Your Web Development Learning Roadmap |

If you're trying to learn web development as a beginner, it can be hard to know how to get started and what skills you need to learn. Also, you don't want to break the bank when you're just starting out. You know there are free online tutorials on every topic in existence, but how do you know which resources to use?

Well, that's why I wanted to write this article. I'll show you a simple road map that you can follow to learn web development as a beginner. With each step, I'll be sharing completely free resources.

Getting Started: Essential Tools

Before learning the actual coding, you'll need to get familiar with the tools that you'll need in web development. The main tools you'll need will be a computer, a code editor, and an internet browser.

Now, if you're not familiar with computer skills or you just need a refresher, you can find numerous tutorials online or go through the getting started modules on the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) for a text-based explanation.

For your code editor, I would recommend using VS Code, which is short for Visual Studio Code. It's free to use and very popular. You can download it at code.visualstudio.com. Just make sure that you're downloading VS Code and not Visual Studio, which is a different tool used for programming for languages like .NET and C#. If you're new to VS Code, there are many introductory videos available that will show you how to get set up and all the basics that you'll need to know.

For your browser, your main choices are probably going to be Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Chrome is the most popular browser by far, but whatever browser you're using, I would highly recommend getting familiar with the developer tools to inspect the website. This is the best way to troubleshoot your CSS. There are several guides available on how to use browser developer tools to debug CSS, and even if you're using a different browser, a lot of the tools are going to be the same or very similar.

So those are the basic tools that you'll need to use at the beginning. Now let's look at all the different skills that you'll need to learn as a web developer.

The Core Trio: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

To start out, you'll want to learn front-end basics, which include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Every website on the internet is made up of these three, no matter what frameworks, libraries, or programming language was used in the process.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is where you'll write the content of the website, like text, images, and more, using tags to tell the browser what type of content each part is.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is what you can use to change the appearance of your website content. You can use CSS to control the background and text colors, font size, and make the website responsive.
JavaScript is a programming language originally made to run in the browser. You can write JavaScript to make your website more dynamic so that the user can interact with it.

If you'd like to learn more about concepts like how websites work and what front-end and backend development are, there are many articles that cover web development for absolute beginners.

Now, to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I have a few recommended resources. First, you've probably heard of freeCodeCamp, but if you haven't, they have a text-based curriculum where you can learn the basics of webdev with their responsive web design certification. Another resource that people seem to really love is The Odin Project, which is another text-based curriculum that also links to other helpful resources for further learning. In addition to the basics, they have curriculum for Ruby on Rails and full-stack JavaScript. And one more resource that you may like is Scrimba. They're an online learning platform that has a video-based curriculum and has a built-in code editor so that you can follow along. They have both free and paid content, and they have quite a bit in the free tier, including some full-stack courses.

Essential Developer Tools: Terminal, npm, and Git

In addition to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, there are some other technologies that you should get familiar with: the terminal (also called the command line), npm, and Git/GitHub.

The Terminal is a text interface for your computer's files and folders, and you can type into it to run different commands. To learn the command line, MDN has a text-based crash course on how to set it up and use it, and various media channels offer video crash courses for beginners.
npm (Node Package Manager) is a tool that you will definitely be using, especially as you work with more advanced JavaScript technologies like React. It allows you to install different pieces of software called packages on your computer via the command line. You can learn how to use npm with the official npm docs, and there are many articles that explain npm for beginners.
Git and GitHub are the last tools you're going to want to learn as a beginner. Git is a version control system that tracks all the changes that you make to your code files. It lets you revert mistakes in your code and makes working with other developers a lot easier. You can learn Git via their online documentation, which includes a free book called "Pro Git" that you can read right in your browser. GitHub is an online platform where you can host your Git repositories, discover other people's repos, and contribute to open-source projects. There are numerous tutorials on how to use Git and GitHub, including guides on using GitHub Desktop, an app that lets you work with your repositories via a graphical user interface.

Mastering Layouts with Advanced CSS

All right, so once you've learned the basics, it's important to spend some more time getting good at building layouts with CSS, meaning getting all the elements on the website sized and positioned correctly. This involves using Flexbox and Grid, two very important CSS features.

There are several resources that are useful as references when building layouts. Some of the most used are the CSS-Tricks Flexbox and Grid guides. These are great because they contain all the different flex and grid properties along with visual illustrations of what the different property values look like. In addition, there are fantastic blogs with interactive guides to both Flexbox and Grid. These are really great if you're still figuring out how Flexbox and Grid work or you just need a refresher.

Learn a CSS Framework: Tailwind CSS

Once you're feeling more comfortable building layouts from scratch with CSS, then you may want to learn Tailwind CSS. Tailwind is a CSS framework that uses utility classes to apply different CSS style rules. It's super popular and would be a good skill to add to your tool set. They have really great documentation that'll get you up and running, and you can find many video tutorials on how to use the newest versions of Tailwind.

Leveling Up Your JavaScript Skills

So we've talked about more CSS that you can learn. Now let's look at some more areas of JavaScript that you can learn: React, TypeScript, Next.js, and Astro.

React is a JavaScript library that allows you to build user interfaces using separate, individual pieces of code called components. It's currently the most popular JavaScript library or framework. You'll also need to use a build tool like Vite that bundles your JavaScript files and optimizes them for the web. To learn the newest versions of React, there are numerous free courses available online, both in text and video format. The official React documentation is also good to have on hand for references and code examples.
TypeScript is a strongly typed programming language that builds upon JavaScript. This helps you to catch type errors earlier on in your code editor before it gets compiled. To learn TypeScript, you can follow the official docs, which include the TypeScript handbook, and find various playlists and free courses for beginners.
Next.js is a full-stack React framework for building web applications. It supports client and server-side rendering and static site generation. To learn Next.js, the official website has a free interactive tutorial, and you can find full-stack project tutorials that use the latest versions of Next.js and React.
Astro is another JavaScript framework designed to build static, content-driven websites like blogs and marketing sites, with a focus on speed and SEO. The best place to learn Astro is from the official documentation.

Diving into Backend Development

All right, so that's it for front-end web development for beginners. Now let's move on to the back end. There are two main parts that make up back-end web development: the programming language and databases.

For the programming language, it can be a little overwhelming to know which one to pick because there are a lot of languages to choose from. But to be honest, you can just pick a language and learn it. When you learn any programming language, you'll not only be learning the syntax specific to that language but also programming principles that you can apply to other languages. One way to decide is by looking at local job boards and seeing if there are any trends.

Here are some of the most popular languages right now:

Node.js: A JavaScript runtime environment that runs on the server. You can learn Node from the official documentation, and there are many tutorials that teach Node along with frameworks like Express.js and databases like MongoDB.
Python: Liked for its beginner-friendly syntax and also used in data science. You can learn Python via numerous free university-level courses online, including massive open online courses (MOOCs).
Java: Has been around for a long time and is still used a lot for enterprise applications. You can learn Java through the official doc site and various free courses online.
C#: This is a versatile language used in game development with engines like Unity and Godot. If you might be interested in gamedev, C# might be a good choice. You can learn C# via courses from universities and free beginner courses made by tech companies.
PHP: A language that is still used a lot with WordPress and the very popular Laravel framework. You can learn it from dedicated learning websites and from video courses covering the newest versions.

Understanding Databases

Databases are used to store information for the website content or to store information submitted by users of your web app. The two main types of databases are relational and non-relational.

Relational (SQL) Databases: These store data in rows and columns, like a spreadsheet. Programmers use Structured Query Language (SQL) to interact with the data. PostgreSQL seems to be the most popular and liked SQL database system. You can learn it from the official docs and from free online video courses.
Non-relational (NoSQL) Databases: These don't have as strict of a structure.
- Document Stores: Store data in documents, like in JSON format. MongoDB is a very common type. The best way to learn MongoDB is through the official MongoDB University website.
- Key-Value Stores: Store data in a dictionary with each item having a key and a value. Redis (Remote Dictionary Server) is one type, and you can learn it from the official docs.

Navigating Your Learning Path

So that's the simple road map if you're a beginner for web development. But if you need more details on what to learn in backend or front end, I highly recommend utilizing roadmap.sh. They have official road maps for front-end development, back-end development, and beginner-friendly versions of both, so you can look at the overall bird's-eye view of what you need to learn without getting too caught up in all the details right away. They also have detailed road maps for specific skills like Git, GitHub, JavaScript, and more.

A Final Word of Advice

If you're a beginner, you might be reading this article and feeling a little overwhelmed at all the different languages and technologies that we've covered here. But one really important thing to remember is that learning web development is going to take time, and it's not going to be easy. Going from the very beginning of the road map could take you one to two years or even more to get through everything.

If you're at the very beginning of your coding learning process, try to have some patience with yourself and don't try to rush through things or, worse, get burned out and eventually quit altogether. The most important thing is to figure out what's feasible for you personally and just try to stay consistent.

Another tip when you're learning is to practice building websites, because this is where you'll get to put all those skills that you've been learning into action. If you don't know where to start, you can find numerous step-by-step tutorials that explain the entire process of building a website from a design.

I genuinely hope that you found this article helpful.