50 Terms · Plain Language
IT Glossary
Every term you'll hear in IT interviews and on the job — explained without jargon. No prior experience required.
UI/UX
- UI Design
- User Interface Design — the discipline of designing every visual element a user touches: buttons, typography, colour, layout, and icons. A good UI makes a product look professional and instantly scannable.Learn UI/UX Design at Felix ITs →
- UX Design
- User Experience Design — the process of designing how a product feels to use. UX designers research user behaviour, map user flows, create wireframes, and test prototypes to ensure the product is intuitive and achieves the user's goal with minimal friction.Learn UI/UX Design at Felix ITs →
- Wireframe
- A basic, low-fidelity blueprint of a screen layout — like an architectural sketch before construction. Wireframes show structure and content placement without colour or final visuals, letting teams validate navigation cheaply before building.
- Prototype
- A clickable, interactive mock-up of a product built before any code is written. Prototypes let designers and stakeholders test user flows and interactions without building the actual product. Built in Figma, InVision, or Adobe XD.
- Design System
- A shared library of reusable UI components (buttons, forms, cards, typography rules) combined with usage guidelines. Design systems ensure consistency across a product and speed up both design and development work.
- Figma
- The industry-standard collaborative design tool for UI/UX professionals. Figma runs in the browser, supports real-time collaboration, and is used by designers at Google, Airbnb, Flipkart, and almost every product company in India.Learn UI/UX Design at Felix ITs →
- User Research
- The process of understanding users' goals, behaviours, and pain points. Methods include interviews, surveys, usability tests, and heatmap analysis. Research findings inform design decisions and reduce the risk of building the wrong product.
- Accessibility (a11y)
- Designing products that work for people with disabilities — visual, motor, cognitive, and hearing. Accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2) ensure products work with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast displays. Required by law for government and financial products.
Web Dev
- Front-End Development
- Building the part of a website or app that users see and interact with directly. Front-end developers write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create responsive, accessible user interfaces.Learn Full Stack React at Felix ITs →
- Back-End Development
- Building the server, database, and business logic that powers a web application. Back-end developers handle authentication, data storage, APIs, and performance. Languages: Node.js, Java, Python, PHP.Learn Full Stack React at Felix ITs →
- API
- Application Programming Interface — a set of rules that lets two systems communicate. When an app shows you the weather, it calls a weather API. REST and GraphQL are the most common API patterns.
- REST API
- Representational State Transfer — the most widely used pattern for web APIs. REST APIs use HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and return JSON data. Understanding REST is essential for any full stack developer.
- React.js
- A JavaScript library created by Meta for building interactive user interfaces using reusable components. React is the most widely used frontend framework in India — most full stack job listings list it as a requirement.Learn Full Stack React at Felix ITs →
- Node.js
- A JavaScript runtime that lets you run JavaScript on the server. Node.js powers the back-end in MERN/MEAN full stack applications and handles many simultaneous connections efficiently.
- Database
- Organised storage for application data. Relational (SQL) databases like PostgreSQL store data in tables; NoSQL databases like MongoDB store data as documents. Every web application uses at least one database.
- Git
- The universal version control system that tracks changes to code over time. Git lets teams collaborate without overwriting each other's work. GitHub and GitLab host Git repositories online. Every developer role requires basic Git proficiency.
- Responsive Design
- Building websites that automatically adjust their layout for any screen size — mobile, tablet, and desktop. Achieved through CSS media queries. Now the industry standard; non-responsive sites rank lower in Google.
Testing
- Software Testing
- The process of evaluating software to find defects before release. Testing can be manual (a human tester) or automated (scripts). The goal is to prevent bugs from reaching end users.Learn Software Testing at Felix ITs →
- Manual Testing
- Testing software by hand — a QA analyst uses the application as a real user would, checking for defects. Essential for usability evaluation, exploratory testing, and complex business logic checks.Learn Software Testing at Felix ITs →
- Automation Testing
- Writing scripts that automatically execute test cases and compare actual vs expected results. Faster than manual testing for repetitive regression tests. Tools: Selenium, Appium, Cypress, REST Assured.Learn Automation Testing at Felix ITs →
- Selenium
- The most widely used open-source framework for automating web browser interactions. Selenium scripts simulate user actions (clicks, form fills) to test web applications. Selenium + Java is the most common QA job requirement in India.Learn Automation Testing at Felix ITs →
- Test Case
- A document specifying the steps to test a specific feature, the expected outcome, and the actual result. Well-written test cases ensure every feature is tested consistently every time.
- SDLC
- Software Development Life Cycle — the structured process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying software. Phases: Requirements → Design → Development → Testing → Deployment → Maintenance. Foundational knowledge for any software role.
- Agile
- A software development methodology delivering work in short cycles called sprints (2–4 weeks). Teams continuously release working software and adapt to feedback. Most Indian IT companies use Agile.
- Bug / Defect
- A flaw in software that causes unexpected or incorrect behaviour. Bugs are logged in tools like JIRA with severity (critical, major, minor) and priority. Finding bugs early in development is 10–100× cheaper than fixing them in production.
Data & AI
- Data Science
- An interdisciplinary field combining statistics, programming, and domain knowledge to extract insights from data. Data scientists build models that predict outcomes, classify information, and find patterns humans cannot see manually.Learn Data Science at Felix ITs →
- Machine Learning (ML)
- A subset of AI where computer systems learn from data without being explicitly programmed. Instead of writing rules, you feed the system data and it learns patterns. Used in: spam filters, recommendation engines, fraud detection.Learn Machine Learning at Felix ITs →
- Python
- The dominant programming language for data science, machine learning, and back-end web development. Python's readable syntax and rich library ecosystem (Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn) make it the standard for data work in India.Learn Python at Felix ITs →
- SQL
- Structured Query Language — the language used to query and manipulate data in relational databases. Required for virtually every data analyst role and commonly tested in interviews. The single most important skill for data careers.
- Power BI
- Microsoft's business intelligence tool for interactive dashboards and reports. Power BI connects to databases, Excel files, and APIs to visualise data for business decision-makers. The most commonly requested BI tool in Indian job listings.
- Neural Network
- A machine learning model loosely inspired by the human brain — layers of interconnected nodes that process data to learn complex patterns. Neural networks power image recognition, NLP, and generative AI.
- Large Language Model (LLM)
- A neural network trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate language. Examples: GPT-4, Claude, Gemini. LLMs power AI chatbots, coding assistants, and content generation tools reshaping every industry.
- Pandas
- A Python library for data manipulation and analysis. Pandas provides DataFrames that make it easy to clean, transform, and analyse tabular data. The first library every data analyst learns after Python basics.
DevOps
- DevOps
- A culture and set of practices combining software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to deliver software faster and more reliably. DevOps teams automate build, test, and deployment pipelines to enable multiple releases per day.Learn DevOps at Felix ITs →
- CI/CD
- Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment — automatically building, testing, and deploying code every time a developer pushes a change. CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) catch bugs early and eliminate manual deployment errors.
- Docker
- A platform for packaging applications into portable containers. A Docker container holds all the code and dependencies an app needs — ensuring it runs identically on any machine. The foundation of modern cloud deployment.
- Kubernetes (K8s)
- An open-source system for automatically deploying, scaling, and managing containerised applications across server clusters. The industry standard for running production workloads at scale. K8s expertise commands a significant salary premium.
- Cloud Computing
- Delivering computing resources (servers, storage, databases) over the internet on-demand. Instead of owning hardware, companies rent capacity from AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud and pay only for what they use.
- AWS
- Amazon Web Services — the world's largest cloud platform, used by 90%+ of Indian IT companies. Provides 200+ services including compute (EC2), storage (S3), and databases (RDS). AWS certification is the most valued credential for DevOps and cloud engineers in India.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Managing cloud infrastructure using code rather than manual configuration. Terraform is the leading IaC tool. IaC makes infrastructure reproducible, version-controlled, and audit-ready — a key DevOps skill.
Digital Marketing
- SEO
- Search Engine Optimisation — improving a website's visibility in organic (non-paid) search results. Covers technical optimisation, content strategy, and link building. High-ranking pages drive free, consistent traffic — making SEO one of the highest-ROI marketing disciplines.Learn Digital Marketing at Felix ITs →
- SEM
- Search Engine Marketing — paid advertising on search engines, primarily Google Ads. Puts your ads in front of users actively searching for your product. SEM professionals manage keywords, bidding, ad copy, and conversion tracking.
- PPC
- Pay-Per-Click — an advertising model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad. Google Ads and Meta Ads are PPC platforms. PPC professionals who manage large budgets efficiently are among the highest-paid in digital marketing.
- Content Marketing
- Creating and distributing valuable content (blog posts, videos, guides) to attract and retain a target audience. Content marketing builds brand authority over time. It is the long-term complement to paid advertising.
- Conversion Rate
- The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action — buying, signing up, or booking a demo. CR = (Conversions ÷ Visitors) × 100. Improving conversion rate is often more cost-effective than increasing traffic.
- Analytics
- Collecting, measuring, and analysing data about user behaviour and campaign performance. Google Analytics 4 is the standard tool. Marketing analytics professionals use data to improve campaign ROI.
General IT
- Full Stack Developer
- A developer who works on both front-end (what users see) and back-end (server, database, APIs) of a web application. Full stack developers are among the most hired profiles in Indian IT — versatility makes them valuable at startups and large companies alike.Learn Full Stack React at Felix ITs →
- OOP (Object-Oriented Programming)
- A programming paradigm organising code into objects — bundles of data and functions. OOP concepts (classes, inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism) are tested in virtually every software developer and automation tester interview.
- Version Control
- A system that records changes to files over time so you can recall specific versions later. Git is the universal version control system. Every development, QA, and DevOps role requires Git proficiency.
- Scrum
- The most popular Agile framework. Teams work in 2-week sprints, hold daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. Understanding Scrum is expected in virtually every IT job interview in India.
- Open Source
- Software whose source code is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. Most of the internet runs on open-source software — Linux, React, Python, PostgreSQL, and Kubernetes are all open source.
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