Here’s a structured roadmap to becoming a professional backend developer, covering essential topics, tools, and technologies. Basics of Programming ✅ Choose a programming language: JavaScript (Node.js) Python (Django, Flask, FastAPI) Java (Spring Boot) C# (.NET Core) Go, PHP, Ruby (Optional) Learn Databases ✅ SQL Databases (Relational DBs): PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB CRUD operations, Joins, Indexing Transactions, ACID properties ✅ NoSQL Databases (Document-Based DBs): MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra JSON, Key-Value Stores ✅ ORMs & Query Builders: SQLAlchemy (Python), Prisma (Node.js), Hibernate (Java) 5. Learn Backend Frameworks ✅ Node.js (JavaScript/TypeScript) Express.js, NestJS ✅ Python Django, Flask, FastAPI ✅ Java Spring Boot, Quarkus ✅ C# ASP.NET Core 6. Learn Authentication & Security ✅ Authentication & Authorization Session-based vs Token-based Auth (JWT, OAuth, OpenID) Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) API Rate Limiting ✅ Security Practices Hashing & Encryption (bcrypt, Argon2) SQL Injection, XSS, CSRF Protection HTTPS & SSL/TLS 7. Learn APIs & Web Services ✅ RESTful APIs REST principles, CRUD operations Status Codes (200, 201, 400, 401, 404, 500) ✅ GraphQL (Optional) Queries, Mutations, Subscriptions ✅ gRPC (Optional) High-performance communication for microservices