10 Must-Have Skills to Become a Top 1% Web Developer

Essential skills every web developer should have, focusing on real-world action over theoretical knowledge.

1. HTML Essentials

Create a basic functional web page.

• Create an HTML page in an editor & open it in the browser
• Set page title & icon
• Create paragraphs, headings, links, images, tabular data, lists, forms
• Create comments & comment out code
• Use Semantic HTML for accessibility and SEO

2. CSS Essentials

Style the web page.

• Add styles, colors, fonts, layouts, backgrounds
• Add animations and transitions
• Use pseudo-selectors and pseudo-classes
• Customize shapes: outline, borders, height, width
• Reuse styles: CSS variables
• Make responsive designs: breakpoints, responsive images
• Use frameworks: Tailwind, Sass

3. JavaScript Essentials

Add interactivity to your web pages.

Basics

• Add JavaScript code to a page
• Print output: alert(), innerHTML, console logging
• Manage data: variables, data types, scopes
• Create & call functions
• Create objects
• Select and manipulate elements: getElementById, querySelector
• Handle input & events
• Manipulate text with strings
• Use lists, date, and time
• Handle conditions and loops
• Use TypeScript

Client-Side Development

• Make network requests: fetch() API, HTTP verbs
• Handle UI states
• Store data locally: cookies, Local Storage, Session Storage
• Organize code: modules, module bundlers
• Handle form input
• Use NPM packages

4. Dev Tools

• Create, inspect, & filter console logs
• Add temporary scripts & actions
• Inspect, select & debug HTML elements
• Inspect & temporarily modify styles
• Monitor network requests
• Test on multiple screen sizes
• Install editor extensions
• Customize editor themes, fonts, settings
• Use an integrated debugger
• Code faster with snippets: Emmet
• Use keyboard shortcuts
• Use AI for faster development

5. Site Performance

• Measure and improve performance
• Improve Core Web Vitals: LCP, CLS, INP
• Optimize resource delivery: caching
• Optimize images: compressing, WebP
• Lazy load images & video
• Optimize CSS and web fonts

6. JavaScript Frameworks

Develop faster with frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.

• Create and reuse components
• Data binding, conditional rendering
• Manage component state
• Display & update list data
• Handle events, side effects, and state changes
• Manage app-level state
• Handle form input
• Style components
• Handle SPA navigation with routing

7. Version Control

Track changes in your codebase.

• Create a local repo
• Stage and commit changes
• Use .gitignore
• Check out previous commits
• Create and merge branches

Git & GitHub

• Create GitHub repos
• Use remotes: push, pull, remove
• Clone and fork repos
• Make pull requests

8. Database Management

Understand data processing & manipulation.

• Design and implement schema: tables, keys, collections (NoSQL)
• Add, read, update, and delete data

9. Server-Side Development

• Respond to requests: URLs, headers, body
• Manage logs
• Create a RESTful API
• Fetch data from APIs
• Interact with a database

10. General Skills

• Learn rapidly on demand
• Solve problems independently
• Communicate with designers, clients, and other devs
• Debug & fix issues
• Search for and process information efficiently

Final Thoughts

Master these skills to build high-quality web apps and sites with great speed.

Ref: Tari Ibaba - Medium