What the fuck is Full Stack?
When people say full stack, they usually mean “full stack developer” where “full stack” defines, broadly, the skillset that this developer or programmer has. If you were hoping for a little bullshit, a bit more details, and then some nuance discussion, you’ve come to the right place.
The term “stack” refers to the languages and/or servers and programs that make up the entire offering or service. You might refer to the LAMP Stack when talking about the languages and servers that support a specific back-end program. So, stack is just a fancy fucking programmer term for a container or grouping.
Most of the time, the “full stack” term is used in web-based programming environments. It describes what programming language on the back end, what database things might be stored in, what server will service the request and response, and what the user display is programmed in.
Where’s that nuance you were talking about? Yeah, I got you:
When someone says they’re a “full stack” developer, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a pro in all of the things they claim to know. A purely front-end (user interface) or back-end (processing and data) programmer usually seems to almost brag about how they don’t know the other discipline. Full-stack developers are saying they can take the place of both of these programmers. This usually isn’t the case. Instead, they usually focus on one discipline and then are sorta shitty at all the rest. It’s really rare to find a pro full-stack developer.