Check out My Newsletter:
Does web development require math?
You definitely need the most basic understanding of math for most web development projects. Having a good understanding of basic arithmetic is required for all of web development.
You should be able to carry out addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication of numbers. You should understand how to work with decimals, percentages, fractions, and integers.
These are just basic math skills that everyone must possess. It’s basic math that we use in our daily activities.
In today’s insight, we are going to understand how much math is needed for web development and how to use it.
Most web developers require no more than basic arithmetic and simple algebra to develop their web projects.
However, there are other types of developers focused on security, cryptography, data structures and algorithms, data science, etc. These developers rely on applying mathematical concepts to solve problems.
For web developers, most of these mathematical theories and applications are hidden in the programming language or development tool.
Web developers do not have to understand the mathematical concept behind bcrypt or scrypt password hashing but they can use it for passwords hashing.
Most of the advanced and complicated math used for web solutions is hidden in the development tools so that web developers can focus on solving problems than understanding Calculus, logarithms, and trigonometry.
DO YOU NEED MATH FOR FRONTEND DEVELOPMENT?
The primary focus of frontend web developers is the user interface (UI), frontend web developers work with HTML, CSS, Javascript, and frontend frameworks, which do not require advanced math.
All you need for frontend web development is basic arithmetic to help you understand how to divide your web page and perform basic calculations.
Understanding of decimals, fractions, and percentages is very helpful, especially for CSS styling.
IS MATH NEEDED FOR BACKEND DEVELOPMENT?
As a backend web developer, you will be working with databases, APIs, and server-side programming languages like python, PHP, Node, Go, Ruby, etc.
These technologies do not require a rigorous understanding of math to work with. As long as you are able to work with basic algebra, you will do just fine.
If you are developing a project that involves a lot of calculations, e.g., a math revision app, banking app, or a complex conversion API, etc. you will have to perform some advanced calculations and good math skills in such a situation will be necessary.
Ultimately, we can see that only a basic understanding of math is needed for web development. Most of web development projects do not require heavy mathematical applications and understanding from web developers.
There are some projects in Finance, transportation, Augmented Reality, Data Science, and Education that require a lot of mathematical concepts and applications, but it will not be the responsibility of the web developer to build the mathematical models and concepts for such projects.
Other experts can work on the models and concepts and web developers using their skills can implement them in a project.
SHOULD WEB DEVELOPERS LEARN ADVANCED MATH?
Learning advanced math has a lot of advantages for web developers, when you have a good understanding of math, you will be able to participate in a wide range of projects.
Advanced math skills will help you to work on projects in machine learning and artificial intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Cryptography, Data science, signal processing, etc.
You should not be limited to basic arithmetic as a web developer, you can try to explore and understand how math can help to improve your web development projects.
If you intend to work for big tech companies such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Microsoft, you will need a good understanding of Data structures and Algorithms.
Data structures and algorithms require good mathematical understanding. You can learn more about Data Structures and Algorithms for interview preparation on leetcode.
In conclusion, web developers only need the most basic understanding of math, that is arithmetic and basic algebra. Advanced math is not a requirement for web development.
However, there is no harm in learning advanced math, as some advanced mathematical concepts will help you work on a variety of projects and give you an advantage as you seek to work for big tech companies.
You can learn more about improving your programming skills in our article TIPS TO BECOME A BETTER DEVELOPER.
