The amount of time it takes to learn web development can vary greatly depending upon several factors: how much experience you already have, what area of web development you want to study, your chosen learning method, and how much time you’re willing to invest on a daily basis. To help you understand how these factors influence the length of your web development education, let’s take a closer look at each one.
Your Experience
How long it takes for you to learn web development will depend in part upon how much experience you already have with coding. If you took an HTML and CSS class in high school or practiced coding on your own a few years back, then you’ll have a bit of an advantage over an absolute beginner. Someone who’s just starting out in web development could face a pretty steep learning curve at the very beginning of their education. This curve will level out a bit after they learn foundational terminology and a few basic skills, but it does mean that beginners will take longer to learn web development compared to those who already have programming experience. In the end, the difference between the two should be relatively insignificant; the beginner should only take a few weeks to catch up to the more experienced student.
Your Specialty
The amount of time it takes to learn web development is also contingent upon which specialty you want to focus on: Front-end Web Development, Back-end Web Development, or Full Stack Web Development. Front-end web development deals exclusively with the parts of a website that users interact with. There are just three essential programming languages on the front-end — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — which makes front-end web development a bit easier (and faster) to learn than other areas of focus.
Back-end Web Developers use advanced programming languages such as Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript along with frameworks like Django, Ruby on Rails, and Express.js to code and maintain the website’s database, server, and applications. It’s also recommended that Back-end Web Developers know a bit of HTML as well. Because the back-end involves so many different languages, it could take longer to learn than the front-end.
Full stack web development is a combination of both front-end and back-end development, incorporating aspects of both types. It’s typically recommended that Full Stack Web Developers learn all the essential front-end languages and tools plus one or two back-end languages. Because of the extensive knowledge required for this role, acquiring these skills will likely take longer compared to the front and back-end.
Learning Method
Which learning method you select will also affect how long it takes to learn web development. There are several learning methods to choose from, including studying on your own, taking classes one at a time, enrolling in a bootcamp, or taking university classes. Out of these, the most efficient option by far is enrolling in a bootcamp. Bootcamps are specially designed to provide students with the skills they need for a career in web development in a short amount of time; most comprehensive web development bootcamps run between one to eight months, depending upon whether you’re learning part-time or full-time.
The least efficient route to learning web development tends to be studying on your own. Trying to learn through self-study requires a lot of self-discipline — something not a lot of people have. You also have to piece together your own curriculum, which is incredibly inefficient; it’s much faster to take classes that already have a pre-established curriculum that’s been designed by an industry professional.
Learning at a university and taking individual classes fall somewhere in the middle between bootcamps and self-study. If you choose to enroll at a university to earn a degree in computer science, you’ll end up spending four years total preparing for your career because you have to take two years’ worth of general education classes as part of your degree requirements. Similarly, taking individual classes on the skills you need, whether at a training center, trade school, or university, will also take significantly longer than the one to eight months required to complete a web development bootcamp.
Time Investment
How long it takes to learn web development also depends on how many hours a day you’re able to study. If you’re currently working a full-time job while raising a family, chances are you have a limited amount of time each day to dedicate to studying. Those who are still single, living at home, and/or working only part-time will likely have a lot more time to invest every day, which will speed up their web development education.
Summary
In short, it can take anywhere from one month to four years to learn web development, depending upon the amount of experience you have, how much time you can study on a daily basis, which specialty you focus on, and the learning method you choose. The good news is it’s possible to become qualified in as little as one month. The bad news is that the tech industry changes at a rapid pace, so you’ll always be learning new things throughout your career — but that’s part of what makes a career in web development so exciting.
How to Learn Web Development
The fastest way to become qualified as a Front-end, Back-end, or Full Stack Developer is to enroll in a web development bootcamp. Bootcamps are intensive programs designed to prepare students for a new career within just a few months. With their accelerated schedules and skill-based curriculum, bootcamps are an excellent alternative to university education. You can even find web development bootcamps available live online so you can learn from the comfort of your own home.
If you want to learn more about web development but aren’t quite ready to commit to a full bootcamp, then consider enrolling in one or two live online web development classes. There is a wide range of options available to help you get started on your programming education; you can take web development courses on front-end or back-end languages and tools such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, React, Bootstrap, Ruby on Rails, Git, and more.