What are the differences between web development and software engineering careers?

Web development is a specialized area within software engineering that focuses on building applications for the web. It's important to note that while all web developers are software engineers, not all software engineers are web developers. The key difference lies in the domain knowledge required for web development, such as understanding HTTP protocols, web standards like HTML/CSS, and SEO best practices. Additionally, web development often involves a strong emphasis on user experience and responsive design to ensure compatibility across various devices and screen sizes.

Web development or Web Engineering is a specialization under Software Engineering, focusing on curating websites that run on web browsers by communicating with web servers. It involves both designing what the user's see, a front-end that the user interacts with, and feel, the back-end that responds to the user's requests. Engineer's who excel in the complete domain are often called full-stack web developers.

Web development a subset of software engineering. It is that part of software engineering that deals with the web in general. It involves building web based applications with a strong focus on Front-end and Back-end. The frontend deals with the user interface, user experience, all what users see visually, while the backend deals with the database and application logic. Here, there is a strong focus on making use of Frameworks both for the frontend and backend.

Web development is the 'front end,' i.e., building an Application on layer seven of the OSI model. The tools used have changed significantly, empowering the developer to style, e.g., Bootstrap and tailwind CSS. However, my experience is there still needs to be a person with an eye for design, color coordination, and fonts. Most of these are secondary to software engineers; however, that design talent needs to be part of the solution in an industrial-grade product.

Software Engineering is the application of engineering principles and practices to solve problems using technology, this involves research, design, development, testing and maintaining of software systems and applications. Software Engineers use various programming languages, tools and methodology to create software solutions that meets the clients or users needs. Software Engineering is a super-set with many sub-set. Some of the subset includes Web Development, Mobile Application, Embedded systems, Cloud Computing, Cloud Computing, DevOps, Desktop Application etc. Software Engineers need to have a strong knowledge of computer science, algorithms, data structures, system architecture, web infrastructure and the ability etc.

The skills and tools used for web development includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript (for the Frontend), also various frontend frameworks are being used like React.js, Vue.js, Angular.js etc. While for the backend, we have various Programming Languages like JavaScript (Node.js), Python (Django, Flasks etc.), Java (Springboot), PHP(Laravel), C#, C++ etc. While Software Engineering uses programming languages like JavaScript, Python, C, C++, C#. They also make use of command line interfaces (CLI) and terminal based editors like Vim, emacs, Neovim, nano etc. They also take Design patterns using Data Structures and Algorithms along with various programming methodologies...

Both paths have great Career paths and Opportunities, ranging from the type of tools and technologies that are being used to the engineering methodologies followed, for example, Some areas prefer software engineers, because of all the practises involves, while other places are fine with web developers. Still both have great opportunities.