How to Hire Full Stack Developers: What You Need to Know

Overview of Full-Stack Development

There are many areas in software development, such as front-end, back-end, mobile app software development, web, and mobile app testing, and so on. Full stack developers are highly skilled in the world of web, application, and software development. Best full-stack developers are all-rounders in the programming world. They can juggle multiple technical tasks, which means a complete software development stack: Front-end development, Back-end development, Database, APIs, and Version Control Systems.

Growth of the Full-Stack Development Usage

According to Indeed research, demand for full-stack developers in the US grew by 206% from 2015 to 2018. In another LinkedIn’s 2020 Emerging Jobs Report, full-stack developer jobs ranked 4th with an annual growth rate of 35% since 2015.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts an 8% growth of vacancies for web developers and a 22% growth for software developers from 2019 to 2029. As of now, the ability to create and maintain a system from beginning to end, i.e., from interface to backend, is highly valued.

Therefore, we can confidently say that full stack developers are in high demand in the labor market. Besides, a 2020 Stack Overflow study of 65,000 engineers globally found that 54.9% identified as full stack.

Why Is Full-Stack Development So Popular and Important?

During contemporary times, full-stack developers often work with much larger and more complex websites and technologies than in the past. While one person can’t always do everything, companies benefit from hiring candidates who understand full stack. Many companies are looking for developers who can work in different areas and perform multiple roles instead of finding and hiring a few niche professionals. This is more cost-effective and allows one person to manage and understand each part of the project, thereby avoiding misunderstandings and division of knowledge.

Advantages and Challenges of Full-Stack Development for Businesses

Full Stack Development Advantages

Hire Full-Stack Developers to Improve Scalability

One of the first business benefits is the ability of full-stack engineers to work at different levels of the software architecture. This makes it noticeably easier for clients to build and scale a team of developers for their projects. Furthermore, some are convinced that programmers with full-stack skills adapt better to changes in technology. After all, full-stack developers are used to working in various environments. Consequently, any app company that hiring full-stack developers should, theoretically, be well adapted to the ever-changing technology landscape.

All-Round Knowledge of Front-End, Back-End, and Database

Full-stack developers are well versed in the technologies used in client and server-side development, particularly front-end, back-end, and database. This means they can handle the development and testing of, for example, an MVP and later extend it to the final product of a mobile app.

Hire Full-Stack Developers to Reduce Communication Delays

Hire a full-stack developer implies that fewer developers will be needed for a project. Accordingly, working with fewer people allows your company to reduce the amount of additional communication. As a result, you can establish effective communication with fewer delays and misunderstandings. In addition, when a full stack developer works on a feature implementation, they are often responsible for the entire process. This not only leads to more consistent logic but also leaves less room for miscommunication.

Hire Full-Stack Developers to Save Money

Hiring a full stack developer is the most effective option for businesses with limited budgets who are in search of a reliable and secure solution. This is because full stack programmers can perform many functions.

Faster Time to Market

Another benefit of full-featured development is that it can help businesses launch products faster. This can be useful for businesses operating in a competitive market as it allows them to get their products to the market before their competitors.

Full Stack Development Challenges

It’s difficult to evaluate full-stack developers: Recruiters often look at full-stack evaluation in a narrow sense, considering only those who work with front-end and back-end. Fullstack developers often have specialized front-end or back-end skills as well as familiarity with other components of application creation. This leads to the need for creating individual assessments for the same role, depending on the candidate’s skills and one’s requirements.

Each project or organization has a different technology stack, so evaluating a full-stack developer requires high level of customization. For example, a full-stack python developer may sometimes require Django + MySQL, Flask + PostgreSQL, or Django + MongoDB, depending on the framework and database your organization.

Unrealistic expectations of recruiters about hiring a full-stack developer: Suppose a recruiter sees a full-stack developer and hires a candidate thinking they can do everything. In that case, the recruiter may hire a fullstack developer who is not suited for the responsibilities of that job. Conversely, you may inflate expectations for specific technologies, screening out qualified full-stack engineers who may turn out to be weaker in non-primary technologies. That’s why you need to know precisely what skills are required, develop targeted assessments and interview questions.

Slows down the process: Hiring a full-stack developer affects the speed of development because they won’t work as fast as specialized developers who focus on a single task.

When Should you Hire Full-Stack Development Services?

1. When the company is relatively new or small: Full-stack prigrammers with good experience and knowledge can help a newer or small company grow quickly. They can create solutions from the ground up and place all the application components where needed, thereby creating a basic project architecture.
   
2. When you’re in need of a technical lead: You, as an IT business owner, usually need someone who has extensive knowledge in development, makes sure everything runs smoothly and keeps all elements of the application together. Therefore, an experienced full-stack developer can easily take on the technical leader role.
   
3. When the company wants to build an MVP: A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product consisting of only the most essential features. Before creating a full application, it is always a good idea to create an MVP to see if the application works the way you expect. By doing so, you can gradually increase the value of the project while eliminating flaws.
   
   Once the company launches the MVP, it will receive feedback from users on what’s missing from the app. Based on this, the company can add those features to subsequent versions of the app. Full-stack developers will prove to be the right choice in terms of cost and timeliness when a company intends to create an MVP.
   
4. When constrained by cost: If your budget is limited, hire a full stack developer. In general, the cost of hiring one front-end and back-end developer can be almost 40% higher than hiring one developer with expertise in both areas. However, you must never compromise on quality and choose the best developers offering full-stack services.

What is a Full Stack Developer?

Full stack development can be divided into two main components: front-end and back-end development.

Front-End (client): It is everything a site or application user sees and interacts with.

Back-End (server): It is responsible for the logic and processing of user interaction in the application, i.e., user requests, work with the database, and API for transferring data. In a nutshell, this is the “brain” of the application.

Together, these two components make up the skill set of a full-stack developer. However, being a full-stack developer does not mean that the programmer has mastered everything required to work with the front-end or back-end. Instead, it means that the developer can work on both sides and understand what happens when building an application.

Full-Stack Developers by the Stack

There are different types of software developers, but there are also different types of full-stack developers. Below, you can learn more about the main types of full-stack developers.

MEAN Stack

All components of the MEAN stack support programs are written in JavaScript. Moreover, experts consider MEAN to be the best technology for web development because of its various advantages. It consists of MongoDB (NoSQL DB), Express.js (back-end web framework), Angular (front-end framework), and Node.js (open-source, cross-platform server) and can be used to develop complex web and mobile applications.

MERN Stack

MERN is one of the several variations of MEAN (MongoDB Express Angular Node) stack, where the traditional Angular front-end framework is replaced by React JS. The MERN stack uses JSX, a modification of JavaScript, and is ideal for creating single-page applications with an interactive user interface. The only drawback is that full stack mern developers must deal with limited functionality since React is not a framework but a library.

LAMP Stack

LAMP is the old classic industry standard for time-tested web development stacks. LAMP includes Linux (operating system), Apache (HTTP server), MySQL (relational database management), and PHP (programming language). This stack works effectively on all operating systems. When developing websites, it provides the best performance, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility. In addition, its components can be swapped or modified within a single stack.

LEMP Stack

LEMP stack is a collection of Linux OS, Nginx (pronounced ‘Engine X’) Server, MySQL (database), and PHP (programming language). Like Apache’s work in the LAMP stack, Nginx does for the LEMP stack, processing the user requests and responding with suitable output.

Django Stack

Django Stack developer uses the Python stack, which consists of Django, MySQL, HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap. Django is a free, open-source Python framework used for server-side web development.

Ruby on Rails (RoR) stack

Ruby on Rails is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby. The Ruby on Rails full-stack developer uses a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for front-end programming, MySQL or MongoDB for data storage and management, and Rails for back-end development.

What Does a Full-Stack Developer Do?

The day-to-day responsibilities expected from a full-stack developer will vary depending on the project and experience of the developer. However, looking at job postings for full-stack developers, you’ll notice that many positions share some core responsibilities. These include:

• Creation of front-end and back-end architecture
• Implementation and management of projects by applying certain programming languages
• Testing and debugging i.e., bug fixing
• Work with databases, cloud storage, and network resources
• API design and development
• Monitoring of web applications and infrastructure performance

Essential Skills for a Full-Stack Developer

A combination of certain skills is required to properly fulfill full-stack developer duties.

1. Front-End Skills

Front-end skills are quite similar for all full-stack developers. These include:

1. JavaScript (+ HTML and CSS)
2. Libraries, such as  jQuery, React.js, and Backbone.js
3. SASS metalanguage and LESS stylesheet language
4. Frameworks, such as Angular.js/Angular, Vue.js, and Bootstrap
5. DOM, AJAX, JSON technologies

2. Back-End Skills

To be considered a full-stack developer, a specialist should have a general scope of front-end skills and be able to work with the back end. The back-end language is not that important, instead it is the platform that matters. For instance, it is important to distinguish the Java platform from the Java language. The Java platform can use different programming languages i.e., Java, Scala, and Kotlin, but they are all executed in JVM (Java Virtual Machine).

Node.js Full-Stack Developers

Node.js –  A system with open-source code to execute JavaScript code outside a web browser. Also, NodeJS is not a framework and a programming language but a programming platform.

Node full stack developer skills: 

• JavaScript Language
• Node.js
• Frameworks suitable for Node.js: Express.js, Nest.js
• Package managers for JavaScript
• Web Sockets and REST API

Python Full-Stack Developers

Python – A universal programming language for everything, starting from educational tasks and up to work with neural networks.

Python full stack developer skills: 

• Python programming language
• Django/Flask framework
• REST API
• OS Linux and Nginx web server
• Cloud services

Java Full-Stack Developers

Java – It is one of the most popular and frequently used programming languages. It is functional on plenty of operational systems for various processors. Java components are easily accessible and there are no issues with ready solutions.

Java full stack developer skills: 

• JavaScript language
• API Java EE specification
• Spring (Spring MVC, Spring Boot, Spring REST, Spring Web) framework
• HTTP-server Apache
• Google Cloud and Azure cloud services
• Servlets, JSP, and microservices

PHP Full-Stack Developers

PHP – It is a server scenario language created especially for web development. It is handy when creating templates, and themes and expanding standard HTML possibilities.

PHP full stack developer skills: 

• PHP language
• Framework Yii2/Symfony/Laravel

3. Basic Design Skills

Full-stack developers need fundamental design strategy skills to create attractive and user-friendly websites. Basic design principles include UI/UX design and its prototypes.

4. Git and GitHub Experience

Git, the “distributed version control system,” allows developers to handle every step of the software development process. Its bug fixing and tracking efficiency compare favorably to other control systems.

GitHub is a platform that allows full-stack web developers to work and manage many projects simultaneously. As the name implies, it creates a hub for communication and interaction with other developers. GitHub uses git features to provide an ideal platform for developers.

5. Databases and Web Storage

Almost all websites have a database in which all application data is stored. For example, if you have an e-commerce site, this will carry data about your products and users.

Part of the full-stack developer’s skill is the ability to write queries to call up the right data on the site when needed. Knowing the structure of the data is also useful here. This way, data is stored so that it can be queried in the most efficient way possible. Working with database functions such as storage, creation, control, processing, and deletion of data is an important part of the job.

The two main types of databases are SQL (relational) and NoSQL (non-relational). A popular NoSQL database service is MongoDB.

6. HTTP and REST

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the basis for data transfer on the Internet, such as loading webpages, streaming videos, and other forms of communication between web browsers and web servers. It’s the basis of most of our everyday interactions on the Internet. HTTP enables the communication between web clients and web servers through requests and responses.

Representative State Transfer (REST) is an architectural standard. It makes it easy for computer systems to communicate with each other. RESTful systems use HTTP to collect data and perform various operations. REST provides communication between the front-end and back-end.

7. Soft Skills

If you hire a full stack developer, you should also understand whether they have the necessary personality characteristics to handle the job. For example, a talented full-stack developer should have the following soft skills:

• Analytical mindset
• Patience
• Passion for learning
• Attention to detail
• Creative vision
• Discipline

Where to Find Full-Stack Developers?

• Job Portals: Start your search on well-known portals such as Monster, Dice, and Glassdoor.
• Freelancing Sites: For hiring a freelance full-stack developer you can also look for an app developer on freelancing sites such as UpWork, People Per Hour, Guru, and Behance.
• Forums: For full-stack developers, check out forums like GDG or Reddit.
• Repositories: Open-source repositories like GitLab and GitHub allow you to evaluate your developers’ skills and look at code samples. Talented full-stack developers frequently use these websites to connect with other developers and tech businesses. You can find and hire full-stack developers by using their job boards.
• Online Directories: Browse online directories and communities for developers, such as Topcoder or Polycom.
• B2B Directories: B2B platforms such as GoodFirms, Softwareworld, Itfirms, Toptal, Meetup, and Clutch list full-service development outsourcing companies grouped by location, rating, and experience.
• Social Media: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter allow you to communicate directly with experienced full-stack engineers.
• Dedicated Software Development Company: If you are looking for offshore or remote full-stack developers, Jaydevs, for example, is the perfect place to find them. It has a diverse talent pool but a rigorous vetting process.

Hire Full Stack Developers You Need

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Models of Cooperation to Hire a Great Full-Stack Developer

Hire Freelance Full-Stack Developers

Freelance full-stack developers work remotely and from any part of the world. You pay them their own set rates. Freelancers can be difficult to manage but cost-effective for a startup. However, you should keep in mind that although freelancers may have the necessary skills, they do not have an established business. Full-stack freelancers are self-employed, and many of them have multiple projects. So, their workload can affect the quality of your project.

Hire Dedicated Full-Stack Developers

Hiring a dedicated full-stack developer from a dedicated software development team is a popular business strategy when a company hires an entire offshore team or a single developer to build a software project. These remote full-stack developers will become part of your team from nearshore outsourcing or offshore locations, but issues such as providing equipment and office rent are left to the contractor. The team will work on your project full-time, five days a week, considering all your requirements and comments. Therefore, hiring a dedicated full-stack developer is the best choice for established companies and growing startups.

RFP Template

Do you want to make a request for proposal to start your project right away? You can download an RFP template, write your own requirements to find the best possible solution and to hire top full-stack developers.

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In-House or Local Hiring

Full-stack engineers based in the same country or town offer development services at their regional cost of living. The developer is within proximity to you, and you can arrange meetings and discussions at your convenience. Use sites where job openings are posted. Your in-house recruiters can also handle this task. However, there is a chance that they may be incompetent in the field of programming, and the suitable candidate will be eliminated due to an incorrect resume. This method has two main drawbacks: (1) time consuming and (2) costly.

Full-Stack Developer Interview Questions

In terms of seniority, developers are divided into three categories i.e., Junior, Middle, and Senior full stack developers. The developers’ level provides insight into their tech skills and salary.

Traditionally, an interview is split into two parts. The first part includes theoretical questions; the second is a practical task (i.e., coding task).

Top 8 Best Coding Interview Platforms in 2021

Our article covers in-depth what a coding task is and where to find them.

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This module covers only the first stage of the interview — i.e., technical questions.

To aid in understanding, we split questions into the front-end and back-end parts. Here, we list a couple of questions as an example. A more exhaustive list of questions for a full-stack developer can be found on Github.

Front-End Related Questions

Q1. What’s the difference between an id and a class?  (CSS question)
A1.

• id – It is a CSS selector that applies a style to unique elements of the web page. Uniqueness means single use of an element on the page i.e., header, navigation menu, and footer.
• class – It is a selector in CSS that styles the selected elements with the specified class. Unlike id, the class allows you to apply your own style to several elements on the web page.

Q2. Can an HTML element have multiple classes?  (HTML question)
A2. Yes. HTML-element can have several classes. To do so, the syntax “class=”class-one class-two class-three …” is used. 

Q3. What is the difference between a load and DOMContentLoaded events? (JS question)
A3.

• The DOMContentLoaded event is called when the source HTML document has been fully loaded and processed without waiting until style tables, images, and scripts are loaded.
• The load event is run only after DOM and all the dependent resources are loaded.

For more front-end questions, click here and here. 

Back-End Related Questions

Node.js Full-Stack Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. Junior. Is it possible to run a Node process without V8?
A1. You need a JS-engine to run the Node process. However, V8 is not the only available engine to do this. Alternatively, Chakra can be used.

Q2. Middle. How can we avoid callbacks?
A2. To avoid callbacks, one of the following options can be considered:

• promises: Provide a result that will be available in the future.
• async/await: This is a new technique to write promises when asynchronous code looks synchronous.
• yield with Generators and Promises.

Q3. Senior. What is the difference between process.nextTick() and setImmediate()?
A3.

• process.nextTick() – allows executing callback-functions passed to it right after finalization of the current function. Callback-functions passed within the process.nextTick() usually are called at the end of the current execution cycle.
• setImmediate() – callback-functions will be called in the next cycle following processing of input/output events.

Python Full-Stack Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. Junior. What does «self» mean in Python?
A1. «self» – It is a keyword used to determine an example of a class object. In Python, it is used as the first parameter. Self helps to distinguish methods and attributes of class from its local variables.

Q2. Middle. What is the difference between remove, del, and pop?
A2.

• remove() removes the first matching value.
• del removes an element by its index.
• pop() removes an element by its index and returns this element.

Q3. Senior. What is an example of file processing mode by Python?
A3. The following modes are:

• Reading mode (‘r’): opens file for reading. It is the default mode.
• Writing mode (‘w’): opens file for writing. If the file already exists, the contents of the previous file are deleted and a new file is created.
• Reading-writing mode (‘rw’): opens the file for reading and writing modes. It is the renewal mode.
• Appending mode (‘a’): opens the file to writing. If a file exists, the information is added at the end of the file.

Java full-stack developer Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. Junior. How does Java provide high performance?
A1. To provide high performance, Java uses the Just in Time compiler. It is used to transform instructions into byte codes.

Q2. Middle. What is the difference between override vs. overload?
A2.

• Override — It is the ability to predetermine method behavior in inheritance types.
• Overload — It is the ability to redefine a method with a single name but with a different set of arguments.

Q3. Senior. Can Enum extend a class?
A3. No, it cannot, as enumeration is a subclass of the default universal Enum <T> class where T presents a universal type of the enumeration. It’s a general basic class for the enumeration types in the Java language. Transforming Enum to a class is made by a Java compiler within a compilation process. This extension is not clearly stated in the code, but it is always invisibly present.

PHP Full-Stack Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. Junior. What are the three visibility fields for variables in PHP?
A1.

• Public: The class inside of which the variables are located as well as its examples (i.e., objects), can read and change them.
• Protected: Accessible only to a class inside of which they are located and all the inherited subclasses.
• Private: Accessible only to a class inside of which they are located; however, inherited subclasses don’t have access to them.

Q2. Middle. What is the difference between while and do-while cycles?
A2. The do-while cycle checks the condition following the execution of all the operators in the body of the cycle. The while checks the condition in the beginning. If the condition is met, the operator is executed inside the cycle. 

Q3. Senior. There is an array[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. What should be done to reverse it and get [7,6,5,4,3,2,1]?
A3. To reverse the array, the array reverse() function can be used.

Additional questions for back-end developers can be found here.   

Cost to Hire Full-Stack Developers?

Within the current tech market, full-stack engineers are in demand. A recent Forbes article indicated that professionals with full-stack experience received the highest number of interview requests compared to other software development roles in 2022.

How much would you have to pay to hire best full-stack developers?

Salaries for full-stack developers can vary depending on several factors, including experience level, technical stack, and location. Below, we have listed and compared full-stack rates from different countries (Data retrieved from PayScale, Glassdoor, and Neuvoo):

Sum Up

Hiring a full stack developer in 2022 is not an easy task, as qualified talents are in high demand. However, the process of selecting potential candidates is not that frightening when you understand where effort and attention should be directed to.

We hope that the information provided within this article helped you better understand how to hire a full-stack developer for your project.

Feel free to contact us if you are planning to hire a full-stack developer. Our company has gathered a great pool of highly qualified senior developers.

Why You Should Select Jaydevs to Hire Skilled Full-Stack Developers?

Hiring top-notch software engineers for your project is often stressful. Therefore, youneed to find the right candidate the first time. This would mean someone who is smart, responsible, and experienced, or you’ll have trouble getting your project up and running.

Jaydevs can solve all your hiring problems by matching you with programmers with a complete knowledge stack. Our goal at Jaydevs is to offer you a programmer quickly and efficiently who will fit into your team and help develop your project.

74% of our team members are seniors. We are trusted by many fast-growing startups. Therefore, hire your next full-stack developer with Jaydevs, and you can start full development in as little as a week.

There are plenty of disturbing reviews of contractors who abandon a project halfway through or freelance full-stack developers who suddenly disappear, thereby leaving you stranded. Jaydevs supports you with our top-notch developers under all the rules of the contract developer hiring system. In other words, we’ll provide you with the perfect full-stack developer and help you track their hours and progress.

Compare Hiring Full-Stack Developers with Jaydevs to Upwork, Toptal, and In-House

Building a top-notch development team is not easy. The perfect candidate can be hard to find, and the longer the hiring process takes, the slower it takes to scale your business.

Jaydevs saves you money and time. If you’re still in doubt, take a look at the summary table below:

Hire Full-Stack Developers Easily with Jaydevs

Step 1: Discuss Your Project Goals with Our Manager

Click ‘Contact Us’ or book a call to schedule a time to speak with one of our account specialists. We’ll ask you about your project, your requirements and expectations in a developer. After you have spoken with our account manager, we will review our developer talent pool and select a few candidates for you, with whom you can have a more in-depth interview.

Step 2: Begin Interviewing

After we send you the list of developers, we’ll help you set up a time for an interview and meeting with the developers via video conference. This way, you can determine if the full-stack developer qualifies for your project.

If you feel like you’re on the same page as your selected full-stack developer, you can start organizing work activities and signing contract.