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How to become a good game developer?

Posted on July 21, 2022July 21, 2022 by vallish

Video games are not just a fun pastime but part of a mammoth market with over $85.86 billion. In the second quarter of 2020, gamers spent a record $11.6 billion on video games.

The market is enormous, and demand is massive; that is why a career as a game developer can be rewarding. The need for game developers is expected to increase by 21% by 2028. If you possess comprehensive knowledge of gaming systems and have strong technical skills, you can become a game developer. In this article, we explore the career path of a video game developer.

What do game developers do?

Game developers are professionals who combine software development with mathematics to bring games to life. The responsibility of game developers is to write highly robust code to implement all the features and functionalities. Additionally, they need to work with highly skilled game designers to create visual content for a game. Even after publishing a game, video game developers are continually engaged in development to accommodate new game feature requests and improvements. A distinctive skill game developers must know about artificial programming intelligence is to create non-player characters.

Game Developer Responsibilities:

While the exact responsibilities you will be handling depend on the type of game you will be working on, here are some standard requirements for a video game developer.

Set up and manage Linux servers and HTTP servers
Writing scalable code with proper OOP practices
Lead workflow resolution by effectively routing information to appropriate queues
Develop systems with sufficient flexibility to handle exceptions
Provide support for any existing AS2 legacy code
Develop animation units for the game web pages using AS2
Work with ZendAMF and PHP to create flash communication
Communicate and partner with senior engineers and game programmers
Perform QA for games
Implement APIs to support hardware-specific features

Game development skills you will need

Strong IT skills

As mentioned before, strong technical skills are mandatory to become a competent game developer. With each passing year, video games are becoming more realistic. As the gaming features and visuals enter Photorealism – a new era of the realistic physical rendering of video games – you have to demonstrate IT skills beyond coding. Graphics and animation play an essential role in video game development which is why you need to improve your designing skills.

Creativity

Game developers don’t just write code; they create incredible virtual worlds that immerse the gamers. To come up with original video game ideas, you will need creativity, which is much needed. The video game market is saturated with sameness. The competitive advantage of a game lies in its uniqueness.

Video games are not like other software; they are a cultural product with cultural tastes and preferences. This article from The Atlantic elaborates that game developers need to understand human psychology and culture to capture and retain players’ attention.

Problem-solving skills

Resolving technical glitches and overcoming challenges will be a routine task for you as a game developer. You will require grit and patience to solve problems and debug code. This is why problem-solving skills are essential.

Time management skills

Today’s video games are highly complex products with hundreds of thousands of components. To pull all the pieces together, companies require multiple teams of technical and artistic professionals. To be a successful game developer, you have to learn to work well under pressure, collaborate effectively, and follow project deadlines.

Top countries in the world for game developers

Unlike other programmers, game developers are benefited from choosing a location when it comes to building a career. Most game publishers and studios still work with in-house teams at the office.

Here is a graph representing the best countries for game development jobs based on the number of game developers.

Challenges you need to know

Game developers often have to take criticism from the gaming community if the game or a new feature they incorporate is glitchy or brings down the user experience. It will be essential to take a step back and take criticism. Furthermore, gaming industry technologies change lighting fast. You must be ready to learn not to get outdated. Keeping up with trends is also essential. At present, mobile games are a rage, but soon, AR/VR driven metaverse powered video games might be the norm.

Conclusion

The video gaming industry is enormous, and the demand for quality game developers is high. If you genuinely love video games, you can create a successful career in the industry with a bit of planning and determination. Game developers must have an innate understanding of gaming systems and strong technical skills, as listed above. We hope this article will serve as a guiding resource to build your career in game development.

Talent500 is the hub for the best Indian IT talent to find the best opportunities in the industry. We are a global platform used by Fortune 500 companies and startups to build their remote teams. Join us today!

5 subreddits every developer should follow

Posted on July 20, 2022 by vallish

Among many online forums and communities, Reddit stands out because of its large number of members and quality of content. Reddit is not only the most prominent social site but also one of the most widely used questions and answers websites for developers. Whether you want quick coding help or looking for some project ideas, you will find them all on this website.

What are subreddits?

Reddit is a vast website with millions of topics and questions. Each topic has a dedicated forum known as a subreddit. There are over 1,30,000 active subreddits on the website, from which we have curated the best developer subreddits for you. We picked the most active communities relevant to modern-day programming challenges to help you learn and grow.

/r/LearnProgramming

The /r/LearnProgramming subreddit is the preferred choice for beginners to learn new programming languages. Here you will find wide-ranging topics from tutorials that beginners can start with to more complex challenges for experienced developers.

The subreddit has a very active community, with developers asking questions on several programming-related issues. In particular, you will find interesting questions about C programming languages. If you are starting programming or consider yourself a beginner, then you should subscribe to this subreddit as the community is vibrant and highly responsive.

/r/WebDev

For web designers and developers, the best subreddit to follow is the /r/webdev. It is the largest and most active community of web developers on Reddit. In this web community, all sorts of questions related to web development are asked, from the latest frameworks to new website development standards. Suppose you are a web developer who does freelancing. In that case, this subreddit will come in handy to connect with highly experienced web developers who can help you choose the right plug-ins and libraries for your project. The community is highly active, so you can expect quick replies if you have any technical questions. While most of the questions posted in WebDev are about front-end development, you can also ask back-end programming questions.

/r/JavaScript

JavaScript is an essential component of website development. There is a reason why JavaScript is used by over 90% of websites on the internet. If you want to add any interactivity or unique user experience to your website, you need JavaScript. We strongly recommend subscribing to the /r/javascript community.

It is one of the largest subreddits dedicated to topics related to JavaScript, such as frameworks, libraries, updates, and features. Over 80,000 subscribers of this subreddit actively share interesting tutorials and information about new JavaScript libraries. As a front-end developer, if you need help with JavaScript, this is a great place and community to be part of.

/r/OpenSource

Usually, developers take refuge in GitHub if there is anything related to open source projects. However, /r/opensource is an excellent alternative for GitHub to seek assistance related to open source projects. There are over 30,000 active contributors to this community on Reddit to assist developers seeking help related to their projects. This is one of the best subreddits for developers, irrespective of the specialization. Whether you are a front-end or back-end developer, you can hope to find answers to your queries here. It would help if you built your online portfolio as a beginner, and open source projects are a great way to show your expertise. You can subscribe to this community and share your knowledge with other developers.

/r/WordPress

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows for building websites without coding knowledge. However, there is a lot of scope for developers to customize WordPress for their projects. Currently, this CMS powers 25% of the internet, and there is a huge demand for WordPress projects and developers.

If you are a PHP developer who works with WordPress, the /r/wordpress subreddit must be on your list of resources to follow. All sorts of questions exist in this Reddit community, from development queries to discussions about WordPress resources and how to make it faster. If you are a developer with much experience in WordPress development, you might want to explore /r/ProWordPress. It is one of the most exclusive pro WordPress developer subreddits with links to tutorials and resources for advanced WordPress techniques.

Conclusion

Developer subreddits are highly useful for asking questions and getting assistance when you are stuck. The five developers’ subreddits listed here are just the starting points for you to explore more. There are hundreds of subreddits for developers to gain from. If you still haven’t experienced the great value of Reddit, start from these subreddits.

And if you need any assistance regarding upskilling and interview preparations to land a job at your dream company, Talent500 can help. We are a platform that Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing start-ups use to build their remote teams. You can join us here.

4 common mistakes made by aspiring programmers

Posted on July 20, 2022 by vallish

Programming has become a high-paying skill in 2022. The onset of rapid digital transformation of businesses is creating a demand for programmers. However, most aspiring programmers commit some common mistakes while trying to learn to code. There is no one fixed strategy or a set path that can make you a proficient programmer, but being aware of the typical developer mistakes can save you a lot of time.

It is not to say that a developer can avoid programming mistakes altogether; however, to accelerate your learning and put you on a path of optimized programming approach, we have picked common developer mistakes that you should be familiar with.

Trying to learn too many programming languages and tools

You may find every other technology lucrative when you start programming. Unfortunately, the most common mistake most beginners commit is trying to learn several programming languages so that they can showcase them all on their resumes. Experienced developers like to see specific technologies and languages you are proficient at. When you get started with programming, all your focus should be on developing in-depth knowledge of any one programming language of your choice.

In your career, you will have to work with several programming languages, but at the beginning, your focus should be on understanding the basics of development and computer science. Programming languages, frameworks, and libraries are just tools. To become a proficient programmer, you must understand the concepts behind writing clean and quality code.

Not mindfully practicing to write clean code

An experienced programmer can easily spot a beginner by looking at their code format. It is because there are some peculiar programming mistakes that beginners make. Some such common developer mistakes include:

Inconsistent indentation in code
Improper use of new lines and white spaces
Not putting code into logical blocks
Writing functions that are too big or writing too much code in a single line
Poor choice of function or variable names such as qwer, hg45, etc.
Either no comments or over-commenting the code

These are just a few common programming mistakes, and there are many more. We understand the thrill of writing a code and seeing it run, but you must practice writing clean code from the beginning. At your job, you will work as a team and the code you will write will be used and maintained by other developers too. This is why it is important that your code not only works but is also clean, readable, and maintainable.

Not planning before coding

It is not uncommon to see beginners starting with the code immediately after receiving a requirement. It is one of the most common developer mistakes that they skip the research and planning stages of a project. Most beginners do not take enough time to understand a project’s problem requirements and limitations. They lack the experience required to consider all the scenarios without giving them much thought. And later on, it becomes a significant problem. Programmers need to think about the scope of a project before they start coding. This is why in the industry, only 20% of the time is spent on writing code; the rest 80% of the time, programmers think, plan, research, and discuss the project with other stakeholders.

To avoid programming mistakes as a beginner, you should follow the following sequence:

Start by understanding the problem requirements and the limitations
Research and experiment with a few data structures to find out which is the best for solving the given problem
Before you write the final code, create a rough draft known as a prototype
Depending on the functioning of the prototype, select the proper data structure
Think about all the scenarios to design test cases
Break more significant problems into smaller, easily solvable pieces

Not taking backup

Not just a common programming mistake, but a blunder a beginner programmer can make is not to take backup of their work. Imagine this – you’ve spent days writing code only to discover that you lost all your work to some system error or disk crash! It is not only devastating but also a waste of time and effort. When working at a job, it is your responsibility to ensure that the code you write has a secure backup.

As a beginner programmer, make it a habit to take backups of your work at regular intervals. For this purpose, learn to use source control software like GitHub and cloud storage services like Dropbox.

Conclusion

Programming is a skill that is learned with patience and practice. Now that you know the common mistakes to avoid, we assume that you are committed to being a proficient programmer. Our advice is not just to know the common developer mistakes we have listed above but to consider them every time you work on a project.

Talent500 is the platform for programmers to find the best opportunities with Fortune500 companies and fast-growing start-ups. Join our elite pool of talent and find career-redefining opportunities!

5 most popular programming languages in 2022

Posted on July 20, 2022 by vallish

Learning a programming language is a big commitment and investment of time and energy. You do not want to waste time learning a language that is no longer in demand. When planning a career in software development, you need to know which programming languages are functional and have a scope for the upcoming applications.

Our engineering team has picked out the languages in this list based on their experience, industry trends, and future scope. If you are confused, allow us to help you with a list of the most popular programming languages in 2022.

JavaScript

JavaScript tops the list of top programming languages as per the Stack Overflow 2020 Developer Survey. It is also touted as the web language because of its functionality, scalability, and interactivity functionalities. Learning JavaScript is the safest bet as it continues to dominate the web development domain. If you plan to take up web development, you must focus on learning JavaScript apart from HTML and CSS.

Did we tell you that JavaScript is also the most sought-out programming language by hiring managers in the US?

Scope of learning JavaScript: Web development, mobile apps, game development, and building web servers

Here is a list of the top 6 JavaScript books to learn the language.

Python

Python is the fourth most popular programming language, used by 41.6% of all developers in the world. The general-purpose programming language is used primarily for backend applications. It is one of the best programming languages to master as you can follow any programming style while using it – functional, reflective, or object-oriented.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, you can learn Python quickly as it does not follow string syntax like Java or C. The language also has an extensive library of packages that allows for faster development. Today, over 50% of hiring managers seek candidates skilled in Python programming, and it is simply one of the most in-demand programming languages of 2022.

Scope of learning Python: Backend development, app development, data science, and automation

Check out our Python toolkit for developers to find learning resources and more.

Java

Java is the fifth most commonly used programming language, according to Stack Overflow. It is a functional programming language that has been at the top of the popularity scale for enterprise application development for many years. Java has applications in several industries, especially banking and finance for its object-oriented programming capabilities. With object-oriented programming, developers can put functions and data into objects and then use these objects to create programs in a structured manner.

Learning Java is easy as its syntax is close to the natural language we use in our daily lives. It is also relatively easier to compile and debug than other practical languages like C.

Scope of learning Java: E-commerce, fintech, app development, and banking

Check out our Java developer’s toolkit for learning resources, online Java communities, etc.

PHP

Arguably one of the best server-side scripting languages, PHP is used by over 80% of the websites on the internet. It is a popular language for building online applications, preferred by beginners and experienced programmers alike. PHP will continue to be one of the top programming languages in 2022 because its code can be readjusted to accommodate new features without additional expenditure. Its extraordinary resourcefulness is the reason why websites like Facebook and Wikimedia use PHP in their tech stack.

PHP is easy to learn. It follows a logical and consistent syntactical structure. Applications and websites built in PHP are highly flexible, fast, and compatible with multiple operating systems.

Scope of learning PHP: Web development, building servers, E-commerce, and CMS

Learn PHP with these resources: PHP Manual, PHP Tutorial by W3Schools, and Killer PHP.

Go

Go is a relatively new programming language that was developed at Google in 2007. It is a top-tier programming language used for hardware and data-specific applications such as media editing and big data.

Go is a programming language that is known for its efficiency. Its ability to run multiple processes concurrently makes it extremely fast. Also, with an extensive ‘vocabulary’, it can display more information than any other programming language. It is easier to code in Go as it has no requirement for semicolons or curly braces for control structures like other programming languages.

Companies usually hire Go developers who can utilize its features to create applications that have top-notch memory safety functionality. Not only is Go one of the top programming languages to learn in 2022, but the related jobs also offer better pay, a 33% salary bump, to be specific. This is because, as compared to other programming languages, talent for Go development is scarce.

Scope of learning Go: Big data, system/network programming, and audio/video editing

Here are some resources to learn Go.

Learn Go: Free YouTube Channel from Freecodecamp

Go Annotated Tutorials

Introducing Go by Caleb Doxsey is an excellent book for beginners

Conclusion

Learning a new programming language is beneficial irrespective of your experience within the software development industry. However, it is essential to pick a programming language which has the scope to contribute to your career progress by remaining high in demand. The five top programming languages of 2022 will be good additions to your skillset.

Talent500 is a platform for Fortune500 companies and fast-growing startups to build remote teams faster. Join our elite team of developers and discover global opportunities.

Tips to get more clients as a freelance developer

Posted on July 15, 2022July 15, 2022 by vallish

The software development industry is currently witnessing the Dawn of Web 3.0 and an overwhelming number of businesses adopting large-scale data transformation which is why becoming a software developer can be a very satisfying career. And, if you don’t want to join the 9 to 5 job culture, you can choose to become a freelance developer.

Freelance developers are professionals who work on projects individually. Depending on the choice, they can or cannot be part of a team. Most freelance developers work as a one-person army and handle the project’s requirements independently. Sometimes companies hire freelance developers to collaborate with their in-house teams to benefit from their skill set.

Even the most skilled freelance developers struggle to find clients at times, rest assured that with a few adjustments to your strategy, you will be better positioned to attract more clients.

While developers are good at solving problems and writing code, things can get tricky for them when finding clients.

After researching the subject and interviewing several freelance developers, our experts have put together this guide to help you get more clients.

Create an identity with open source projects

You must ditch the bird’s-eye view (of expecting clients will find you somehow!) and focus on making your skills more demonstrable. Without a doubt, you have talent, but how are clients supposed to know that you possess the expertise they require?

Getting involved in open source projects is one of the best ways to earn a reputation as a quality developer. The approach is quite simple as well. There are hundreds of open-source projects where you can showcase your talent by participating and contributing to the value of the code. Your clients can directly see your work and the quality of the code through open-source code commits on GitHub.

Additionally, you make valuable connections with other freelancers and project leaders by being active in open source projects. This opens up opportunities to get projects in the future without even trying. If you do not know any sources to participate in open source projects, we recommend you start by exploring Github. You can also create a dedicated programming-specific tutorial site like SitePoint to demonstrate your mastery of the language.

Know freelance developer specific job boards

As a freelance developer, you should not waste time exploring the job boards for full-time professionals. While freelance opportunities are available on such job boards, it will be a painful task to comb through hundreds of full-time job postings. Instead, your focus should be on sites explicitly designed for freelance developers.

However, there’s a catch.

Many freelance developer-specific job boards are filled with low-paying job postings and are highly competitive. It is not only challenging to get a gig, but you will probably not get the rates you deserve. This is why most of these sites should be avoided, but not all.

Freelancer is a popular job board for discovering some good freelance developer opportunities, though the competition is fierce here. Talent500 is another great platform for freelance developers to find opportunities with Fortune 500 companies. Join our elite pool of talent and get ready to be discovered easily.

Our recommendation will be to look for job boards with development specialty-focused jobs. As they are much more exclusive, they have more high-quality clients who want skilled freelance developers. Also, these websites pay well.

Here are the websites you should explore:

Produce content with value

For freelance developers, content marketing can be an incredible tool for finding new clients. Blogging can be a great way to share your knowledge while creating awareness about the brand. You will most likely get 82% more positive ROI when you choose content marketing.

That being said, it will not be a straightforward approach as the Internet is saturated with blogs. To stand out, you need to be aware of the sources where your content has the most value. To get the maximum return on your content marketing efforts, you should:

Do guest posts for relevant blogs and websites
Create YouTube and Instagram channels to share your expertise
Answer programming-related questions on Quora

Try to avoid the vicious circle of “more projects, more success”

Do not think that being a successful freelance developer means having a steady stream of projects. It should not be the case; it should be the opposite. Being a freelancer means you are not occupied with work and have time to be creative and try new things.

If you keep chasing projects, you will have little room to learn new skills. This is why you should not assert yourself to work more; instead, spend 30% of your time on personal research to upskill and learn.

Stop looking for projects excessively; focus on learning new technologies and getting better at your work.

Conclusion

As a freelance developer, you must take actions that eventually lead to a steady supply of high-quality clients instead of just waiting for high-value clients to find you. And the best way to start is to bring value to the developer community and share your knowledge through open source projects and blogs.

7 GitHub repositories for new developers

Posted on July 15, 2022 by vallish

GitHub can be an incredible source for new developers to learn new technology. The home for some of the most popular and challenging open-source projects, GitHub repositories (repos) provide the opportunity to learn in collaboration with other developers.

As a massive collection of projects and information is available on GitHub, finding the best GitHub repositories can be a bit tedious. Our engineering team has picked some necessary GitHub repos that new developers can use to improve their software development skills.

Free Code Camp GitHub repository

Free Code Camp is a non-profit organization that helps people learn how to code. The service is active on many platforms, GitHub being one of the most popular. Their GitHub repo is a great source to leverage their free code-learning tutorials. Free Code Camp has over 200 repositories on its profile, including everything from open-source codebase and curriculum, devdocs-API Documentation Browser, to tutorials on different programming languages.

Beginners can learn from several available open-source projects, such as creating a discord bot, periodic table database, and news translation model.

The Algorithms GitHub repository

One of the largest GitHub repositories, The Algorithm, is for developers who want to learn or upskill their understanding of data structures and algorithms for their projects. You can learn to work with algorithms of data structures in any programming language. It is an excellent resource for learning data structures as it explores the domain in over 34 programming languages, including Python, Java, Go, C++, Rust, and more. All the code used in tutorials is available on their website, and the language used is easy to understand for new developers.

Free programming books

Software development is a field that requires continuous learning, and while the internet is a great source to find information quickly, books remain one of the best ways to learn a new topic. You will need books to understand programming languages comprehensively and to stay ahead in your career. However, buying too many books is costly. Fortunately, this repository gives you access to a list of all free programming-related books.

The repo regularly maintains and updates the list of free programming books and categorizes them for easy sorting. Apart from free eBooks, there is a curated list of free online courses and podcasts.

JavaScript algorithms

JavaScript is the web language, and almost 90% of the websites use the programming language in some manner. The JavaScript Algorithms is a GitHub repository where you can help new developers learn everything about the language. The repo shares JavaScripts tutorials and explanations from some of the best programmers, and you will find several open-source projects and external resources. All the resources are broadly categorized into two – for beginners and advanced learners. If you plan to make a career in web development, JavaScript is a language you must master. This is one of the best GitHub repositories to bookmark.

100 Days of ML Code

If you are into machine learning, this is possibly one of the most detailed GitHub repositories based on machine learning that you will find on the internet. This repo is a strict 100-day curriculum that teaches beginner developers important machine learning concepts. The community behind this repository is highly active, and every day they follow a new topic such as simple linear regression, logistic regression, and data pre-processing. The concepts are explained in detail, along with codes and accompanying infographics. To master the basics of machine learning, you should save a link for this GitHub repo.

Public APIs

Throughout your career as a software developer, you will have to work with APIs to enable the products you develop to communicate with other software. The Public APIs repository will serve you as a source of free APIs that you can use for software and web development. Do not waste your time on unsecure and unreliable APIs; instead use this repo to find relevant APIs for free. The repository is constantly updated with newer APIs in the public domain, so you should keep a tab on all updates.

Developer Roadmap

As a new developer, you will need guidance to make it in the industry, and this GitHub repository can provide you with a roadmap to achieve your goal. There are roadmaps for front-end developers, backend developers, react developers, QA engineers, and many more. We included this repo in our list of the best GitHub repositories for new developers because it is a quality resource to upgrade your skills in the software development industry.

Conclusion

GitHub is not just a platform for collaborating on projects; it is a community for developers to learn, teach, and grow together. If you are just getting started, do not get overwhelmed by the vast number of repositories. Instead, start with the GitHub repositories we have listed above. We are sure they will prove to be the ideal starting point.

Talent500 is the platform for developers to quickly discover high-growth career opportunities with fast-growing start-ups and Fortune500 companies. Join our elite talent pool today and be ready to be hired by your dream company!

7 Dos & don’ts for passing your technical interview

Posted on July 15, 2022 by vallish

The technical job interview is unlike any other interview. Candidates undergo a rigorous and specialized technical interview process to test their coding skills, problem-solving abilities, and aptitude. Technical interviews, however, are more than a tough challenge where developers are put through a full day of coding evaluations and tests.

Suppose you are preparing for your following technical interview and are overwhelmed with all the information on the internet. In that case, it’s time to cut back and start by understanding the essentials of technical interview rounds.

This article is prepared to help developers crack technical interviews by understanding the dos and don’ts and delivering their best.

DOs

Prove with numbers

When you go for technical interviews, remember that you are presenting yourself as a valuable candidate who can impact the company. This is why you must elaborate to the interviewers on the impact you made in your previous role and how it helped the company you worked in.

Interviewers ask such questions to understand how the candidates view their tasks. Can they conceptualize the bigger picture and take steps to impact the outcome positively? During technical interviews, your skills beyond programming will be gauged. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft are very metrics-driven and look for engineers and developers who can see beyond coding.

Communicate your thought process

Many candidates lose in technical interviews because of various reasons. One of the most common reasons is not to think the problem through before working on the solution. When you are given a whiteboard question to solve, don’t start with the solution immediately without giving it a thought. It is essential that you align your thinking and, if possible, try to frame your answer for your interviewer. Start by outlining methods, data structures, and algorithms you think will be the best solution. Even if you cannot answer the question correctly, communicating your thought process to the interviewer should work in your favor.

Ask questions genuinely

Developer interviews are not just about the candidate; they are about the company as well. Some of the best candidates for the job are the ones who are interested in the company culture and the work it does. It might seem like a cliché technical interview tip, but you must know about the company and show interest by asking questions.

That being said, do not ask general questions that can be answered with a simple Google search. Instead, ask about the most significant technical challenges they have faced lately or how the culture at the company is. You can even ask the interviewer about their role. Such queries indicate that you are interested in the job and provide you with an opportunity to connect with the interviewers.

Practice

This is one of the most straightforward technical interview tips ever. Practice interviews to understand how things work once you reach the technical interview round. If you are straight out of college, you can participate in discussion rounds with other computer science graduates, or you can take the help of resources such as the Talent500 blog to understand the technical interview process and avoid any surprises.

DON’Ts

Don’t get stuck with one bad round

You will face several technical interviews in your life, and you will most likely perform better in some than the rest. Try to not get stuck on one lousy round or question you could not solve and let it ruin the entire interview. Algorithms, data structures, programming languages, design patterns – the technical domain is so vast that it is nearly impossible to know everything. If you couldn’t make it through a few questions, don’t let them define the rest of your interviews.

Don’t badmouth a technology stack

As a developer, you will have your favorites. You might prefer Python over PHP, MongoDB over MySQL, or React over Angular – but that’s your preference. It doesn’t allow you to say bad things about other technology stacks. Such comments during a technical interview project you as an elitist. Companies often use multiple technology stacks and if you start discrediting a specific tech stack, you might be targeting the technology the company uses without knowing.

Don’t get too stuck on one solution

If you spend too much time solving one question, you risk the time constraints. When you are in a technical interview, do not get too consumed by the solution of a problem. If you cannot solve the issue one way, even after spending enough time on it, consider taking a detour from your thought process and trying something else. If it’s still not working for you, move on to the next question.

Conclusion

Technical interviews are not easy, but they are not impossible either. During technical interviews, candidates are evaluated for their skills beyond just programming. Keep the above-listed dos and don’ts of the technical discussion in mind and try to come across as independent thinkers capable of solving problems without losing focus on the bigger picture.

Talent500 is the platform for start-ups and Fortune500 companies to build their remote teams. If you want to be discovered by the best companies, join our elite talent pool today.

7 Common full stack developer interview questions

Posted on April 30, 2022 by vallish

Full-stack developers are in-demand professionals because of their ability to work on both the frontend and backend of a web application. Companies look for full-stack developers with industry knowledge and appropriate technical skills. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects the demand for these developers to grow by 13 percent by 2030.

Learn about the common interview questions for full-stack developers to help you ace your interview.

Can you write an endpoint for checking if a resource exists?

This question is to test the RESTful API capabilities of a full-stack developer. The interviewer wants to know what method and path the developer uses.

A standard full-stack development best practice is to use only nouns in an API path, not descriptive verbs.

For example, these are not the correct path to use:

GET /users/search

GET /posts/create

The right way is to use the method noun on the endpoint to determine the action like this:

POST /users (create user)

PUT /users/{id|slug} (replace user)

PATCH /users/{id|slug} (update part of a user model)

DELETE /users/{id|slug} (delete user)

GET /users/{id|slug} (retrieve a user)

Determining whether a resource exists is one of the most common actions an API performs. An experienced full-stack developer will use the HEAD command for the purpose. For example:

HEAD /users/{id|slug}

This is the right approach that uses the least bandwidth because of no returning data, just the HTTP status- 200 OK if the resource exists and 404 if the resource does not exist.

What considerations do you make when coding with SEO in mind?

Full-stack developers must be acquainted with SEO best practices when writing frontend code. It is crucial for organic search engine rankings.

Basic standards to include:

Using alt tag with images
Properly maintain content hierarchy with <h1>/<h2>/<h3> and p HTML tags
Add a robots.txt file
Add an XML sitemap
Avoid broken links
Create vanity/friendly URLs
Ensure lightning-fast page load speed
Avoid JavaScript errors
Enable and force SSL
Leverage browser caching

What is long polling?

Long polling helps create a very stable server connection without using WebSocket or Server Side Events protocols. It operates at the top of the conventional client-server model. Long polling is used in backend development to push information to a client as soon as possible to avoid server wait time. Usually, it is part of NodeJS development.

Suppose one of our APIs, when integrating third-party services, has to wait for the response, causing users to stay long.

How will you troubleshoot this problem?

A straightforward way to solve this is to use queues. Every time a request is made to the API, a different job is created and added to the line. This job will get executed irrespective of the requested endpoint. It will allow the server to respond to requests without delay.

For this purpose, the most suitable technologies are Redis, Amazon SQS, and Beanstalkd.

What HTTP status code would you return if a user tries to create a resource that already exists on the server? The answer is debatable, but the 409 Conflict, HTTP status code, is widely used for this scenario. Another acceptable status code is 422 Unprocessable Entity. It will not be entirely wrong to return a 400 Bad Request status code, but conventionally it is used for errors when the server doesn’t understand a request. That’s not the case here.

What is CORS?

Cross-original Resource Sharing (CORS) is a process that enables web applications to access web resources on different domains. Additional HTTP headers enable CORS in applications that will require resources originating from an external source.

List the ways you will utilize to improve website load time

There are several ways to optimize website load time and performance.

The most critical of these are:

Minimizing HTTP requests
Minifying CSS and JavaScript files
Utilize CDNs
Removing unused files/scripts
Compressing files to the minimum possible size
Browser caching
Code in HTML5 and CSS3
Optimize caches

Explain the application server?

An application server is a modern form of platform middleware. Its primary function is to host a user’s business logic while facilitating access to the business application. Both web applications and the server environment exist within an application server framework. Despite the traffic variation and hardware and software failures, these servers perform.

Here is a table design:

CREATE TABLE `notifications` (

`id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,

`type` INT(8) NOT NULL,

`notifiable_id` INT unsigned NOT NULL,

`notifiable_type` VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,

`relation_id_1` INT unsigned,

`relation_type_1` VARCHAR(10),

`relation_id_2` INT unsigned,

`relation_type_2` VARCHAR(10),

`updated_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,

`created_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (`id`)

);

Explain the issue here and how can you remove it?

Here the object_id_X and object_type_X fields are the main issues. It is a poor design habit to increment named fields when you can store data in a related table. You can improve the above database table design by including a Relations Table as follows:

Notifications Table

CREATE TABLE `notifications` (

`id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,

`type` INT(8) NOT NULL,

`notifiable_id` INT unsigned NOT NULL,

`notifiable_type` VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,

`updated_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,

`created_at` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (`id`)

);

Notification Relations Table

CREATE TABLE `notification_relations` (

`notification_id` INT unsigned NOT NULL,

`relation_id` INT unsigned NOT NULL,

`relation_type` VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (`notification_id`)

);

We hope you got the idea of what full-stack developer interview questions you can expect in your following interview. If you are looking for challenging opportunities at some of the fastest-growing global companies, join Talent500. Sign up here.

Most common programming mistakes by front-end developers

Posted on April 30, 2022April 30, 2022 by vallish

A typical web-based project will have at least one front-end developer and one back-end developer. The final product’s performance depends on how effectively the two collaborate. While back-end developers work behind the scenes to create scalable and faster infrastructure, front-end developers are responsible for the client-side.

The code you write as a front-end developer affects both back-end developers and end-users. It is why you must avoid common programming mistakes that affect the functionality or user experience of the applications.

Here are some common mistakes most front-end developers commit at various stages of project development. It is not an exhaustive list but will familiarize you with potential problems.

Not optimizing images

We live in a visually dominated digital space. Deep penetration of high-speed internet and the rise in smartphones have made it mandatory to use visual elements in web design. Images are an integral part of front-end design. Still, many developers fail to optimize images before making a project live.

You will see that everything will load at a blazing fast speed when you do project development in a local environment. It is easy to forget about bandwidth usage, but unoptimized images are a serious problem. According to HTTP Archive, close to 75% of the page weight of modern applications and websites is made up of imagery. Further, it claims that “unoptimized images are often the greatest contributor to page bloat.”

During front development, you must prioritize establishing a stable workflow to optimize images. Switch to modern image formats such as WebP and AVIF from JPEG and PNG formats. According to Google, WebP offers 25-34% compression gains over JPEG. For image optimization on the server level, you can use tools like ImageOptim and SVGO.

Using inline styles

Using inline stylesheets is tempting as you don’t have to care about specifying CSS files in the header and can ignore any existing selectors.

But using inline styles is a bad idea. The whole point of maintaining a .css directory is to separate the styling elements from the content. When you use inline CSS, you are breaking the separation. It costs you valuable time and creates overhead later on.

Let’s take a closer look. Suppose you have to change the link color for a particular page to ‘red’ on the entire site. You can do it using a selector like this:

  a {
  color: red;
  }

But if you do so, all the hyperlinks on the website will turn red. We don’t want that. So, using inline CSS seems the most appropriate solution.

You can put the style directly in the link as:

<a href=”/offers-page/foo” style=”color: red;”>Job offer</a>

Imagine if the client later asks to change the color from red to green; it will be tedious. You will have to revisit every link to change the color because you used inline CSS.

The correct way to achieve this is to create a CSS class, like:

.link-offers-page
{
color: blue;
}

Now apply the class to every link that requires color change.

Incomplete input validation

Input validation is an obligation that every front-end developer must abide by. Lack of adequate validation can lead to SQL Injection, one of the top 10 dreaded OWASP security risks.

It is not a complicated task as most front-end development frameworks have out-of-the-box validation rules; you have to include them in the code. It is a standard coding practice to implement validation when creating web applications.

Using authentication without proper authorization

Authentication is verifying the identity of a user or client, while authorization is the confirmation that a particular user/client has access to specified resources.

Implementing authentication without authorization is one of the most common web security vulnerabilities. As a front-end developer, it is your responsibility to put measures to verify the actual requestor and the content of the request. You can learn more about authentication and authorization here.

Missing SEO features

As a front-end developer, you are responsible for integrating Search Engine Optimization best practices into your code. Learning the concept of SEO is essential, and it’s not easy. Don’t be misguided by self-touted “SEO specialists.” The ever-changing rules of search engines require accurate tracking, analysis, and constant learning to keep up with SEO updates.

Shift your focus beyond meta tags, ALT tags, good content, site map, etc. From a front-end developer’s perspective, effective SEO also includes creating crawlable site architecture, intelligent back linking, optimizing load times, and technical optimization.

Cross-browser incompatibility

Usually, cross-browser incompatibility issues arise when developers focus more on functionality over design. Fortunately, this programming mistake is easy to rectify. Start switching between browsers every couple of days to identify any incompatibility issues in the app. Also, avoid using any browser-specific code in the app.

Takeaway

The main takeaway from this resource is that most common programming mistakes in front-end development are easy to avoid. If you fail to include the above-listed precautions in your front-end development practice, you will have to deal with many web development problems.

Talent500 is the platform used by fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 companies to hire front-end developers for their remote teams. Sign up today to land your dream job.

How to land a high paying back-end developer job

Posted on April 29, 2022 by vallish

With over 3.6 billion people using the internet, companies are adopting digital transformation to reach out to customers online. Amidst these incredible fast-paced transformations of companies and their products, skilled back-end developers are at the center. These professionals are responsible for creating the architecture of web and SaaS applications, handling databases, and building APIs.

Back-end developers are the heroes working at the server-side of the web applications, empowering the whole software application structure. It is why many industries rely on back-end developers. According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the demand for back-end developers will increase by 13% by 2028. The survey at Columbia Engineering Bootcamp supports the statistics.

The eCommerce industry largely depends on back-end developers to deliver the best user experience. Industry experts believe that the rising popularity of mobile devices and the eCommerce industry will boost demand for back-end developers. An important figure to include here is from HubSpot’s study that indicates that global e-commerce retail sales will top $4.5 trillion. Back-end developers will be required to support this growth.

The statistics are a clear indication of an undisrupted back-end developer career growth and skills are essential to ensure that you won’t be hard-pressed for jobs. So let’s see what skills can land you a high-paying job.

Back-end developer career path: job requirements and responsibilities

As a back-end developer, besides writing server-side scripts, you will also create APIs to define protocols and routines to help websites and applications communicate with external servers. You will also be responsible for server logic, database management, and client-server data flow.

To be a qualified back-end developer, a candidate must be knowledgeable in the following:

Skilled in advanced programming languages like Python, Java, C#, Ruby, and Visual Basic.
Most employers want back-end developers also to know PHP and JavaScript.
Knowledge of frameworks such as Laravel, Django, and Node.js.
Working knowledge of most common databases such as MySQL, Oracle, and MongoDB.
Knowledge of data structures and algorithms
Understanding of API and ORM architecture.

No employer will expect you to be proficient with all the languages, databases, and frameworks listed above. It is tough to master them all. But you need to master a particular language and then develop your skills to include the rest of the tech stack to fit that language.

Most modern back-end developers focus on one or two languages. It helps them focus on learning the accompanying technologies.

Additional skills

Apart from the technical know-how, prospects of back-end developer job growth depend on additional skills such as:

Analytical mindset
Problem-solving skills
Outside-the-box thinking
Good communication skills

These skills make you a better team player. Also, you can easily translate business requirements into functional code with these skills under your belt.

Back-end developer career path: salary

Most back-end developers’ work might not be visible immediately, but it’s crucial to ensure that a website or application runs smoothly. Back-end developers are core members of engineering teams. They are also some of the highest-paid professionals.

According to Glassdoor, the average base salary for a back-end developer is $80,713. Most entry-level developers can expect a pay of around $48K, while the experienced back-end developers can get as high as $132K. PayScale has a close take on the average salary figure as the average back-end developer salary is around $81,161 per year. Indeed reports the highest figure at $118,856 per year. However, Indeed included a $4,000 bonus each year in its salary calculation.

Let’s look at Indian markets and how much salary back-end developers can expect in the country. If we average out all these figures, a back-end developer can expect an annual compensation of around $90,826. That’s a global figure.

According to Glassdoor India, the average salary for back-end developers in the county is around INR 6,80,000 per annum. Back-end developers can earn up to INR 1,733,000 per annum, depending on location and skills. The most significant variation in back-end developer salary is due to the location. The average salary for back-end developers in New Delhi is around INR 8,19,000 a year. Mumbai pays lower than the national average. Back-end developers in the city report an average salary of around 7,21,000 per annum. Bangalore pays its back-end developers the highest at INR 8,72,000 per year.

According to the latest Stack Overflow survey, the median annual salary of Ruby developers is the highest. In 2021, the annual salary for backend developers based on technology as per the survey is:

Ruby – $80,000
Python – $59,454
SQL – $56,228
Node.js – $54,672
JavaScript – $54,049
HTML/CSS – $52,980
Java – $51,888
PHP – $38,916

Back-end developer job growth: number of openings

As of writing this article, the demand for back-end developers is massive. Naukri.com has over 1,17,000 job openings for back-end developers for full-time positions. Around 4000 remote work opportunities are available on the site. LinkedIn has 20,000+ job openings for back-end developers, followed by Glassdoor, with over 5800 full-time positions.

If you decide to go the freelance route, still back-end developer career path has many opportunities on the way. There are abundant freelancing opportunities for back-end developers on TopTal, Dice, Codementor, and Developers for Hire. On average, freelance back-end developers make $61-80 an hour. You can have a career you love and make decent money as a freelancer.

As the digital transformation of companies is at an all-time high, the demand for back-end developers will grow further.

Back-end developer jobs: where to look

Job boards like Stack Overflow, GitHub, and ITJobPro are valuable resources for job postings. These platforms are popular in the software development industry. It is easier to land a back-end development job on these platforms because they allow you to share your resume with potential employers based on recommendations, project experience, and proven skills.

For remote opportunities, backend developers can join Talent500. The platform has an elite global developer community. From Fortune 500’s to high-impact startups, multinational companies build their engineering teams with Talent500.

Conclusion

The back-end developer career path has its share of challenges. It might be a challenging job on some days, but it is a fulfilling career most days. Remember, your task will be translating business requirements into elegant and efficient code as a back-end developer. You will require the skills that we have listed above.

If you’re a talented back-end developer looking for a challenging opportunity or upskilling program, Talent500 can help. Join our pool of elite software professionals to land high-paying jobs at Fortune500 companies.