2026 Salary & Career Guide

# Full Stack Developer Salary in India (2026): Decoding L1, L2, L3, and L4 Roles

When candidates ask our career counselors at Vtricks Technologies, "What is a full stack salary?", the answer is rarely a single number. Tech salaries in hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune operate on a highly structured ladder.

Unlike traditional industries where you might wait 10 years for a major promotion, the IT sector promotes based on skill capability and architectural knowledge. Your paycheck is directly tied to your "Level" (L1 to L4).

If you are wondering exactly what is L1, L2, L3, and L4 developer, and what you can expect to earn at each stage of your career, we have decoded the 2026 Bangalore compensation standards for you below.

## The 2026 Bangalore Salary Progression

0-2 Years Exp

### L1: Junior Full Stack Developer

💰 ₹4 Lakhs – ₹8 Lakhs CTC

The Role: As an L1, you are a fresher. You know the MERN stack, but you still need guidance. Your primary job is writing code for specific features, fixing minor bugs, and learning the company's codebase. You aren't designing the architecture; you are building the bricks.

2-5 Years Exp

### L2: Mid-Level / SDE II

💰 ₹12 Lakhs – ₹22 Lakhs CTC

The Role: You are now highly independent. You can take a complex requirement and build it from the frontend React UI all the way down to the MongoDB database without asking for help. Startups love L2 developers because they offer the best balance of speed and cost.

5-8 Years Exp

### L3: Senior Full Stack Developer

💰 ₹25 Lakhs – ₹45+ Lakhs CTC

The Role: People constantly search for the salary of a 7 year full stack developer because this is where the money gets crazy. At L3, you aren't just writing code; you are mentoring L1s, making high-level architectural decisions, and ensuring the app can handle millions of users without crashing.

8+ Years Exp

### L4: Staff Engineer / Architect

💰 ₹50 Lakhs – ₹1 Crore+ CTC

The Role: L4s rarely write daily feature code. They are strategic leaders who oversee the entire technological direction of the company. They solve the hardest scaling problems and decide which tech stacks the entire engineering department will use.

## Why Does Full Stack Pay So Well?

If you are wondering if this is a "safe" career, the answer is yes. Full stack developers are the most valuable assets to modern tech companies for one simple reason: Efficiency.

- ✓

  The "Two-for-One" Value: Instead of paying ₹8 Lakhs for a Frontend Dev and ₹8 Lakhs for a Backend Dev, a startup will happily pay one Full Stack Dev ₹12 Lakhs. The company saves money, and you get a massive salary bump.

- ✓

  Faster Product Shipping: Because you understand both sides of the application, there is no miscommunication between departments. You can build and deploy features twice as fast.