Question 1

How do I become better at web development and go from beginner to intermediate?

Accepted Answer

For me, the jump is mostly about developer experience, not building completely different apps. Intermediate devs pick stacks and tooling that let them ship faster with cleaner code and fewer bugs. That usually means leaning into Typescript, better API patterns, and proven libraries instead of doing everything “vanilla” from scratch.

Question 2

Why is developer experience (DX) important in web development?

Accepted Answer

If it’s a pain to develop, you’re not incentivized to build anything complex. Bad tooling slows you down and makes simple things feel like jumping through hoops just to render a page. Good DX means you can iterate quickly, stay happy coding, and ship more robust apps.

Question 3

Should I learn Typescript if I already know Javascript?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Typescript removes a lot of the unpredictable Javascript nonsense that causes dumb errors. I’ve had so many cases like “undefined is not a function” or weird coercion bugs that TS would’ve caught immediately. The output app can be the same, but the process of building it is way more predictable with TS.

Question 4

What is end-to-end type safety and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

In a typical REST setup, the frontend and backend are disjointed, so the frontend has no guarantee what the backend returns. End-to-end type safety means the client knows exactly what the server returns, and if the backend changes, the Typescript compiler will shout at you. That reduces bugs and acts like living documentation between client and server.

Question 5

What are tRPC and RPC and how do they help full-stack apps?

Accepted Answer

RPC is remote procedure call, and tRPC is basically that idea with Typescript-first type safety. The big win is your frontend and backend types align automatically, so you’re not guessing response shapes. It’s one of the cleanest ways to enforce type-safe client-server communication.

Question 6

Why use Prisma (an ORM) instead of writing SQL directly?

Accepted Answer

When you write raw SQL in Javascript land, you often lose type information about what the data shape actually is. With Prisma, your tables map into typed models, so your IDE can autocomplete fields and Typescript can catch misspellings or wrong access early. It simplifies database interactions and plays really well with TS.

Question 7

What libraries should I use for authentication instead of building it myself?

Accepted Answer

I’d rather delegate auth to mature libraries like NextAuth, Clerk, or Passport. Authentication is not something to take lightly because you’re dealing with user data and security vulnerabilities. These libraries handle OAuth flows (Google/GitHub), storing user sessions, and the messy edge cases so you don’t reinvent the wheel.

Question 8

What is CI/CD and what tools should I use for it?

Accepted Answer

CI/CD is continuous integration and continuous deployment — automating build, test, and deployment so code merges safely and ships efficiently. On teams, you want tests to run automatically when someone pushes code, and only merge if everything passes. Tools like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and CircleCI help you set up those pipelines.

How To Become Better At Web Development?

🛍️ Products Mentioned (2)

GitHub

Website

About This Video

Frequently Asked Questions

🎬 More from Elliott Chong