Backend Developer Roadmap 2026: What You Need to Know

Pasha Finkelshteyn
Pasha Finkelshteyn

 

Transcript:

The bar of being a back-end developer is higher than it ever was. It’s not enough to just know your framework or your programming language anymore. Today, you need to know how to write code and design software in a way that can survive in a complex, distributed world. Languages and frameworks are important, but in this roadmap I want to focus on things that are more fundamental and that will make you a better back-end developer regardless of your language or framework of choice.

Hi, my name is Pasha. I’m a developer advocate for BellSoft, and I’ve been a software architect for more than 15 years. In this video, I share what I’ve learned about the fundamentals during these years.

What you see on your screen is a large mind map of the topics I consider important for back-end developers in 2026. It consists of three major parts: data, security, and architecture and communication. You’ll notice that I don’t include code-related skills like debugging or profiling here, because these are essential for any developer. I also don’t include AI-specific topics, because while we all work with AI today, this roadmap focuses on fundamentals that apply regardless of how you use AI in your workflow.

The video is quite fast-paced, so if you want to return to this roadmap later, there is a link to a PDF version in the description below.

The first crucial topic for back-end development is data storage, especially databases. Most of us will work primarily with relational databases during our careers. One of the most popular databases today is PostgreSQL. If you or your company use it, you should explore its documentation. It’s extensive, well-written, and full of examples and details you may not even realize you need. You don’t have to read everything at once—you can spread it out over time and skip parts that aren’t relevant to your role, such as deployment details.

Since we’re talking about relational databases, you also need to be proficient in SQL. This is probably the hardest part of the roadmap. SQL may look simple because it’s declarative, but it includes complex concepts such as window functions, common table expressions, recursive CTEs, analytical functions, aggregations, and many data types. At the very least, you should know what these concepts are and where to look them up when you need them.

Many developers know about the third normal form and assume it’s always ideal. In reality, there are seven normal forms, and you should be familiar with them so you can choose the appropriate one for a given situation.

You should also understand some basics of distributed systems theory, which overlaps data and communication. A key concept here is the CAP theorem. You should know what consistency, availability, and partition tolerance mean, where your system sits within this trade-off, and how other systems in your organization relate to it. This knowledge helps you reason about system guarantees such as consistency and durability.

Two related concepts you should know are ACID and BASE. ACID stands for atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. BASE stands for basic availability, soft state, and eventual consistency. You’ll encounter both types of systems in practice, and you should understand their guarantees at a system-wide level.

Beyond relational databases, you should also be aware of other storage types: key-value stores, document stores, vector stores, and graph databases. These are designed for specific use cases and may be the best choice in certain situations. For example, key-value stores are often used for caching, and vector stores are common in AI-related systems.

The next major branch of the roadmap is architecture and communication. Starting with architecture, there are three essential paradigms you should understand: microservices, modular monoliths, and serverless approaches such as AWS Lambda. There are also other architectural patterns like CQRS. They are less commonly required, so I don’t include them as essential, but learning about them is still beneficial.

For communication, it helps to group protocols into families: synchronous, asynchronous, and streaming. Synchronous protocols include HTTP-based approaches such as REST, GraphQL, and gRPC. gRPC is interesting because internally it’s non-blocking and supports streaming, but from a developer’s perspective it often feels synchronous.

Asynchronous communication can be divided into message queues and event streams. Message queues include systems like RabbitMQ or ActiveMQ, while event streams include Apache Kafka and Apache Pulsar. You don’t need deep expertise in all of them, but you should understand the basics, including the difference between queues and topics, so you can make informed architectural decisions.

WebSockets are another important concept. They can be used for asynchronous communication between back-end services or for communication between the back end and the front end. You should understand how WebSockets work, including concepts like keep-alive, regardless of the framework you use.

Another important area is system design. This includes understanding the OSI model, which explains how different network protocols interact. You should also know about load balancing, including the difference between layer 4 and layer 7 load balancing. Additionally, you need to understand rate limiting, throttling, and circuit breakers to build resilient APIs and systems.

Now let’s talk about security, which is not just a separate topic but a fundamental part of back-end development. You should know the OWASP Top 10, which lists the most common vulnerabilities in back-end services. You should understand the difference between authentication and authorization. Authentication includes mechanisms like OpenID Connect, magic links, biometrics, passkeys, and username-password systems. Authorization controls access to resources and can be role-based or attribute-based. Both approaches are used in practice, and you should know when each is appropriate.

Encryption is another key topic. You should understand the difference between encryption in transit and encryption at rest. Modern APIs also require proper rate limiting and throttling as part of their security posture.

To build a reliable system, you also need to understand infrastructure. This starts with infrastructure as code, using tools like Terraform or Pulumi. You should know how software is packaged using containers and understand Docker. Kubernetes is widely used in larger organizations, so you should be familiar with its basic concepts, including orchestration and secrets. You don’t need to be a Kubernetes administrator, but you should understand how it works.

Finally, you need observability. You should be able to inspect your system and identify problems. This includes understanding OpenTelemetry, which has become the de facto standard for telemetry, as well as Grafana dashboards, metrics, alerting, and monitoring.

I know this is a lot to learn. You don’t need deep expertise in everything, but you should know the core concepts and where to find information when you need it. Some topics, like message queues or authentication versus authorization, are essential, even if you don’t know every implementation detail.

I also know this video was fast-paced. There will be another video applying this roadmap specifically to Java, and you can always refer back to the PDF linked in the description. If you liked this video, leave a comment and a like. I’ll be happy to answer your questions, and hopefully I’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

Summary

This video presents a roadmap of fundamental skills every back-end developer should master to succeed in modern distributed systems. It emphasizes core areas such as data storage and SQL, distributed systems theory, architecture patterns, communication protocols, and security concepts. The roadmap also highlights the importance of infrastructure, Kubernetes, and observability tools like OpenTelemetry. The main message is that strong fundamentals, rather than specific languages or frameworks, are what make a back-end developer effective and future-proof.

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