The Complete Front-End Developer Roadmap 2022

Front-End Developer Roadmap - Top Skills A Front-End Developer Should Have

1. Learn the Fundamentals - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

As we saw earlier, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are three of the fundamental skills to become a front-end developer. Thus, you must make yourself familiar and comfortable with these three skills. This is the very first step in our front end road map. While HTML and CSS can be learned easily, JavaScript could be challenging, especially if you have no prior programming experience. You should get comfortable with other fundamental skills mentioned earlier - DOM Manipulation, Responsive Design, and working of the web. 

2. Learn any of the CSS Frameworks

Once you are comfortable with the basics - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it is time to move on to the next step in the roadmap for frontend, that is learning any of the CSS Frameworks. These frameworks would speed up the development process for you. One challenge that front end developers face is to maintain styling consistency in their web pages. CSS Frameworks like Bootstrap, Materialize, Tailwind, Semantic UI, Bulma, etc. make it easier to develop a consistent website.  They consist of several CSS stylesheets that are ready to use, allowing developers to save time that is otherwise spent in styling a website. These stylesheets are user-friendly and visually appealing and have built-in classes for common web elements like navbars, headers, footers, menus, etc. 

3. Learn any of the CSS Preprocessors

CSS files can quickly become huge and difficult to maintain. Moreover, CSS doesn’t support some powerful programming features like variables and functions. Thus, we make use of CSS preprocessors that are scripting languages, extending the default capabilities of CSS. The extended CSS code is compiled and the output is the regular CSS file. With the help of CSS preprocessors, we can use logic in our script files like variables, functions, mixins, inheritance, nesting inheritance, and mathematical calculations. This automates repetitive tasks and reduces the number of errors, and creates reusable code. SASS/SCSS, Stylus, and Less are a few popular preprocessors.

4. Learn any JavaScript Framework

 is pre-written code to support features and benefits beyond plain or vanilla JavaScript. As these frameworks are built on top of JavaScript, it is possible to achieve all the features of a framework with normal JavaScript as well. However, these frameworks offer enhanced functionality without writing the code from scratch. This is the reason why Front End Developers usually prefer using a framework over plain JavaScript. Angular, React, Vue.js, Meteor are some of the popular JavaScript frameworks for frontend development. You can also find specialized roles in React, Angular, or Vue.js.  

5. Learn State Management Libraries

Along with any JavaScript Framework, it is recommended to learn State Management Libraries like Redux, VueX, NgRX, XState, etc. depending on which framework you choose to learn. Certain state management libraries can only be used with specific frameworks - for example, NgRX is a Redux based library that is specifically made for Angular applications. 

All the interactive web applications work by responding to “events”. When a certain event occurs, the “state” of your application, i.e. the data stored in variables, gets updated. The variables that determine the state of your interactive web application need to be stored somewhere. This is where State Management comes into picture. It deals with storing and updating the state of the application. 

6. Learn the basics of Package Managers

While working on Front End Development, you will come across Package Managers. A Package Manager is a tool that allows you to install, configure, update and manage software packages, product dependencies and also to publish your own packages. With the use of Package Managers, the development process is faster and easier as you can reuse code libraries created by other developers that are published to a central repository. NPM and Yarn are two popular package managers. You should learn the basic commands of any of the Package Managers.

7. Learn Version Control System

A Version Control System is useful if you are working on a large project or need to collaborate with other developers. It is a software that allows you to manage and track changes to the source code and also revert to a previous version of the code, instead of manually reverting the changes. It enhances the development speed and experience as you spend less time managing the code, reduces possibilities of code conflicts, and helps to recover your code in case you want to revert to a previous version. Git is one of the most popular and widely used version control systems.

8. Learn Testing

While many companies have dedicated Quality Assurance teams for extensive testing of the application, as a developer, you will be expected to perform basic testing of your application to ensure usability and functionality. Writing test cases for your code is a way to ensure that the code is working as expected. This is why  is another important skill you need to become a Front End Developer. There are different levels of testing in front-end development like Unit Testing and End-to-End Testing. Several tools are available for testing like Jest, Mocha, Jasmine, Cypress, etc.  

9. Learn Tools for Website Deployment

Once you have built your website, you need to deploy this website so that anyone on the internet can visit the website and use it. To deploy a website, you will need to know the basics of hosting tools. You can use tools like Github Pages, Heroku, Firebase, Netlify, Vercel, etc. Cloud Providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure also provide hosting services. 

10. Learn Advanced Topic

As a front-end developer, you will often build websites that interact with APIs and RESTful or SOAP services. Thus, you can learn about technologies like REST, SOAP, and XML (AJAX), Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), etc. that are required when the client (the front end of an application) interacts with the server. 

An alternative for REST APIs is GraphQL, which is an open-source data query and manipulation language. It allows developers to make fast and flexible APIs. Using GraphQL enables developers to send requests that can fetch data from multiple sources in a single API call. 

Progressive Web App (PWA) is another good-to-know concept using which you can build applications with additional capabilities like the ability to be installed, an app-like interface, push notifications, caching, background-synchronization, etc. 

Another good-to-know topic is Static Site Generator (SSG). SSG is a tool that generates HTML websites using a set of templates and raw data. The data in these web pages are static, i.e. they do not change. Thus, they can be pre-built and are ready to be served to users when requested, resulting in faster loading. Developers can use templates to generate web pages automatically. Jekyll, Gatsby, Next.js are few of the commonly used SSGs. 

11. Build Your Portfolio

Congratulations! By learning the above skills, you are now a Front End Developer. What’s next? Well, you might apply for jobs for the Front End Development role. The challenge is that Front End is a highly competitive field with a large number of applicants for comparatively fewer positions. To stand out from all other applicants, it is a good idea to build your portfolio. A portfolio is a website where you can add information about you, your experiences, your skills, demo or link of your past projects, testimonials, etc. It will help you showcase your skills, increase your credibility and visibility in the industry. You can host your portfolio so that the hiring managers and your potential employers can see your past projects and skills in action. Your portfolio can help you create a positive impression on the hiring committee and land a job. 

You’re All Set

I hope this article gave you the idea of what steps you can follow to become a front end developer, and good luck on your journey to become an awesome Front End Developer! 

Keep in mind that this roadmap to become front end developer is merely a guideline for learning, not concrete rules. The web tools and technologies keep on changing and it is essential to keep yourself up-to-date and update your skills. You can always choose the learning path that matches your schedule, finances, and skill level after doing your own research too!