Backend Roadmap

Step by step guide to becoming a modern backend developer in 2025

Step 1

Internet

How does the internet work?

What is HTTP?

Browsers and how they work?

DNS and how it works?

What is Domain Name?

What is hosting?

Step 2

Learn a Language

JavaScript

Python

Java

C#

Go

Step 3

Version Control Systems

Git

Subversion

Step 4

Repo hosting services

GitHub

GitLab

Bitbucket

Step 5

OS and General Knowledge

Basics of Operating Systems

Linux and Command Line Basics

What is Linux?

Networking Basics

Step 6

Relational Databases

MySQL

PostgreSQL

SQL Server

Step 7

NoSQL Databases

MongoDB

Cassandra

Redis

Step 8

More about Databases

What is Database?

Database Architecture

Database Management Systems

Step 9

Scaling Databases

Scaling Techniques

Scaling in MongoDB

Step 10

Learn about APIs

What is an API?

RESTful APIs

GraphQL Basics

Step 11

Caching

HTTP Caching

Redis Caching

Step 12

Web Security Knowledge

OWASP Top Ten

Web Security Basics

Step 13

Testing

Introduction to Testing

JavaScript Testing Framework: Jest

Step 14

CI / CD

Continuous Integration with CircleCI

Jenkins for CI/CD

Step 15

Design and Development Principles

SOLID Principles

Design Patterns

Step 16

Architectural Patterns

Microservices

Monolith

Step 17

Message Brokers

RabbitMQ

Kafka

Step 18

Containerization vs Virtualization

Docker

Kubernetes

Step 19

GraphQL

Learn GraphQL

Apollo GraphQL

Prisma

Step 20

WebSockets

What are WebSockets?

Step 21

Server Sent Events

Introduction to Server-Sent Events

Step 22

Web Servers

Nginx

Apache HTTP Server

Step 23

Building for Scale

Scaling Applications

AWS Scaling