Beginner’s Guide to Web Development in Sri Lanka

The Web Development field is one of the fastest growing skills to master in Sri Lanka, particularly due to the increased number of online shops, freelance positions, and new digital businesses. Whether you're a student, an employee searching for a new opportunity, or have a general interest in building websites, knowing the web development skills can help you to boost your career and provide a vent for your creativity. Like with any other field, starting off requires some groundwork. With Web Development you first need to learn the two sections: “Front-End” and “Back-End” Development. The front end includes everything that the user will engage with, for example, the buttons, layout, the color scheme and the text. Back end deals with the logic, the database queries and the servers. Most new developers will start off with “HTML”, “CSS” and “JavaScript”, which form the building blocks of websites and user interfaces. A great number of aspiring developers are able to access basic tech education on an array of free online courses such as W3Schools, FreeCodeCamp and Coursera.

In addition, one can participate in local tech sponsorship communities through “Facebook groups”, “Discord servers”, or “meetup events”. These are great for fellowing developers and getting mentorship. After you become familiar with the fundamentals, you can look into more specialized options such as “React.js” for sophisticated web applications or “Bootstrap” for responsive web elements. For those more inclined towards backend, “Node.js”, “PHP”, or “Python with Django” are some of the options you can easily get into. Remember that “Vercel”, “Netlify”, and “GitHub Pages” are great options for hosting your projects online for free, which allows you to easily build a portfolio at any stage, even if you are starting out. Sri Lanka is also seeing a rise in freelancing, and a large number of developers sell their skills on “Fiverr”, “Upwork”, or even on “Instagram” and “WhatsApp”. You can also look for internship or junior developer position in local software firms. Remember to “start small”, and practice regularly. Sri Lanka is still a developing country, but with the right dedication and relentless hard work a web development beginner can pursue a successful career both locally and internationally.