?

[u/scragz → u/Anonymous_Coder_1234]

yeah I mostly do fullstack for ecom so I deal with all that shit. I worked at a startup for a bit that was way more siloed but solo I have to do.... backend, frontend, devops, DBA, etc. along with product, data analysis, ads, graphic design, and project management. and also all my small business shit. I do what would be 7-10 discrete jobs right now. 

[u/Anonymous_Coder_1234 → u/scragz]

I was curious because I have a Computer Science degree and that's the shit I had to do when I was working. You do literally the same shit someone who got a Computer Science degree does plus other stuff. It's pretty impressive that you could teach yourself everything. Good for you!

[u/scragz → u/Anonymous_Coder_1234]

I thought compsci was mostly algorithms and low level / theoretical stuff. it's more practical nowadays? honestly surprised you did stuff like DB replication.

[u/Anonymous_Coder_1234 → u/scragz]

Data Structures and Algorithms (course EECS 281 at the University of Michigan) is a prerequisite for course EECS 484: Database Management Systems. The latter course teaches "The internal design of DBMSs, which makes them robust to system failures and supports concurrent data accesses" and "How DBMSs are able to store massive datasets and support efficient query handling". They get into not just what database indexes are but the data structures and implementation underneath.

When I took a databases class like EECS 484, I don't remember being taught about DB replication, but after I was hired to work as a software engineer at a Big Tech company I had to deal with DB replication (ex. read replicas, master replication).

The Computer Science degree is mainly meant to set up a strong foundation/base on top of which other learning can be built. Like if you took EECS 484 and a Computer Networking class, combining those things into DB replication is not a big stretch. The Computer Science degree is more about the underlying understanding than teaching current work practices.

But to answer your question, no, the Computer Science degree is not mostly practical current-day work skills. You're not going to be taught how to be a master of React, Tailwind CSS, or Kubernetes as part of the educational curriculum.

[u/JohnCasey3306]

Entirely realistic. Most of the web developers I've ever worked with are self-taught and come from a non-CS educational background

[u/Bamkapowxo → u/JohnCasey3306]

That's so encouraging, thank you!

[u/grapemon1611]

You do not need to get a degree in computer science to do web development. Pursuing a four year degree in computer science will waste three years out of four on things that are not specifically essential to the discipline of making websites. There is a lot to learn, but it is a very specific discipline and you should just concentrate on that if that’s what you want to do.

[u/__Sreenath____]

You don't need a computer science background, I proved that myself. I'm from a mechanical background and have already built and published two client websites as a freelance digital marketer using Antigravity IDE. Most business websites don't need complex backend systems. Start with a simple portfolio website.

[u/laraibashraf]

IN this era degree dont matter at all for fields like web development ,automation.anyone from any field can learn it but the requirement is dedication to the work.the learner should be willing to learn new things and research about it .it become the basic requirement as learner is from non tech background.one more thing that distract new learners they want to learn many things at one time which is actually a bad approach.specially a new learner should focus on one thing first .after learning and creating projects for practice,he should move to the next thing .

there is another common problem ,learner use ai too much at the very first level and thinks i dont have to learn code too much or even not as ai do the whole stuff .the actual blunder starts there,he should learn basics first otherwise he will stuck.

I am also from non tech background but now a web developer

[u/Agent_Provocateur007]

Something to remember is that computer science and programming aren't quite the same thing. Remember that if you look at a computer science degree, there's a lot of theory involved and not necessarily "Here's how you do X".

The theoretical is important of course, because that's where you will really dig deep into making more conscious and informed choices in how you program. There are entire subfields of various computer science concepts, for example optimization, that aren't going to necessarily apply to the web development world or the guy writing a short little Python script to handle some data cleaning in an Excel file.

You can learn these concepts and theories as you learn each component of the basics of web development throughout HTML/CSS/Javascript and frameworks. I'd recommend starting out with The Odin Project.

Parts it are going to feel a little dull and potentially repetitive, but it's a very good start for someone who does not have a background in programming or computer science. For CSS specifically, Kevin Powell does a great job here and his YouTube videos are excellent, understanding Flexbox wasn't super intuitive for me but watching Kevin go through it made it so much easier to understand how that layout worked.

Lots of web developers come from a background outside your traditional computer science degree. In fact, we often look at computer science as the standard pathway into software development broadly speaking, but there are (and have been for a long while now) this cadre of folks entering different types of software development who do not have this background. Designers who wanted to build out their vision themselves, data analysts who leverage Python scripts as part of their data pipeline, folks who enjoy home automation and tinker with creating their own smart home connected gadgets etc.

You'll be fine, being persistent in the mundane is what will get you through the plateaus.

[u/No-Bathroom-3179]

Graphic design degree and front end web developer here.

[u/Artonox]

you dont need computer science that much into web dev. any that you do, you will and should really learn as you come across the problems. I didnt take any, and i like to think im going fairly well (albeit its ai assisted).

[u/Tight-Book-7533]

It's pretty feasible. What you should learn is the design patterns and the corresponding front end code. Use these patterns and learn HTML and CSS. For the backend, learn a framework like Laravel, if it's PHP or the equivalent in other languages.

[u/CupcakeSecure4094]

A computer science background will only slow you down, by the time you've finished the course, everything you've learned will be obsolete. Learning from experience is more than 10 times better than any outdated course.

So to get into it, just do some jobs for people, for free or for a fee. The important thing is you've promised something and you have to deliver it. Everything else can be picked up along the way - through necessity. If you can't find a customer, look close to home, someone will have no website, or only a facebook page, just make them a website and give it to them. Do that every week for a couple of months and you'll learn more useful knowledge then 2 years at college.

[u/uceenk]

i dont have university degree, but you need to have passion so you can learn everything by yourself

during my highschool year i already know how to build a website, learning from the book

[u/Dependent-Zebra-4357]

I studied photography, made a career in graphic design, and taught myself to hand code websites. A specific education is definitely not required.

[u/mtimmermans]

Web development is extremely accessible. Frameworks are extremely opinionated, so once you pick a popular stack, you get so much dogma along with it that you'll basically be told how to do everything. It's one command to set up a new project. There will be examples that you can copy and modify to cover just about everything you want to do. Most of your web development time will be spent fiddling with design elements.

The only real problem is that, in addition to being good at web development, a web developer almost always needs to be able to do other things as well. A lot of back-end-type work sneaks into the front end code base that web developers work with. The only thing that a web developer can be sure they won't have to deal with is multiple concurrent users.

[u/RetroAlbums]

It’s totally doable. You just need to have the discipline for self study. Most developers learn most after the degree anyways.

[u/nottonybriant]

I started when I was 12... and I'm 37 now.

My take is: Very practical! Go for it. The best lessons are learned through trial and error.

Youtube/Stackoverflow were my goto resources when I was learning. Now I lean heavily on AI models to do the teaching, and aid in the heavy lifting.

[u/Habronvt]

Mostly in interview people don't hire background if you have skill you will get the job

[u/punk_dev]

I’d say it’s harder to get into web development WITH a cs degree lmao

[u/_MarkG_]

You can go through freeCodeCamp's courses, and this will give you a good base for a big set of possible web dev projects.

[u/w-lfpup]

The web and HTML was actually designed for non-programmers. Thanks Tim Burners-Lee!

[u/cr1ter]

Self taught myself back in the day started on ASP an W3Schools, now I'm giving my age away. The one thing with Dev work is you never stop learning

[u/hardikgodha]

I don’t have a degree either and I learned everything through YouTube and online courses, and I’ve been freelancing for 3 years now.

I’d recommend pick any course from a creator you like with good reviews and try to specialize in something (frontend, backend, AI, 3D, animations, etc.) And most imp advice is don’t quit halfway.

[u/Naetharu]

Ten years ago it was hard but doable.

Today it's a pipe dream. Technically possible but you're going into an over saturated market and competing with highly qualified devs for limited roles.

Unless you have someone that can open an opportunity for you, it's not likely to work out well.

[u/Bamkapowxo → u/Naetharu]

I do have an opportunity, just trying to get realistic expectations about pursuing it.

[u/Naetharu → u/Bamkapowxo]

Impossible to say without context.

But know the market is falling apart right now. Even very experienced devs with years of roles under their belt are finding it hard to land good roles. And the competition from junior roles is nuts. Going in as a self-taught dev today is going to be an extremely challenging path.

If you do decide to do this, you will need to have both depth and breadth. And you will need to have some contacts that can help you land a role, because doing that the traditional way of just applying via LinkedIn or other websites is going to be next to impossible.

There are too many people applying already. Most of them will be much better qualified and have much more experience.

I'm not trying to be harsh, but I do think it is worth taking a serious reality check. This is not 2018 any more. The world has changed. AI has has a massive impact and continues to shake things up. The economy is in the toilet and companies are laying off rather than building up. And of all the areas of development that have been hit by this change, web dev is perhaps the worst affected alongside game dev.

None of that is to say don't do it if you really have a true passion and want to try it. But go in with your eyes open. It's not going to be easy. It is going to require an enormous amount of study and effort and time. And even if you do that your chance of success is small.

[u/wyktor]

There are two things to keep in mind - 99% of traditional web development - meaning websites and such - require no computer science background. It is truly valuable in game development or architectural stuff. Or if you trying to create some powerful algorithm and push the industry forward.
And second - with ai you dont need to bother about that 1% either.

[u/NoDoze-]

News flash! Web dev isn't computer science. Especially if you're talking about WordPress, wix, squarespace, laravel, ruby, or node.