Full Stack Developer skills

Essential skills

Front-end development: Employers check this through portfolio projects, code samples, or technical interviews on building responsive, accessible interfaces.
Back-end development: Employers assess your ability to create server-side features, APIs, and business logic through project discussions or coding tasks.
Databases: Employers may ask you to design a simple data model, write queries, or explain how you handle data safely and efficiently.
Testing and debugging: Employers look for examples of tests you have written and how you investigate and fix problems.
Version control: Employers may review your Git history or ask how you use branches, commits, and code reviews.
Web fundamentals: Employers check your understanding of HTTP, browser behavior, security basics, and how front-end and back-end systems work together.

Frameworks and libraries: Employers compare your experience with the tools used by their team through questions, coding tasks, or project reviews.
API design and integration: Employers may ask you to explain how you build, document, secure, or connect to APIs.
Deployment and cloud basics: Employers look for practical experience shipping applications and may ask how you configure environments or troubleshoot deployment issues.
Build tools and automation: Employers check whether you can use common development workflows, such as package managers, build tools, and continuous integration.
Performance and accessibility: Employers may review a project or ask how you identify and address slow pages or barriers to use.
Specialist areas: Employers assess relevant experience in areas such as mobile development, data processing, or security through focused questions or work samples.

Communication: Employers check how clearly you explain technical choices and discuss your work with different audiences.
Collaboration: Employers may ask about team projects, code reviews, or how you handled shared responsibilities.
Problem-solving: Employers assess your approach through practical exercises and questions about difficult problems you have solved.
Adaptability: Employers look for examples of how you learned an unfamiliar tool or adjusted to changing requirements.
Ownership: Employers ask how you follow work through from understanding a need to testing and delivery.

Built a responsive web application with a front-end framework, a back-end API, and a relational database; added automated tests for key user flows.
Designed and documented API endpoints, integrated them with the user interface, and used version control and code review throughout development.
Improved an existing application by identifying a performance or accessibility issue, implementing a fix, and verifying the result.

Create complete projects: Build applications that include an interface, server-side logic, data storage, tests, and deployment.
Practise the fundamentals: Work on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, a back-end language, databases, HTTP, and Git before adding more tools.
Study existing code: Read documentation and open-source projects to learn patterns, then apply what you learn in your own work.
Get feedback: Ask peers or mentors to review your code and explain how you can make it clearer, safer, or easier to maintain.
Work with others: Join a group project or contribute to a shared codebase to practise communication, planning, and code review.
Document your work: Keep project notes that explain the problem, your decisions, and what you would improve next.

See which skills you still need for your target role.