How to Become a Python Full-stack Web Developer


How do you become a full-stack web developer using Python? If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to learn how to do it, then you’re on the right page. Let’s talk about full-stack web development with Python today.

What is Full-Stack Web Development?

A Full-stack web developer is like an all-rounder. Web development can be classified into two parts: front-end web development and back-end web development.

What do these guys do in a web development project? A front-end developer works on designing the front part (i.e., user interface) of a website. They make the websites look visually beautiful. A back-end developer deals with the hidden part of the website. For example, working with logic, handling databases, handling requests, etc.

A full-stack developer is a combination of both. They have front-end and back-end skills, and hence, they are capable of developing a complete web application.

If you want to become a full-stack developer, you need to learn how to create a complete web application from scratch. You can use Python frameworks like Django or Flask to develop web apps.

Now, let’s break down the whole process of becoming a full-stack Python developer into some actionable and easy steps.

1. Start Learning Front-end Web Development

You can either start from learning Python and the back-end stuff, or in a reverse way as well. If I were a complete beginner to web development, I would start with learning front-end technologies. I think front-end development is a lot more fun at the start. Also, if you want to learn technologies like Django, you would need some front-end skills as well.

So, our first step is to learn the fundamentals of front-end web development. To design the front-end (user interface) of a website, you need to learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript. If you’re hearing these terms for the first time, don’t worry. These are not as complicated as you might think.

Start with HTML, and then you’ll be able to design a basic website without any design. HTML is a markup language that helps to create the basic parts of a website, like a header, image, paragraph, etc.

Along with HTML, you can also learn CSS, which is a language to add styles to your HTML web page. You can make your website colorful and beautiful with CSS. It is a pretty simple language, and you’ll be able to learn it very quickly.

After learning the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, you can learn a little bit of Javascript. Javascript is a scripting language that will help you add a variety of features to your website. It’ll make your site more interactive.

At this point, you don’t need to become a master in these languages. Learn the fundamentals so that you can design the front-end of a website in a decent manner. Try to create at least one front-end project to implement what you’ve learned. If you are out of ideas, simply make a clone of a website you like the most.

I learned web development in 2016, from an online course called The Complete Front-end Web Developer Bootcamp by the famous YouTuber, Hitesh Choudhary. It was a great course, and it only cost me a very few bucks. You can also learn from other online platforms as well, either free or paid.

If you’ve created a project, you’re now confident enough to move to the next steps. Now, let’s explore some more technologies and take your web development skills to the next level.

2. Master the Fundamentals of Python

Now, it’s time to learn Python. Python is a popular, powerful, and syntax-friendly programming language. If you don’t know the basics of Python, now is the time to start learning it.

Python is relatively easy to understand, and you can pick it up if you can invest some time in it. Understand the basic syntax, how the code is written, how loops work, how to write functions, how to write conditional statements, etc. 

If you want a free step-by-step guide on the fundamentals of Python, check out this article that I’ve created. You can also find a lot of courses and learning materials online. Feel free to learn from any of your favorite resources.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time mastering Python. Learn the basics and move ahead to the next step. Most people stay at this stage for a long time, and will never advance in their careers. If you know how to write loops, if-else, conditions, and functions in Python, you’re good to go to the next step.

3. Learn a Web Development Framework (Django or Flask)

Now, it’s time to learn a back-end web development framework. Python can’t do the back-end development without the help of these frameworks. There are mainly two Python frameworks available to do web development. They are Django and Flask.

Flask is a lightweight web development framework that you can easily learn without any difficulties. Flask is often used for small projects and is not as popular as Django. I would suggest you focus on Django. 

Django is a bit difficult to learn at first. However, it’s not rocket science, and you can master it if you spend enough time working on it. Django has a model-view-template architecture and has a lot of unique features. Even though it is a bit difficult at the start, it is pretty simple once you master it.

Django will make your web development easy as well as powerful. So, learn Django and create some projects with it. For a start, I would recommend you take the first step by installing Django and creating your first project. You can check out this article for help.

4. Create Real-World Projects

Once you learn the basics, create some projects that can solve real-world problems. Now, you know how fundamentals of the front-end technologies and the back-end stuff. Try to put all of your knowledge into practice and create some awesome web applications. If you need inspiration for a project idea or two, check out this guide that will give you 12 Django project ideas ripe for the taking.

Create as many projects as you can. You’ll learn a lot and gain some valuable experience by doing projects. I suggest you do at least one big project, like a complete web application with all the features. Try to solve some pain points that people face using your skills. At this point, you have a lot of magic powers at your fingertips, using which you can make an impact in this world.

5. Teach Programming and Help Others

If you would like to become a freelancer, you can make use of some pretty cool online platforms out there. But before that, you can do one hack to fasten the process. The hack is this: Teach what you know to other people.

There are a lot of aspiring programmers who are looking to learn web development skills. You don’t need to be an expert to teach them. You just need to be one step ahead of them. That’s it. Sometimes, people like you can relate to the students more than an expert can, because you’ve gone through that experience just a few weeks or months ago.

If you can find local clients to teach programming to, that’s great. If you can’t, no worries. There are online platforms like Wyzant, TeacherOn, Takelessons, etc., which are very good. I use TakeLessons, which is pretty popular in my place.

You can find a lot of clients on these platforms, and you can charge an hourly rate to teach them. Most people skip this step, but it is a simple shortcut to your successful freelancing career.

If you can teach your skills to others, your technical knowledge will become solid, you’ll improve your communication skills, and you’ll get some experience to put on your portfolio. Later, when you want to get freelance projects, it’ll be a lot easier for you. You can continue teaching as long as you’ll get some big freelance projects.

You might know the hurdles and difficulties that you’ve faced while learning to code. Try to solve those problems which other people may be facing, and help them as much as you can. If you help more people, you’ll grow way faster.

6. Apply for Jobs or Find Freelance Clients

Once you’ve completed some cool web development projects using Django, it’s time to take your skills to the next level. Now, you are ready to make some money using your web development skills. If you want to apply for a regular 9-5 job, of course, you can do that. If that’s your way to go, then apply for web developer positions at companies and show them your skills and projects.

If you want to get hired by a company, put yourself in the shoes of the employer. If you were that guy offering the job, what would be your expectations about the employee that you’re going to hire? Try to match your profile to that level of expectations. You need to prove your skills if you want to get hired. If you’ve done enough projects, you can confidently show them your skills with ease.

To apply for freelance work, make use of online platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, etc. You can also find local clients if you can do some research. For example, you can look for people in your area who want to bring their businesses online. If you have no experience to show, you can tell them that you’ll only charge them if they like the website that you’ve created.

At first, you can do some real-world projects like these to gain experience. Then, you’ll gradually get more and more clients if you can put in the effort. When you get more clients, you can increase your hourly rate as well.

Conclusion

Becoming a full-stack python developer is not all rocket science. If you’re passionate enough, you can become a successful web developer. I gave these tips and thoughts based on my experience. I hope this article gave you some insights to help you on your journey.

Take some action today that will move you at least one step closer to your goal. If you’ve read the article this far, I know you’re pretty much keen on doing this. I don’t want my readers to consume my content and walk away without taking action.

Before you leave, I want to point you to an article that I’ve written where I’ve mentioned some helpful tips that you can implement to become a better programmer. Do check it out.

If you have any doubts or queries, feel free to let me know in the comments section. I’ll be happy to help you.

I would appreciate it if you would be willing to share this article. It will motivate me to create more helpful articles.

Happy coding!

Ashwin Joy

I'm the face behind Pythonista Planet. I learned my first programming language back in 2015. Ever since then, I've been learning programming and immersing myself in technology. On this site, I share everything that I've learned about computer programming.

32 thoughts on “How to Become a Python Full-stack Web Developer

    1. Mr joy this article is very inspiring me.thank u very much.it gives a root map to learn programming.

  1. Bro thanks.
    Thanks for showing path.
    Will save link of this article and comment back after I develop my webapp for which I’m going to learn this all.
    See u soon brother 💪

  2. This was a great article man, I was looking for detailed explanations of how to go through the full-stack dev path and this really explained it.
    Thanks a lot!

  3. Very good article Ashwin i have a question
    When I try to solve program that. Time am stuck & i can’t find any solution means I am unable to implement
    Can you please help me

    1. Whenever you get stuck, just google the errors. Use online resources like StackOverflow and other sites to fix the errors. With practice, you’ll become a better coder.

  4. Firstly, thank you so much from the core of me to you for this website. It will help me a lot for my future steps.

    I have a question to you,

    “As a beginner here, if I give 4 hours a day and want to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python (Flask & Django) from the beginning, then on an average how many month or year do I need to learn these for doing income???”

    1. It really depends on a lot of things. But you can surely learn all these within 6 months if you have the passion. Pick a good course so that you can learn things quickly.

  5. Hi this article is very easily understand. Present I am working as zoho creator developer but Iam not interest in that technology I wish to become python full stack developer.Is it posiible to become python full stack developer? If it is possible how can I become Python full stack developer

    1. Why not? Just learn the technologies and build some projects. You can do these things on the side. Once you become comfortable in Python web development, you can look for opportunities in this field.

  6. Awesome explanation
    I’m a Commerce student I’ve started to learn python and html I’m not finding it very hard, even i think i can learn completely and become a developer.
    but will the companies hire me without Engineering degree, I’m in final year bba.
    if u give the guidance it’ll be of great help

    1. That depends on different companies. There are companies that hire people purely based on skills and there are others that ask for a computer science degree. Please do some research about the companies that you want to get hired at. All the best!

    2. A lot of thanks, Sir jee,
      Is se mujhe bahut sara confusion door ho gaya,
      Bahut achha explain kiya ha aapne
      Bus ek doubt ha ki FULL stack web developer banne ke liye aur koi language ki jarurat ha jaise, NODEjs, react ja etc,
      Ya kewal Html, css, JavaScript, python aur jango

      1. You can choose either Node JS or Python-Django for the back-end. Do not learn both. React is a front-end framework. That is not mandatory to become a full-stack developer. You can learn that later if needed.

  7. I already know Python, I am working on making a game using django right now. With my current knowledge How long will it take me to learn html css and JavaScript?

    1. HTML, CSS, and basic Javascript won’t take much time. You can become really good at it within a few months. If your plan is to build the app, you just learn the basics of front-end tech and start building the app as soon as possible. You don’t need to wait till you learn all the things in technology. Start building and learn about the things you need along the way.

  8. If we talk abt spring boot then maximun react is used for front end .

    If we talk abt .net then maximun Angular is used for front end.

    So likewise what is suitable for paython.?

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