What is front-end development?

<a href="https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-does-a-front-end-developer-do/">Front-end development</a> involves building the part of a website that you see and interact with in your browser, including buttons, forms, interfaces, menus, etc. It also includes accessibility features like voice recognition and text-to-speech.

What is back-end development?

<a href="https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-does-a-back-end-developer-do/">Back-end development</a> involves building and maintaining the invisible systems and processes that keep websites running behind the scenes, like servers, databases, and APIs.

What is full-stack development?

“Full-stack” refers to the full assortment of technologies involved in an application’s development, so <a href="https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-does-a-full-stack-developer-do/">full-stack development</a> includes building and maintaining front-ends, back-ends, and everything in between.

What does it mean to connect the front-end to the back-end?

Front- and back-end applications are often built independently, so connecting the two means integrating them together — and adding database implementation.

What kind of jobs work with the front- and back-ends?

Front-End Developers build a websites’ look and client-side functionality, while Back-End Developers maintain the servers, databases, and APIs that keep everything running. (Full-Stack Developers do both.) There are also UI/UX Developers and Designers that help build user interfaces and optimize a site’s structure.

What else should I study if I am learning about web development?

It depends on which end you want to focus on. If you want to build your front-end skills, you can learn how to use JavaScript frameworks like Angular or Vue. If you prefer the back-end, try picking up a back-end language like PHP, Java, or SQL.

Course

Connecting Front-End to Back-End

Learn how to join the front-end and the back-end by creating REST APIs and using the MVC architecture.

This course includes

11,241 learners enrolled

This course includes

Skill level
Intermediate
Time to complete
Average based on combined completion rates — individual pacing in lessons, projects, and quizzes may vary

<1 hour
Projects
2
Prerequisites
5 courses

We suggest you complete the following courses before you get started with Connecting Front-End to Back-End:
Learn HTML
Learn CSS
Learn JavaScript
Learn React
Learn Node.js

About this course

Learn how to connect front-end and back-end technologies to create seamless full-stack applications. This course covers the fundamentals of rendering websites, designing REST APIs, and structuring apps using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. You’ll also practice building a client-side rendered app using React and Node.js.

Skills you'll gain

Understand client-side vs server-side rendering
Build and connect front-end and back-end code
Design a RESTful API
Use React and Node to create client-side rendered applications
Implement MVC architecture in a full-stack app

Syllabus

1 lesson • 2 projects • 2 quizzes

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Explore features

Projects in this course

Meet the creator of the course

Meet the full team

Jiwon Shin

Manager of Programming at Codecademy

Jiwon is a Senior Curriculum Developer at Codecademy. She has created courses across the web development catalog on languages such as JavaScript, PHP, and CSS, frameworks like React and Node.js, and the Front-End Engineer Career Path. She also created courses on p5.js, build tools, and Intro to UI and UX Design.

Meet the full team

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