Web Development Fundamentals: A Postmortem for Beginners

Summary

A novice encountered significant confusion while learning web development fundamentals, struggling to grasp core concepts like front-end versus back-end responsibilities, essential technologies, and career-entry skills. This gap led to the submission of an unfocused, overly broad question.

Root Cause

Rapid evolution of web technologies overcrowding beginner resources
Assumption that web development functions as a single discipline instead of interconnected specialties
Lack of clear roadmaps illustrating progression paths and interdependencies

Why This Happens in Real Systems

Front-end frameworks (React/Vue) abstraction masks underlying HTML/CSS fundamentals
Back-end-as-a-service options complicate understanding of server-side functionality
Cloud services obscure deployment pipelines and infrastructure requirements
Tutorial fragmentation teaches tool-specific skills without architectural context

Real-World Impact

Developers specialize too narrowly without cross-functional awareness
Front-end developers create inefficient architectures due to misunderstood backend constraints
Integration failures in full-stack projects from siloed knowledge
Production deployments fail without understanding hosting requirements

Example or Code (if applicable)

HTML/CSS/JS front-end calling unprotected back-end endpoint:

// Backend endpoint without authorization
app.get('/data', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ sensitive: true }) // Ex