Software Engineer or Developer


The work scope of a software developer has been evolving. Engineers are not only bound to Coding, but in the past, they are only responsible for Coding. Significant changes exist in scopes and ways of working as a developer today.

Tech stack to know for a developer

Teams with different responsibilities evolved in a software development life cycle. Each group uses a specific tech stack for a project's smooth and flawless development. Amongst those, only some are core, and only some are used to cooperating with a cross-functional team. Therefore, a group requires an engineering manager or developer with such skills to align with the team to create value for the team and develop projects by maintaining standards.

Every department or team has few software, packages, libraries, or plugins. All of these has basic setting or configurations.

All the departments and their used technologies are involved in the development pipeline: dev to production. Therefore, companies want to hire people who are smart enough to handle basic to advanced configurations involved in the development pipeline. So, it is necessary to learn the tech stack that makes you an innovative and demandable developer.

It will be evident with an example. A c# developer must know the tech stack:

1. Language

What is Language? A programming language allows programmers (developers) to communicate with computers. Programming languages consist of rules that will enable string values to be converted into various ways of generating machine code or, in the case of visual programming languages, graphical elements.

Here are some commonly used programming languages:
  • Python: Known for its simplicity and readability, Python is a versatile language used in web development, scientific computing, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more.
  • Java: A widely used language known for its platform independence, making it suitable for developing applications that can run on any device with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
  • JavaScript: Despite the name similarity to Java, JavaScript is primarily used for web development to create interactive and dynamic website content.
  • C++: An extension of the C programming language, C++ is used for systems programming, game development, and building high-performance applications.
  • C#: Developed by Microsoft, C# is used for building Windows applications, games using the Unity engine, and web applications with ASP.NET.
  • Ruby: Known for its elegant syntax and productivity, Ruby is commonly used for web development, particularly with the Ruby on Rails framework.
  • Swift: Developed by Apple, Swift is used for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app developIt'ser. It's designed to be safe, fast, and expressive.
  • Go (Golang): Created by Google, Go is known for its efficiency and simplicity, making it a popular choice for building scalable and high-performance applications.
  • R: A language primarily used for statistical computing and data analIt'syic. It's popular among data scientists and statisticians.
  • PHP: Primarily used for web development, PHP is a server-side scripting language embedded in HTML.
  • SQL: While not a general-purpose programming language, SQL (Structured Query Language) is essential for managing and querying databases.
  • Shell Scripting (Bash): Used for automating tasks in a Unix or Linux environment through command-line scripts.
  • MATLAB: Often used in academia and engineering fields, MATLAB is a high-level language focused on numerical computing and simulation.
  • TypeScript: A superset of JavaScript, TypeScript adds static typing to JavaScript, making it more robust and maintainable for larger applications.
  • Kotlin: A modern programming language that interoperates with Java and is officially supported for Android app development by Google.
These are just some of the many programming languages available, each with strengths and use cases. The choice of language often depends on the specific requirements of the project and personal preference of the developer or development team.

2. Frameworks

What is a programming framework? A framework in programming is a tool that provides ready-made components or solutions that are customized to speed up development. A framework may include a library but is defined by the principle of inversion of control (IoC).
A programming framework is a pre-built set of tools, libraries, and conventions that provide a structured way to build and develop software applications. Frameworks are designed to simplify and streamline the development process by providing a foundation for developers to build their applications.

Here are some popular programming frameworks across various domains:

Web Development:

  • Django: A high-level Python framework for building robust and maintainable web applications.
  • Ruby on Rails (Rails): A web application framework for the Ruby programming language that emphasizes convention over configuration.
  • Express.js: A minimalist web application framework for Node.js designed for building fast, efficient, and scalable web applications.

Front-End Development:

  • React: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces, developed and maintained by Facebook.
  • Angular: A comprehensive front-end framework developed and maintained by Google.
  • Vue.js: A progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces designed to be incrementally adoptable.

Mobile App Development:

  • Flutter: A UI toolkit by Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
  • React Native: A framework for building mobile applications using JavaScript and React.

Game Development:

  • Unity: A popular cross-platform game development framework that supports 2D and 3D games.
  • Unreal Engine: A robust game development framework known for its high-quality graphics and realistic physics.

Data Science and Machine Learning:

  • TensorFlow: An open-source machine learning framework developed by Google for building and training various machine learning models.
  • PyTorch: An open-source deep learning platform that provides a flexible and dynamic computational graph.

Desktop Application Development:

  • Electron: A framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Qt: A comprehensive C++ framework for developing cross-platform applications with a graphical user interface.

Back-End Development:

  • Spring (Java): A robust framework for building Java-based enterprise applications.
  • ASP.NET (C#): A framework developed by Microsoft for building dynamic web applications and services.

Microservices and APIs:

  • Spring Boot: A part of the Spring ecosystem, Spring Boot simplifies building production-ready applications.
  • Express.js (Node.js): Widely used for building lightweight and scalable APIs.

3. Testing

What is Testing? Software testing evaluates and verifies that a software product or application does what it should. The benefits of testing include preventing bugs, reducing development costs, and improving performance.

4. System design and architecture

What is System design and architecture? Systems design defines system elements like modules, architecture, components, and their interfaces and data for a system based on the specified requirements.

5. Database

What is a Database? A database is an information set up for easy access, management, and updating. Computer databases typically store aggregations of data records or files that contain sales transactions, customer data, financials, and product information.

6. Version Control Tools

What are Version Control Tools? VCSs are sometimes known as SCM (Source Code Management) tools or RCS (Revision Control System). One of the most popular VCS tools in use today is called Git. Git is a Distributed VCS, a category known as DVCS; more later. Like many popular VCS systems, Git is free and open-source.

7. CI/CD Tools

What are CI/CD Tools? CI improves collaboration throughout the development process, while CD uses automation to streamline testing, staging, and validation, so code is deployable at the push of a button. Throughout the process, quality gates compare commits against critical standards

8. Cloud computing

What is Cloud computing? Simply put, cloud computing delivers computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet ("the cloud")" to offer "aster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

9. Docker

What is Docker? Docker is an open platform for developing, shipping and running applications. Docker lets you separate your applications from your infrastructure to quickly deliver software. With Docker, you can manage your infrastructure as you organize your applications.

10. Kubernetes

What is Kubernetes? Kubernetes automates operational tasks of container management and includes built-in commands for deploying applications, rolling out changes to your applications, scaling your applications up and down to fit changing needs, monitoring your applications, and more—making it easier to manage applications.