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How to Hire a FullStack Developer?

With the onset of digitization, every innovative idea is turned into a viable application or website these days. I am sure you agree with me on this. And trust me it couldn’t get better. It’s such a smooth process to validate innovative ideas, don’t you think?

The global startup culture is on the rise and full-stack developers are a part of this massive evolution. As a result, fullstack developers are always in demand. Nevertheless, hiring fullstack developers who have the relevant skills for your project is a very difficult job.

As reported by the Evan Data Group, at present there are around 23 million fullstack developers, globally. And wait, that’s not it! By 2023, the count may touch the mark of 27.7 million. Can you imagine?

You must have heard about the versatility of this new strain of web developers or as they say- the “all-in-one” programmer. Am I correct? The validity of this chatter lies in the fact that most of the top tech brands like Amazon, Facebook, etc are hiring a whole lot of these web developers.

On the other hand, there are some companies and budding startups who are still confused about these new web developers. They are reluctant and unsure about how to work with them.

This leads us to address the elephant in the room and that is  – why and how to hire full-stack developers?

But why worry when you can know it from the experts at TheCodeWork? Here we are with a well-researched article on the whole process of hiring fullstack developers, right from scratch. This is also a mixture of personal experience and day-to-day proceedings while hiring fullstack developers. So here we go!

Who is a full-stack developer?

A skilled full-stack developer is more like an all-rounder. They can do several forms of tasks and are usually great at it. Sounds cool, right?

Let’s have a look at what they do instead of bragging.

• See, fullstack developers can create operational applications (mobile, Web, or desktop).
• In addition to that, they are familiar with both front-end as well as back-end development.
• They also have complete knowledge of servers, APIs, databases, MVC, etc.

Now you see why a skilled fullstack developer will always be in demand?

What does a fullstack developer do?

Now as you already know, there exists two segments of web development – frontend and backend. Frontend developers are the ones who build the whole interface and backend developers are the ones who build the related software engines.

And here comes the twist!

Starting from front-end to server-side scripts to databases – A fullstack developer can do it all. They can code, design, and have an outlook on the project details as well. How cool is that?

The responsibilities of fullstack developers include:

• Writing the code for programs and applications
• Coordinate and work with other developers of the team
• Troubleshoot issues
• Outline techniques for testing various web apps
• Web development

A fullstack developer is also familiar with the following languages:

• JavaScript
• HTML
• PHP
• CSS
• Angular
• MySQL
• Ruby
• MongoDB
• Node
• Apache

These are the basic languages that the framework of any website or application is made of.

Now let me share a very interesting fact of evolution here. The relevant skills for fullstack development have revolutionized and evolved.

There was a time when the required skills included – Linux,  LAMP stack, Apache, PHP, and MySQL. But this is history now. Now a standard fullstack developer operates with CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and several other JS frameworks that are needed for front-end development.

Coming to backend development, the relevant skills include the knowledge of Express and Node. in addition to that, the skills for the database include, MySQL as well as MongoDB.

I hope this has been a piece of point-to-point information about who fullstack developers are and what they do! So let’s check out how you can hire fullstack developers who can suit your cause and objective of the project involved.

Follow up, after all, you are here for this part!

Three tiers of web development are:

Before hiring a fullstack developer, you need to understand the 3-tier web development model. So have a quick look!

• Presentation: Basically frontend development. The segment that is concerned with the user interface and how your app or website may look on various screens.

• Business logic: The backend development segment. This part is majorly concerned with data and content processing. The backend includes the use of coding languages, web servers, as well as frameworks.

• Database: this includes the segment ofstoring data for a website, queries, data indexing, etc.

We have provided this segment because it is a secret tool to discover the skills of your candidate and if he/she can do the required tasks.

A fullstack developer has to comprehend the details of the whole web development method and also weigh in on any tier that may demand assistance. Are you getting my point?

This is exactly why fullstack developers are the best choice for startups. At the early stage, it is not possible to get experts for every segment that is involved in the process. Fullstack developers are the all-rounders that you need here! And if you are a startup yourself and need to build a website/application, I will tell you an easy way.

Just reach out to us at TheCodeWork. We are here for you!

Ways to hire a full stack developer

When you are hiring a fullstack developer, look for specific characteristics and technical abilities. Okay, let me help you out!

Qualities of a full-stack developer

Try and look for a developer who:

• Is enthusiastic and excited to learn.
• Is optimistic when a problem arises and can work his/her way around it.
• Knows about stacks as well as various other technologies.
• Is informed of the latest tech trends as well as developments in the particular domain.
• Is clear when it comes to understanding customer requirements and implementations of the same.

Technical skills in a full stack developer

Okay, enough about qualities. Let’s talk about some technical skills now, shall we? Have a look at what all technical skills you should be looking for while hiring a fullstack developer:

• HTML, Javascript, CSS
• Programming languages that are needed for backend development
• Version control
• Databases
• Hosting as well as Deployment
• Third-party APIs/services

What should you check out in a resume?

When it comes to hiring developers, a resume is the least important part. So trust me and reduce the dependence on a CV. you must be wondering why!

Well, how can a piece of paper or document be the true indicator of the technical skills of someone? But still, if you are not convinced enough, then what you should do is, check out the candidate’s participation in open source and his/her knowledge of multiple technologies.

Do check out the details of other projects that they may have been involved with. This is a great way to have an overview of their skills and technical abilities.

However, I would like to add –  Github is a great way to source candidates for your projects.

Technical assessment

This happens to be the most important level in the hiring procedure. The quality of action depends on how you assess a candidate. Don’t you agree with me?

In my personal experience, hosting a generic algorithmic test is a total waste of time. So what should you do? Well, how about testing them with real-life problems? This will make them use the best of their technical knowledge and expertise.

Isn’t that what you want to check after all?

What to assess in the interview?

So once you have tested the technical skills, you must have a handful of candidates shortlisted, right? The next procedure is to check the following abilities:

• Capability to deal with uncertain situations.
• Eagerness to learn whatever you have to offer.

This is a relevant part because you need to see how they deal with problems that arise out of nowhere. Knowing things is not enough. Implementation is the king. If your candidate knows a lot of skills but can implement none, in difficult situations, then honestly, what’s the use?

Hopefully, you have the basic idea of onboarding the right fullstack developers that suit your purpose by now. How about hovering over some questions that you can ask at the interview? Have a look.

Questions to ask a full stack developer

It gets difficult to interview a fullstack developer, given the broad spectrum of skills and knowledge involved. Don’t you think? But worry not! TheCodeWork is here to help you out!

Check out the questions that we have shortlisted for a smooth fullstack candidate:

Question #1: Give an example of any project that you have worked on and the tech stack you chose. How do you make these choices?

A question like this will help you comprehend the in-depth knowledge of the candidate about the methodology involved in the concerned workflow. See how precise and confident they are about this particular answer.

This is also a great way to judge their decision-making power when it comes to difficult situations. For example, in situations where you have to choose progressive web app or even server-rendered applications. I am sure you are getting my point by now!

Question #2: What are the backend/frontend languages, libraries, and frameworks you prefer?  What about the databases(both SQL and NoSQL)?

To have an overall outlook of the in-depth knowledge of your candidate, this is the way to go! What better way to know the tech stack preferences of a programmer?

Also talking of tech stack, if you want a peep into the most in-demand tech stack of 2021 then have a look at this: Tech Stack We are in love with.

Question #3: Tell us about the most recent thing that you have learned? Or maybe – if you have worked on something that excited you as a part of your side project or an actual work project.

This is more like a check on their ability to keep up with the latest tech trends and how eager they are to learn and adapt to new things. Sounds cool?

Question #4: What is your take on working remotely? How do you maintain the work-life balance?

YES! This one is a must. You must be wondering why! Well, the given situation of the world has led us to adopt remote work or a hybrid office structure. In such a situation, it is important to know how the candidate can manage and work on a widely distributed project without micromanagement.

Question #5: How do you resolve situations in your work when you are stuck?

This will help you understand the ability of the candidate to handle difficult situations and work through them. The best part is that it applies to the programming segment as well as being a team player as well.

Question #6: How well they are exploring ways to resolve an issue. For example, if a candidate is working and getting stuck how is he planning to look for a solution?

An Ideal answer would be

• Documentation first and try to explore each and every bit of it.
• Github issues (if open-source library).
• Raising questions on GitHub.
• Joining slack/discord channels for quick responses or even joining tech-related forums and putting the questions there.
• And most important one is candidate should be able to read the codebase and try to figure out the issues (if accessible).

Question #7: Do you have experience in building mobile applications (hybrid or native)? Have you deployed an application on the server?

You may ask this to know about the practical knowledge and experience of your candidate. Not just that, even the extent of knowledge is tested with the question of deployment, don’t you think?

And to give you a great overview of Native and Hybrid apps, check out this comparative study – Hybrid Vs Native Apps.

Additional questions that you may ask

This is more subjective I guess where you can direct questions that are directly related to the project itself. I mean, you have to do that, right?

Let me give you a personal view:

So my strategy is skill-based interviews.

• I ask about details about projects that they may have worked on. The challenges they face and how they solve them without intervention.

• Some standard questions that every developer should be familiar with. For example, What is a middleware? How does it function? This breaks the ice and they move to the next questions smoothly.

• I also go with some algorithmic questions to understand how promptly they can implement a logical solution to a problem statement.

• Any real-life problem statement and how would they go about solving it.

Overview

As I already said, hiring a fullstack developer is a tricky task. However, I hope this article has added some light to the whole process for you. Just try and be aware of the project specifications as well as the collaboration model that may be preferred by the team.

The interview round is more about testing the promptness of the answers and the attitude of the candidate. The remaining skills are already in sync with the task that you may have assigned to them. 

Also, if you are someone who is here because you wanted to see the other side of the interview panel, then hey, we have something for you! If you are looking for a job as a developer, then try here!” 

And last but not the least, if you are looking towards building an application or a website, do save the trouble and reach out to us at TheCodeWork. We are an MVP/product development company having globally distributed clients. I am sure we can help you out!

Till then, happy coding!