Core Responsibility of a Backend Engineer
By: Shoaib Mehedi
Tags: Web Development, Software Development, Backend Development, JavaScript, Programming

How to be a Great and Successful Backend Engineer — A Proper Guideline

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

A backend engineer is in charge of constructing the framework of a software program. They’ll spend much of their time building business logic, server scripts, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that frontend developers and UX designers will eventually use.

Finally, their everyday job responsibilities are as follows:

1) Server scalability, performance, and stability optimization.

2) Putting in place security mechanisms and best practices.

3) Creating code libraries that can be reused in the future.

4) See to it that data storage methods are being developed.

A backend engineer’s tasks comprise dealing with project managers, product managers, and other team members in addition to typical backend development roles.

A suitable technical definition of a backend engineer’s junior to senior level tasks, according to Glassdoor, includes:

1) Creating code libraries and frameworks that are reusable.

2) Regular meetings with the UI/UX and other frontend teams to expose backend flaws and issues.

3) Continuing to implement security systems.

4) Examining server-side code for speed improvement regularly.

5) Developing and deploying data storage systems.

6) Keeping the server up and running with no downtime.

7) Before making any significant server changes, make a backup library.

8) Configure the backend usability of all front-end applications.

Their senior-level qualifications often involve a combination of expertise and knowledge in various programming languages and technologies.

The following are examples of qualifications:

1) 5+ years of experience in a related software engineering discipline.

2) Ability to meet tight deadlines with high precision and attention to detail.

3) Capable of prioritizing and managing many projects at the same time in order to achieve objectives without supervision.

4) Knowledge of PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, .NET, and other programming languages is required.

5) SASS and LESS server-side development experience.

6) Accessibility and server compliance are well-understood concepts.

7) Working with numerous platforms, such as desktop, mobile, and tablets, and debugging their specific software is a good start.

You can be a backend engineer, but you need to work hard to be a good one. There are some requirements for being an excellent backend engineer, such as:

Communication Protocol

While a backend developer requires many technical talents, some non-technical skills are equally important, and communication is at the top of the list. You’ll find it easier to cooperate with other backend developers and frontend developers that are working on the same projects if you establish strong communication skills.

Working with business leaders or other professionals who don't have identical expertise in the development and programming benefits from being able to communicate coherently.

Web servers

Web servers are becoming critical day by day. They have their own HTTP and setup. The ability to serve content is the goal. Your web servers need to supports all sites.

There are many types of web servers, and all are different. But the clients are now looking for a secure web server. The servers are failing to maintain their security for many outgoing barriers. But as a backend engineer, you should have sharp skills in this web server field. It will prove your capabilities as a backend engineer.

It’s unnecessary to try to be a backend engineer if you don’t know about all types of web servers. It’s preferable if you’ve worked with Apache, Nginx, and IIS servers, as well as Microsoft IIS. A solid understanding of Linux is extremely beneficial when it comes to managing servers.

Database engineering

The next natural step would be to incorporate a database system into your portfolio. There are numerous easy-to-use relational database management systems from which to choose. Almost every website today has some form of storage, so understanding databases are always helpful.

One of the most critical backend developer talents is knowledge of several DBMS technologies. MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, SQLServer, and Redis are all popular choices. Working understanding of caching mechanisms such as varnish, Memcached, and Redis is advantageous.

Proxies

The most important thing you need to know is reverse proxies. Learning about deep layers of proxies is really important. Reverse proxies are servers that lie between the request-response process and guarantee that requests for website applications are routed to the appropriate backend server. The proposal is handled differently by each reverse proxy. Caching, security, and content optimization proxies are just some of the reverse proxies that can use to handle a request.

A proxy stack is created when a group of reverse proxies is stacked together to allow a request to pass. A proxy stack is a combination of back-to-back reverse proxies that can be configured to handle both HTTP and HTTPS requests, as seen in the image below from Section’s website. When a client sends a request, it first goes through the proxy stack before reaching the application’s origin. This stack is considered to be at the edge of the process since it moves the handling of requests closer to the source, hence the phrase edge computing.

Caching

It is a highly complex aspect of both forehead and backend engineering. Database design for caching is so vital for backend engineering. It’s a mandatory skill now in the field of engineering. You need to have very specific skills of caching in the design part. Cache evacuation is also a necessity in this field.

Message system and format

This is getting more essential as the system of connectivity. This is the basic source in every sector. In the case of message format and system in backend engineering, learning about the queue is very important. Why?

In Serverless and microservices systems, a message queue is a type of asynchronous service-to-service communication. Messages are queued until they are processed and then discarded. A single consumer processes each message just once. Message queues are useful for decoupling heavy processing, buffering or batching work, and smoothing spiky workloads. Message queues subtract one or more processes to send messages to be read by one or more other processes.

Most operating systems or kernels keep track of message queues; messages are stored in a vector, with each element pointing to a data structure that fully specifies the queue. When message queues are constructed, system memory is allocated, and a new data structure is put into the vector.

Learn frameworks

You can master the fundamentals of at least one framework depending on the programming language you use. The most common frameworks are Django or Ruby-on-Rails, which follow the MVC (Model-View-Controller) philosophy. Although it is permissible to write the full application code in a programming language, it requires more effort, time, and comprehensive coding. On the other hand, using frameworks allows you to construct templates and programs that may be reused later.

This cuts down on the number of lines on the code you have to write. As a result, you become more productive. That is why it is also a good idea to learn a framework. Full-stack developers must also be familiar with web services or APIs. It’s preferable if you know how to create and consume REST and SOAP services.

Backend security

This is the most basic responsibility of backend engineering. Backend security is a company’s priority, the responsibility for which is passed on to backend engineers. Businesses today are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks than they have ever been. Backend security is critical, as seen by recent large-scale assaults such as the one on dating service Ashley Madison.

The hackers and the general public gained access to the account information of about 37 million individuals as a result of that attack. Cyber-attacks have also targeted other organizations, such as password manager LastPass and the online auction site eBay.

These aren’t one-off occurrences either.

Every year, an estimated 556 million people are victims of some form of cybercrime. While not all of the 556 million people are affected by backend flaws, it does highlight the need for improved security. The central critical action you can take to protect the privacy of your employees, customers, and sensitive corporate information is to keep data thieves away from your servers and databases.

You could be at present risk of a big cyber-attack if you don’t have the right backend architecture and security. Many companies are starting to adopt intra-company apps to improve workflow management.

Furthermore, employees connect to workplace networks from a number of locations and through a range of devices. Because all of the data entered is sent to backend servers and databases, a single cyber-attack could damage various parts of your organization.

There’s no denying that backend security is critical to a company’s success and health. The easiest method to ensure both continuous functionality and better security is to use security software that interfaces with your current SAP or ERP system. It’s critical to keep backend cyber-attacks at bay, whether your mobile app is for clients or employees (or both).

Final word

It’s high time to level up your skills now that you know how to be a backend engineer. Determine whether you want to work as a backend engineer or as a freelancer. In most large-scale industries, becoming a backend engineer can increase your pay. Work on constructing a decent resume while keeping all of these elements in mind.

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