Do frontend developers need to know SQL? (Expert Reply)

Database Introduction

Every website, no matter its form or structure needs a place to store its data.

Data here refers to all the user inputs and user data coming in from the frontend and those processed by the backend all stored in what we call a database.

There are 2 major types of databases: Web database and Relational database.

The web database is the layer of a website that is the ideal place for this data to be stored.

What’s a Web Database?

Web database is the last layer of the three layers that makes up a website. The first being the frontend and the second being the backend.

A web database is essentially a data storage space that can be accessed from a local network or the internet.

It’s used for both professional and personal use, they are hosted on websites and appear mostly as software as service (SaaS) products, which means they are accessed through a web browser.

There are different technologies available to create and manipulate website databases.

But the most common types of web databases appear in the form of relational databases. 

Relational Database

Relational databases allow you to store data in groups (known as tables), through their ability to link records together.

It uses indexes and keys, which are added to data, to locate information fields stored in the database, enabling you to retrieve information quickly.

A table is the most basic unit of a database and consists of rows and columns of data.

A single table holds records, and each record is stored in a row on the table.

Each column in a table corresponds to a category of data — for example, customer name or address — while each row contains a data value for the intersecting column.

Tables are the most used type of database objects or structures that hold or reference data in a relational database.

Some of the most common relational databases include:

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Oracle Database
• MariaDB
• MongoDB
• SQLite
• Amazon Relational Database Service
• NewSQL

What’s Structured Query Language (SQL) 

SQL is a programming language that is used to manage relational databases.

With this programming language, you can modify database tables and index structures; add, update, and delete rows of data; and retrieve subsets of information from within relational database management systems (RDBMSes) 

This information can be used for transaction processing, analytics applications, and other applications that require communicating with a relational database.

SQL queries and other operations take the form of commands written as statements and are aggregated into programs that enable users to add, modify or retrieve data from database tables.

Learn More About SQL

Is SQL Required for Frontend Development?

No. SQL is not required for frontend development.
It’s a database language used by backend developers to manipulate and controls the database.

If you intend to solely focus on frontend development then there’s no need to learn SQL.

That’s the ideal process but that’s not always the case in a real-life scenario.

There have been various instances of companies adding SQL questions in their job interviews when hiring a front-end developer.

But the good part?

It’s often the basic aspect of SQL considering the fact that database languages are not the focal point of frontend development.

Hence, if you plan to secure a job as a frontend developer in your dream tech startup, then a basic knowledge of SQL can be helpful.

Since there’s already so much to learn in the front-end that’s way more important than learning a database programming language like SQL, it shouldn’t be something you should be bothered about at the initial stage of your front-end web development journey.

You might be wondering; what’s the purpose of learning SQL as a frontend developer?

Why do companies ask frontend developers SQL questions? even if it’s the basic, they shouldn’t include it at all in frontend development hiring process.

Well, I’ll explain. See it this way.

As a frontend developer, you handle very minimal database-related tasks but you ultimately work more with API endpoints given to you by the backend engineer.

With these API endpoints, you can send your data from the frontend to the backend and the backend developers continue working on the data from there.

You might not be a backend developer but since you work with APIs, you need to understand how information is been sent from frontend to backend, and this include having a basic knowledge of how information are stored on the database which leads us to SQL.

So again, you don’t necessarily need to have expert knowledge of SQL as a frontend developer, but not learning it at a fundamental level may strike you off as a lazy developer to potential employers.

Some Scenarios That Will Require a Frontend Developer to Work with SQL

• When you are not planning to stop at frontend development, you want to progress into the backend and become a full-stack developer. You’ll need to have basic knowledge of the database supporting your stack.

• Secondly, it all depends on the size of the company that will be hiring you. A bigger company will have a lesser need for a strict front-end developer to know SQL. But a smaller company will require more flexible developers, and the more web development technologies you have under your belt, the better chance you have at getting a job and keeping it.

• If you are working as a freelance frontend developer, most times, clients will present you with project ideas that will require you to handle the website’s database, and to do that effectively, you need to know SQL.

How much SQL does a frontend developer need to know?

SQL is one of the easiest things to learn as a frontend programmer and it’s quite fun too.

You could probably learn the vast majority of what most programmers use in two to three fully dedicated afternoons from youtube videos and using practice sites (I’m sure a quick Google search will return plenty of those). 

Basically, the concept of SQL is simple in the sense that you’re specifying where and how something should be stored or retrieved from a relational database.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you don’t necessarily need to know SQL to efficiently carry out your tasks as a frontend developer. But, it will be an added advantage if you have even the basic knowledge of it and can be helpful during job interviews.

Knowledge of SQL as a frontend developer makes you function better as a solo programmer/freelancer working on a web app alone. 

Wondering if SQL is difficult to learn? As a frontend developer, you’ve encountered more difficult things than SQL unless you are just getting started.

So if you set your mind to learning SQL and dedicate a couple of hours daily for a few weeks, you are good to go.

And it’s a wrap.

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