Ask These Questions When Hiring API Developers

Are you looking for an API developer for hire? However, onboarding a new candidate to be a part of your development team is an exhausting task. Sifting through resumes and conducting one-on-one interviews can take weeks or even months. This delay can set you behind and can critically affect your business. For instance - cost overruns, time overrun, contract termination, etc. - are some of the effects that you are likely to face. So, it would be in your best interest to hire API developers quickly and efficiently but without compromising quality. We have compiled a detailed list of questions that you can ask an API developer to ease your recruiting process. These questions will assist you and bring you closer to making that perfect hire as soon as possible. However, before you start investing in an API developer, you should first understand exactly what an API developer can do for your business.

What does an API developer do?

API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of instructions used to form a connection between two computer or computer programs. In short, it enables an application to employ or access features and services of another application. And, it is the job of an API developer to ensure that the two applications communicate with each other without any hassle. API developers empower applications to share their data with other systems to ease the user experience without involving the developer's interference. Before we delve further, let's see the critical responsibilities of an API developer -

• Analyze, design, develop, and implement API for various data-driven applications
• Review project proposals and alternatives and come up with estimates and recommendations to design and define system specification
• Take over the provision of application maintenance and support
• Perform required testings to verify the quality of the product
• Identify, analyze, prioritize, and resolve problems quickly and efficiently for improved performance
• Establish, participate, and maintain associations with cross-functional teams and stakeholders for project status, architectural and technology trends, risks, functional & integration issues, and update activities.
• Deployments application code and configuration across environments
• Work with SQL servers and related technologies for data migration and transformation support
• Offer guidance and support to the junior team members for effective and efficient development
• Provide precise and updated documentation for future reference

Questions that you should ask yourself before hiring API developers

API is essential if your organization upholds the idea of “one source of truth.” One API integration correlates to one gateway to data access. Internally, as a business operation, you can connect different applications, and as a result, you have data traveling seamlessly across various departments. On the other hand, externally, APIs can be utilized to integrate with third-party applications in order to extend functionality and improve user experience. However, before you start interviewing candidates, it is essential that you first clear up your goals and objectives. Not all API developers would be able to offer what is required to succeed in your technical projects. So, understanding what your project needs are essential to a successful hire and guarantees successful technological development, consequently, a profitable business.

1. Are you looking for a short-term or long-term project?

Before looking for API developers, it is vital to evaluate your project requirements. This usually depends on the budget, resources required, business impact, and project scope. All these factors help the project manager determine how much time is needed to meet the desired outcomes. A great emphasis should be placed on deciding about project governance. Establishing the type of project earlier not only helps you hire the right API developer but also prevents miscommunication, misunderstandings, and cost overruns later.

2. Do you need a full-time or part-time API developer?

Any software development process requires a time commitment from ideation to design and development to deployment. After deployment, developers need to put continuous effort into maintenance and ensure the application is up-to-date. That being said, either you hire a team of API developers or a single API developer, achieving the desired outcome can be difficult sometimes.

If you have a constant flow of API-related tasks that need to be cleared on priority, but you do not have enough hands on deck to do the same. Then you should start considering a full-time API developer who can fill the gap in your existing team and contribute to creating and maintaining API as needed for sustainable business growth.

If you have a specific gig that requires a particular skill set or the API lifecycle management in your company is not extremely extensive, or your existing team lacks the skill to create and upkeep APIs as required. If any of the three stated situations is true for you, the most efficient choice would be to opt for a part-time API developer who can fit alongside your current development team.

You should also evaluate and consider if you require an in-house, remote, or freelance API developer. However, this decision will depend on various factors like budget concerns, the scope of your project, current project status, etc.

3. What type of API does your project need?

Before you look for API developers for hire, it is better to understand the technology. The first concept that you should know is the different types of APIs. This will help you comprehend what sort of API would be beneficial for a successful project. However, you don't need to necessarily decide right off the bat which type would be the best fit. You're hiring an API developer to do that work for you. Nonetheless, it does give you some idea about the technology and assist you in hiring an API developer with the right skill and experience. So, four widely agreed-upon types of web APIs that your project might need are -

• Open APIs - Also known as public API or external APIs, Open APIs encourage third-party integration. Basically, it enables API developers to connect and access third-party software for their solutions. For instance,
  • You can hire Google API developers to establish communication with Google Services, including Search, Gmail, Translate, Google Maps, etc.
  • If you want to extract and leverage data and functionality from the Facebook platform, then you should hire Facebook API developers.
  • Similarly, you should hire Amazon API developers if you wish to access Amazon's product catalog data. -Partner APIs - These APIs are shared externally among companies with an existing business relationship. Here API developers have better control over who can access your resources and how they will be utilized. With limited access to authorized clients, partner APIs offer robust security measures.
• Internal APIs - Unlike open APIs and partner APIs, Internal APIs are used to make your internal operations seamless and more productive. Internal teams can share tools and data for smooth business operation. Additionally, it enables API developers to set up improved security, better access controls, and finer traceability.
• Composite APIs - These APIs allow API developers to combine multiple API requests into a single API call. It is highly beneficial in a microservice architecture. It simplifies extracting data from different applications or data sources, significantly reducing server load.

4. What is the budget of the project?

The key to successful software development, or API development, is avoiding the pitfalls that hinder successful development. One of the ways you can avoid these stumbling blocks is budget planning. It is a crucial step that allows you to estimate the cost of completing each project activity over each project phase. Consequently, enabling you to accurately set expenditure expectations and ensure that the investment of time and effort results in success. Precise budgeting assists API developers in figuring out the project variable and translating them into budget-driven deliverables. It also helps in outlining workflows that are aligned with the available resources. So, when you're seeking API developers for hire to be a part of your development team, you must curate a proper project budget. The trick to optimizing the development processes is to prevent overspending while maintaining quality.

5. How will you compete with other companies in hiring the top API developer?

API developers are in high demand in today's digitalized world. Businesses across the world are now leveraging APIs to accelerate their business, streamline operations and deliver a better overall customer experience. They now rely on APIs for various critical business operations. For instance, API developers can effectively harness API capabilities to add navigation features into your application, authorize users' bank account details, integrate records with third-party billing services, and so on. The demanding conveniences enabled by APIs and changing business needs have forced companies to invest in APIs and develop API-driven applications. This cutthroat competition might restrict you from attracting experienced and competent API developers to your development team. Therefore, you need to consider how your proposition stands out from the crowd seriously. Additionally, you need to pay extra attention to establishing your values or merits as an employer.

Questions that you should ask API developers before onboarding them

Before you decide on employing API developers, you must first evaluate their candidacy to evaluate if they are the right fit. You can do this by asking some questions like -

1. Have you worked on similar projects?

An API developer does not necessarily need to have experience in the specific field that your business specializes in. Nevertheless, prior experience is always a good idea as they can effortlessly adapt to the environment and quickly get started with the project. Therefore, when you seek API developers for hire, you should ask the candidates about their previous experience.

2. Can you show me your portfolio, references, or previous client testimonials?

Portfolios are one of the best ways to evaluate the candidate's competencies. It is a window that reflects the applicant's accomplishments, skills, experiences, and attributes. References help you access the candidate's potential for success in the position by validating the details, including - skills, performance, knowledge, and work history. And lastly, if possible, you can look for client testimonials. Their reference will be most valuable in evaluating the candidate's capacity to help meet your unique business needs. However, when an API developer refuses to showcase their portfolio and share their past client's experiences, consider it a red flag and avoid onboarding such developers.

3. Do you understand the business model?

An API developer must understand your business model and target audience in order to develop solutions that will improve user experience. So, if you don't wish to risk a failed project, you should hire an API developer who recognizes your business approach and knows what your customers really need.

4. How will you ensure consistent communication?

You need to ensure a consistent communication channel is in place for regular quality feedback to keep the API developers on track and moti­vat­ed to achieve their goals or objec­tives. When you ask this question, the candidate's answer will determine how you will keep in touch for this feedback process and at what frequency.

5. What methodology do you use?

The answer to this question can assist you in gauging the candidate's compatibility across your system. For instance, your business uses Agile methodology; then the API developer should be able efficiently to embrace the same. This ensures that you and the candidate sit on the same page and gives you insights for the future.

Conclusion

You don't want to rush and waste time and money seeking API developers for hire. Instead, it would be better to take your time researching a reliable candidate for your development team. However, if you need to get your application into the market fast, then you can't waste your valuable time on hiring. One of the best alternatives that can help you hire a skilled remote API developer is Turing.com. Turing allows companies to tap the world's untapped human potential and ensure that you get the right candidate to lead and oversee your project through to completion.

Join hundreds of companies that trust Turing to hire remote API developers!