Lies on Frontend

#frontend #development

Hey 👋

So, this is my first blog on this platform, actually, my first blog anywhere 🙃. And since I have a keen interest in Frontend, you'll mostly find my yaps around that only. Yeah, I call my blogs "yaps" (just me things).

So what's a better way to start writing than talking about one of the biggest lies I've heard throughout engineering?

"Frontend is dead."

I have friends who work on backend and low-level stuff. I'll mention some of them at the end - do check them out if backend is your thing (not a paid PR 😂). But honestly? Those things never really interested me. While, Frontend always did.

Whether it was learning JavaScript internals, understanding how rendering works, or building UI components that actually feel good to use, frontend was one of the few things in engineering that genuinely kept me curious.

And because of that, I decided that this is the direction I want to build my career in. But then people around you start saying things.

"Bruh, Frontend? It's 2026. Wake up."
Your YouTube feed starts recommending videos titled: "Frontend is DEAD."
Some professors say things like: "If you just want to do frontend and join a company, then why are you even doing engineering?"

And after hearing enough of these things, there was a point where even I started questioning myself. Like, Really? Frontend?

Two Things Before We Continue

If you've heard similar things and you're tired of listening to them, do these two things:

Listen to this song 🎵
Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna.
(People will say things. It's their job to do so.)
Continue reading 😌
Because I have a few things to say.

Frontend Isn't Dead

If you're still reading, let me try to convince you that choosing frontend isn't some terrible career decision. First of all, companies like Microsoft, Uber, and many others aren't crazy. They still hire frontend engineers. They have Frontend SDE-II roles, Senior, Staff and Principal Frontend roles.

If frontend were truly dead, these positions wouldn't exist. Now yes, one thing is true. Frontend roles have slowly shifted towards full-stack expectations. Companies often expect engineers to understand the entire flow—from UI to APIs to databases. But that doesn't mean you need to become a backend wizard who can design distributed systems in their sleep.

I do think everyone should learn some backend. And by some backend, I don't mean just making one Express server and calling it a day. Understand APIs. Understand databases. Understand caching. Understand queues. Understand how systems scale. Even though you don't go much deep, but you need to know them.

Frontend Is Just Moving Buttons

Now let's talk about my favorite lie.

"Frontend is just moving buttons around."

Bruhhhh 😭. If that's what frontend is, then yeah, Frontend is dead. Because even AI can generate that. But frontend is much more than that. There's:

Performance optimization
SEO
Rendering strategies
Frontend caching
State management
Accessibility
Testing
Bundle optimization
Web security
Architecture decisions

And a lot more.

A frontend engineer might spend days improving page load times by a few hundred milliseconds. Reducing bundle size. Optimizing React renders. Improving Core Web Vitals. Designing a caching strategy. Making sure an application works for thousands or millions of users. That's not "moving buttons." That's engineering.

And if you look at most frontend job descriptions, you'll notice these are exactly the things companies care about.

What I Think Every Frontend Developer Should Learn

My opinion?

Learn some backend. Not because frontend is dying. Because understanding the entire system makes you a better frontend engineer. Learn frontend system design too. And yes, Frontend system design is a real thing 🙃. System design doesn't automatically mean databases, load balancers, and microservices.

Learn how large frontend applications are structured. Learn state management. Learn performance. Learn rendering. Learn architecture.

And of course, work with AI. But don't blindly copy-paste everything it gives you. Make AI work for you and not the other way around.

And never leave the fundamentals. Whether it's JavaScript, React, browser internals, networking, or performance. The fundamentals are still undefeated.

Final Yap

If someone tells you frontend is dead, send them this blog 😌.

And if frontend is something that genuinely excites you, don't abandon it because a random YouTube thumbnail told you to. Learn it properly. Go deeper than just components and styling. Understand the engineering behind it. And most importantly, build stuff. A lot of stuff.

Also, wait for more yaps 👀. They won't be motivational posts 😂. But, instead I will talk about actual frontend things: