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Course Syllabus

SE 3820 Back-end Web Development

  • Division: Natural Science and Math
  • Department: Computer Science & Engineering
  • Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
  • Prerequisites: CS 1430CS 2450CS 2860
  • Corequisites: SE 3250 SE 3520
  • Semesters Offered: Fall
  • Semester Approved: Spring 2020
  • Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2025
  • End Semester: Fall 2025
  • Optimum Class Size: 18
  • Maximum Class Size: 24

Course Description

This course focuses on the concepts and technologies needed to develop dynamic web-based applications. Students build data-driven websites and APIs using modern languages and tools.

Justification

Skills developing back-end web applications and APIs are involved in nearly every part of the software engineering industry. Back-end (server-side) development is critical to support web sites, mobile applications, business-to-business systems, and internal business systems. This is a required course as part of the Software Engineering Bachelor's degree.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand the HTTP request/response lifecycle.
  2. Become familiar with common web architectures like MVC.
  3. Securely handle sensitive information on your web server.
  4. Produce and consume web services (e.g. REST, gRPC, graphQL, SOAP, etc.).
  5. Develop a web-based interface to store and retrieve data from a database.
  6. Implement common data models such as those used in blogs, forums, and content management systems.

Course Content

The back-end of a web application is the enabler for a front-end experience. Back-end developers need to understand programming languages and databases, and they must have an understanding of server architecture.