Working from home is the new normal and it presents new challenges for both employees and recruiters. If you are looking to hire a web developer, you will need to evaluate not only their tech skills but also the soft skills as they are equally important.
You need to know that the candidate you hire will be a good fit for the company and will be able to work and communicate with the other team members remotely.
To ensure that you avoid a bad hire, here are 16 questions you should ask a web developer during an interview.
1. What are some past projects you have worked on and what was your approach?
This question will help you understand more about the style of work of the candidate – their problem-solving skills, how they manage feedback, how they gather requirements, and how close they pay attention to the user experience.
2. How would you explain what X is to a tech novice?
The web developer will work with other departments and will need to communicate effectively with non-tech colleagues. They should be able to explain in a simple way without using too much tech jargon most of the terms and work they do.
3. Have you given a presentation?
Public speaking is an important skill as IT has a strategic role in most of the companies. Hiring a web developer who is comfortable and has experience presenting is a great plus.
4. Who are your role models in the IT world?
This question will reveal the values and ambitions of the candidate – depending on what type of people they admire and look up to, you can evaluate whether they are a good fit for the company’s culture.
5. Name one website or app that you do not like and why?
The answer to this question will allow you to understand how the web developer is evaluating other people’s work, as well as their own problem-solving abilities. A skilled web developer will offer solutions to any issues they find.
6. What is your approach in case an app stops working?
How the candidate will fix any errors or issues is important because problem-solving is a key skill for a successful web developer.
7. How do you respond to negative feedback?
A good candidate is capable of dealing with negative feedback for users and testers, they should be able to analyze it and implement it.
8. What are the biggest challenges when working on the front end of an app?
Web developers need to have good knowledge of what functions are available, how the data is structured, how web services are configured – basically, a good candidate is capable to discuss the whole development cycle.
9. What projects are you working on in your spare time?
A web developer should always be up-to-date with the latest trends in technology and you should be looking for someone who constantly strives to learn and implement new things.
10. What APIs have you worked with?
A web developer should have worked with APIs for all major commercial services, and have to be able to share how they integrate API functions to create secure and useful interfaces.
11. What are the biggest trends in future web development?
A candidate might talk about different technologies, but you need to ask how in their opinion this will improve the UX, and how they would implement the technology in their current work.
12. Which content management systems are you familiar with?
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla are some of the most popular CMSs, all being open-source systems. Ks also if the candidate has been involved or made contributions to a relevant open-source community.
13. Do you have any SQL skills?
It is important that a web developer understands how data is structured and any experience with SQL is very valuable.
14. What are the biggest differences between developing for desktop and mobile?
A good candidate should know how to develop for both desktop and mobile and implement important differences, as well as understand how to create a great UX on any platform.
15. Where is the error in this code?
Asking the candidate to debug a piece of code will allow you to assess their technical knowledge and attention to detail.
