developers – Page 3 – Talent500 Blog

How to ensure you are hiring developers with the right skills

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by naveen

Ever since the pandemic struck, businesses across industries have been disrupted, and are still trying to pick the pieces and make sense of this new work world. Companies are facing a severe talent crunch and the software industry in particular has been further impacted by this disruption. According to the State of Software Development study, nearly 24% of employers agree that hiring developers in 2022 is difficult. A downside for companies experiencing severe skill shortage is that more than 50% of them report hiring developers who don’t meet the job requirements.

As organizations are faced with a historic level of uncertainty regarding finding the right talent, simultaneously, software technology is growing at a mind-boggling rate, reiterating the need to hire the best software developers.

Let’s start by looking at the major challenges businesses are facing today.

The need for tailored apps is at an all-time high

For companies to stay competitive in this new business and economic environment, the landscape calls for new digital strategies and practices. According to a new McKinsey Global Survey of executives, companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years.

While companies navigate between a remote or distributed way of working, it calls for skilled developers who can build and enable a digital workplace; companies can no longer settle with off-the-shelf apps. There is a sharp rise in the need for customized apps by businesses to meet their business requirements.

Remote work culture is changing everything

The remote work culture is on the rise and IT professionals are leading the way. While the ability to hire candidates from anywhere in the world is widening the talent pool, it is also making organizations lose talent at a rapid pace. Over 4.5 million people quit their jobs in November last year, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics presents a picture of a tightening talent pool that is forcing HR managers to ditch traditional approaches to hiring and training.

Development teams need platforms and tools that help the company preserve intellectual property. It is also important to combat orphan code and enable knowledge transfer. The right talent-hiring helps fast legacy creation in case severe team changes happen within a short timeframe.

Legacy tech maintenance is a constraint

The software development industry is experiencing a major shift and we are managing 100% more code today than we did back in 2010. Interestingly, 72% of the IT resources at big companies are engaged in the maintenance of legacy systems rather than innovating and creating competitive success in the long run. This is why identifying and hiring skilled talent who can use modern cloud infrastructure to help migrate is critical for organizations.

To tackle these challenges and hire the best talent we recommend these top tips.

Switch to objective-based hiring

Organizations will no doubt lose out on candidates if they are stringent about the policy, and insist on ejecting candidates who lack experience with specific language and tools. A competent programmer can pick up a language within weeks as new development tools and libraries are made available to them. This is one of the primary reasons organizations should hire for talent and not only skills.

Use realistic coding evaluations

Because ‘mis-hires’ are increasingly expensive for tech organizations, it is also imperative to thoroughly assess a programmer’s technical skills during the recruiting process to validate whether or not they will be a good fit for the role. Putting across coding problems taken from real-life situations that the company’s software team face on a regular basis is one of the best approaches in evaluating the potential on-the-job performance of developers.

Establish a system of verifying skills

When organizations move beyond technical skills, they can hire a developer who, at their best, has the capabilities to function as a Swiss Army Knife for software development. This is where organizations will benefit from looking for candidates who are able to display creative, insightful, and rational thought processes. If you think a whiteboard interview or code and bug fixing is the way, you might want to revisit that. It is best to create a work sample quality test as recommended by researchers Frank L. Schmidt and John E. Hunter.

Sell your company to the candidate

A common misconception is that during the interview process, a candidate needs to sell their capabilities to the interview. However, the tables have turned and now it’s up to recruiters to try and convince candidates to join the organization. A candidate needs to be fully on board with the company culture and their day-to-day functioning to ensure that it does not lead to an employee dropping off shortly after joining the organization.

Make quick hiring decisions

This is an important part of the overall hiring process. Some of the best hiring managers and leaders are the ones who can streamline the entire hiring process to make decisions within hours or days. Given that employees always have options of job offers available to them, this becomes even more critical. In a Talent500 Talent Intelligence Survey, over 5000+ active tech professionals said that 2-3 rounds of interview were sufficient. Long drawn interview processes simply don’t cut it anymore.

Talent500 can help you hire developers with the right skills from anywhere in the world, with a faster time to hire. Connect with our pool of pre-vetted elite talent. Request a consultation today.

How to land a high paying remote job as a frontend developer

Posted on February 4, 2022February 4, 2022 by vallish

Landing a high-paying remote job with numerous perks such as paid vacation, fat bonuses, etc. is the dream of many frontend developers – pros and newbies alike.

Are you one of them? Have you been fantasizing about getting a remote developer job that pays you over $100k a year and allows you to travel the world?

Luckily, that dream is quite possible.

And that’s what this post is about. To show you practical tips for landing that remote developer job you’ve always dreamed of.

A note of warning, though: there’s nothing magical about these tips. And they won’t be so easy. As such, if you are looking for quick fixes or shortcuts, you are better off looking elsewhere. But if you are ready and willing to put in the needed work and persist, this post is definitely for you.

Let’s get started already.

In-Demand Skill Sets

Before setting out to find a remote frontend developer job, you need to pick up the right skillset. Or at least decide which skill to focus on first.

The thing is, front-end development is very wide, and the programming languages are nearly endless. React, Angular, Sass, jQuery, Vue.js, Typescript, CSS…the list is endless. Unless you are Albert Einstein, mastering all these languages is as good as impossible. The good news is that you don’t have to.

Just pick one or two languages and run with them. For example, you can pick React and then complement it with CSS or Sass (or both), and you are good to go. Not sure which language you can take up? Start with React. It is not only very popular but also in demand.

Need proof? As of right now, there are over 56,000 React Developer jobs on Indeed.

With that said, here are easy, practical steps to getting a remote job as a front-end developer.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish”….Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

What are your plans for securing that dream job? If you don’t have one yet, the tips below can help.

Tip 1: Focus on high-paying companies

If you are going to be well-paid as a developer, the best thing to do is apply to clients willing to pay you handsomely. This set of clients understand your worth and are willing to pay you nicely.

How do you find such clients? The key is searching for them in the right place. And one good place to start is AngelList. On AngelList, you will find lots of vetted, well-funded startups that don’t shy away from paying developers nicely. Other online platforms to find high-paying clients include Workable and Stack Overflow

Regardless of the route you choose, keep in mind that the goal is to pitch high-paying clients. These include well-funded startups, established organizations such as Salesforce, Oracle, Google, and big agencies.

Tip 2: Know your salary expectation

Try and get a rough estimate of how much front-end developers make on average. Knowing this will help you adjust your salary expectation appropriately. Looking at different job postings, as well as websites like Glassdoor is a good idea.

Tip 3: Establish credibility to make people want to pay you more

There are lots of crappy developers out there that make finding good ones a bit hard. That said, it’s important to establish credibility as a developer to get the attention of a potential employer. In other words, a mere glance at your profile should assure a client that you are indeed a pro.

Here’s how you can begin:

Contribute to discussions – both online and offline – within your industry.
Share your thoughts on established online directories such as Quora, Medium, Forbes, etc.
Share testimonials of past clients you’ve worked with on your portfolio website or social media handles.
Volunteer for a charity cause.

These are just a few suggestions to help you get started!

Tip 4: Target countries and cities where developers are paid well

Like real estate, location also matters a lot when it comes to landing a high-paying front-end development job. You will want to target clients located in countries and cities with a high standard of living. Vancouver, Copenhagen, London, Raleigh, are some of them.

You should also keep your job search in countries with high demand for developers with good wages. The United States, The United Kingdom, Central Europe, Singapore, etc. are good examples.

Tip 5: Target the right job sourcing platform

There are a ton of websites where you can find remote work. However, not all of them were created equal. The right job sourcing platform should be able to connect you with a wide range of potential employers, and also give you the flexibility of choosing between long and short term projects, like Talent500. You could also try platforms like Upwork, AngelList, Stack Overflow Jobs, etc.

These are platforms you will find enterprise clients looking for talent like you.

Tip 6: Work on lots of freelance projects

You don’t necessarily need to work as a full-time developer for a company to rake in $100k a year. Chasing freelance gigs can even make you more and in a shorter time.

Should you aim to do ten projects of $10k, five projects of $20k, or two projects of $50k a year? Well, it all depends on how skilled you are at finding freelance projects. You can leverage websites such as X-team, Gigster, etc to find remote freelance projects.

Alternatively, you could ask for referrals from your network. You never know where it might lead you. If those aren’t working, consider running ads on Google to market your skills.

Tip 7: Work from cities with low taxes

One of the major benefits of remote work is that you can work from any corner of the world. Nevertheless, some countries and cities have unfavorable tax laws, and you will want to avoid them. They include Los Angeles, Washington, Illinois, Seattle, and a host of others. You might end up blowing up your earnings on taxes if you work from these cities.

What to do?

Move abroad to tax-friendly countries to maximize your earnings. They include the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Bahamas, etc. Surprisingly, the cost of living in these places is anything but costly.

Tip 8: Get help from established developers

What better way to become a highly paid developer than to learn from already established developers who are making it big time?

So, we scoured the internet to find tips and advice from high-earning developers. Here are some that we found:

Continually invest in your development. Most importantly, invest in skills that pay.
Master the art of marketing your skills.
Get certifications.
Get used to doing things differently.

Tip 9: Send cold pitches to startups

Is there a startup or organization you’ve always wanted to work for? Why not send them an email introducing yourself and stating what you can do for them?

For one thing, sending cold pitches saves you the trouble of competing with other developers for a job role. If you don’t have any particular startup in mind, head over to Crunchbase or AngelList. There, you will find a ton of companies you can pitch to, together with the contact details.

Better yet, you can check out websites such as The Muse or Venturefizz. You will also find a list of companies you can contact for a remote job role.

Tip 10: Attend startup events

Even though it is a remote role that you are looking for, you don’t have to keep your job search exclusively remote. It is always a good idea to connect with real people by attending startup events within or without your city.

Attending startup events affords you the opportunity to meet with startup founders and recruiters looking for talents like you. Not sure how to find such events?

Head over to Meetup.com or Eventbrite and plug in your city. You will find lots of upcoming events you can attend.

Landing a high-paying remote job as a front-end developer is anything but hard or complicated. By following the tips we’ve shared in this post, you are halfway to getting one.

Another way to get there reliably is to sign up for Talent500. Join a global network of developers, upskill efficiently, and position yourself for success amongst the top Fortune 500 companies. Get started today and sign up now!

5 secrets to help you ace that technical interview in 2022

Posted on November 12, 2021 by vallish

Regardless of whether you’re an experienced developer or on the hunt for your first job, technical interviews are one of the biggest challenges out there. They can be stressful, time-consuming, and nerve-racking. The pressure is higher for self-taught developers, and the process can be quite demanding simply owing to its multiple stages. Unlike a regular job interview, these sessions can last several hours and usually consist of at least 4 rounds.

However, just like any other test, you can ace it with the right preparation strategy. By knowing what to expect, you can tackle these interviews with confidence and minimal errors. Most of all, being aware of how they are conducted and what recruiters assess and expect from you, can give you a leg up. More importantly, it acts as a testament to your preparedness, which is a clear winning trait.

Here are 5 secrets to help you ace your technical interview in 2022.

Work with a specialized prep book

Technical interviews evaluate your subject knowledge, so it pays to have your fundamentals in place. This applies to both first-time job seekers and experienced professionals. Picking up a prep book has two main benefits:

It refreshes your knowledge and reminds you of core principles, algorithms, data structures, or other such crucial information that may have slipped through the cracks.
It puts you in the right frame of mind as technical interviews will test your problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities. Prep books are the best way to prepare for the intense requirement across a wide range of subjects.

Prep books can be found for a range of levels, interests, and specialties. You can even find advanced books to match your experience.

Be interactive during the phone screening

A phone interview is a sign that you’ve piqued the hiring manager’s interest, and that you have one foot in the door. Your technical skills and capabilities match the position you’re applying for, and now the recruiter will assess your soft skills. This is a common vetting technique to know if you’re a good fit.

Approach this stage with enthusiasm and showcase your excitement to be considered for the position. Being conversational and interactive is bound to bring in brownie points. While phone screening rounds don’t generally focus on your technical capabilities, it is always a good idea to be prepared.

Test your set up beforehand

Interviewers are most appreciative of a prepared candidate. Most interviews for technical positions are conducted remotely, especially considering the recent shift in practices. We recommend testing out your entire setup beforehand.

Check your system, run mock tests, launch applications you will require during the interview and check all your hardware. It’s important to make a good first impression, and this is a good way to ensure that you don’t run into technical difficulties during your interview.

To best prepare for these sessions, contact the hiring manager or whoever will be conducting the interview and inquire about the process. In some cases, you may get instructions via email on what to expect and have ready for the interview, so keep an eye out and ace it!

Approach the remote coding stage strategically

This is usually one of the intermediary stages before the next on-site interview sessions. Here, hiring managers will focus on your technical and analytical capabilities. Some companies may give you an assignment that can be completed in a few hours at home, and others may require you to code in real-time.

The approach will vary based on the company, but in all instances, your hard skills will be tested. To ensure that you don’t lose your way and make too many mistakes, here are a few pointers to keep in mind:

Think-out-loud when formulating a plan to solve the problem at hand, so that you can cue in the interviewer.
Utilize the time given to you on a take-home assignment. A hasty project is no good if it is riddled with errors.
Do not start coding right at the start. This is especially true during a real-time coding test. Take the time to strategize solutions that are sound in logic and approach.
Voice your doubts if the platform allows you to. It showcases your ability to collaborate.

Prepare for common technical interview questions

In a typical technical interview, especially at the final stages, hiring managers will ask you a series of questions. The idea is to assess multiple aspects of a potential employee in order to get a holistic idea of the candidate and their capabilities.

Generally, these questions will be related to:

Technical training
Educational background
Behavioral aspects
Practical knowledge
Technical experience and expertise

Some of the common questions from this diverse set of categories include:

“What are your technical qualifications and how do they make you a good fit for this position?”
“How do you keep yourself updated with the latest trends and innovations in the industry?”
“Do you prefer working solo or as part of a team?”
“If you had to improvise the approach to a project, how would you do it?”
“Do you have any negative experiences when collaborating with others? How did you solve the issues at hand?”
“Can you explain the benefits and downsides of working in an Agile environment?”

Put these tips to use not only to prepare for the technical interview, but also to stand out across various stages. Remember, these interviews are more than just an assessment of your technical capabilities. Hiring managers look for well-rounded people, equipped with both the soft and hard skills expected from a technical professional.

Preparation is key to success here and it gives you an advantage during the process. Another way to give yourself an edge when it comes to your career is to sign up for Talent500. The platform gives you control of your career growth and positions you for success on a global scale.

By signing up, you can also be part of a growing talent pool on the Global Talent Network and get access to exclusive benefits. Talent500 helps you realize your potential and gives you the tools to get #TwoStepsAhead. Sign up today and be a proactive part of your career growth.

Top 13 programmers and developers to follow on Twitter

Posted on September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 by jagriti

Every second, there are around 6,000 tweets going live on Twitter, making it one of the many hotspots on the internet. While social media is a great tool to connect with friends and acquaintances and share experiences, it can be quite a useful tool to educate yourself too. Twitter is an excellent platform to find information, but one of its main benefits is networking. As a programmer or software developer, you can connect with various industry-based experts and gurus via this micro-blogging site.

Whether you’re an aspiring developer, a seasoned programmer, or someone looking to branch out into coding, there’s a world of opportunity here. With the right information, you can hone your skills and follow in the footsteps of industry leaders and trailblazers. If coding, programming, software development, and modern technology excite you, consider following these 13 programming and software development experts on Twitter.

Jason Fried – 289.7K followers

https://twitter.com/jasonfried

Jason is the co-author of the book ‘Rework’, a New York Times bestseller. He has also co-founded 37signals, a web application company that builds tools like Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. He is currently the founder and CEO of Basecamp, the makers of HEY. He identifies himself as a non-serial entrepreneur and a serial author having given a Ted talk on his revolutionary ‘rework’ ideas. Apart from valuable blogs, his tweets contain practical advice for developers.

Jeff Atwood – 281.5K followers

https://twitter.com/codinghorror

Jeff Atwood is an American software developer and co-founder of Discourse, Stack Exchange, and Stack Overflow, an online community for developers to grow. He is also an author, blogger, and entrepreneur. He writes for his popular blog, Coding Horror, where he discusses software programs and their users. His coding anecdotes are insightful, interesting, and quirky, offering a unique perspective of this cutting-edge profession.

Scott Hanselman – 268.1K followers

https://twitter.com/shanselman

Scott Hanselman is a programmer, teacher, and speaker with experience of over two decades in coding. He is an expert in coding, writing, speaking, promoting, braiding, learning, and listening. He’s maintained a blog for over 10 years and continues to spread coding and OSS knowledge. The blog is a treasure chest of information for both novice and expert developers. He works at the Web Platform Team at Microsoft and has been podcasting for the last 5 years. The open web is what interests him the most among his list of other pursuits including community, social equity, media, and entrepreneurship.

Addy Osmani – 264.3K followers

https://twitter.com/addyosmani

An engineering manager at Google Chrome, Addy Osmani works as a leader of the Speed team with an aim to make the web faster. He has created various open-source projects including TodoMVC, Yeoman, and Material Design Lite. He has also authored the book ‘JavaScript Design Patterns’. He shares helpful tips on JavaScript and web development and provides great solutions for improving page speed and web performance.

John Resig – 259.3K followers

https://twitter.com/jeresig

A JavaScript expert, John Resig is the creator of the JavaScript Evangelist for Mozilla, the JQuery JavaScript framework, and the jQuery JavaScript library. He currently works as a Chief Software Architect at Khan Academy and co-authored the book ‘The GraphQL guide’. With over 125 informative talks under his belt since 2006 and an impressive number of followers, he is definitely worth following, especially if you are a budding JavaScript developer. He shares tips and links to resources that can make a big difference in your approach.

Joel Spolsky – 176.9K followers

https://twitter.com/spolsky

Joel Spolsky is currently the CEO and founder of Stack Overflow. He also founded Fog Creek, Trello, Glitch, and HASH. He is the mind behind some of the favorite tools of the developer community. He has been associated with projects including Microsoft Excel, Visual Basic, and Fog Creek Software. Besides authoring ‘Joel on Software’, he shares interesting blogs and links for developers and programmers.

Amanda Rousseau – 159.6K followers

https://twitter.com/malwareunicorn

Amanda Rousseau runs a Twitter account with the name ‘Malware Unicorn’. She is an Offensive Security Professional at the Facebook Red team. She has worked as a Senior Malware Engineer at Endgame, Inc. and has been a speaker at some of the biggest cyber security conferences around the world. Security, malware, reverse engineering, and fashion are the fields that interest her. Her Twitter handle is the account to follow if you’re looking to learn about the growing field of cyber security and reverse engineering tools.

Brendan Eich – 152.3K followers

https://twitter.com/BrendanEich

Brendan Eich is the creator of the famous JavaScript language. He is presently the co-founder and CEO of Brave Software and Basic Attention Token. Besides this, he is the co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox. His experience and contributions to the tech world are reason enough to follow him. There’s a lot to learn from legends like Brendan, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Rasmus Lerdorf – 55.4K followers

https://twitter.com/rasmus

Well-known as the creator of the PHP coding language, Rasmus Lerdorf has affiliations with the eCommerce company, Etsy. He has previously worked at Yahoo! for seven years as an infrastructure architect and contributed to many open-source projects. His tweets are motivating for budding developers, and link back to ground-breaking technology that can easily put you ahead of the rest.

Sara Ownbey Chipps – 49.5K followers

https://twitter.com/SaraJChipps

Sara Ownbey Chipps is a co-founder of ‘Girl Develop It’, a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging and helping women become software developers. She co-founded and was the CEO of Jewelbots, which focuses on and uses hardware to surge the number of girls opting for STEM fields. Having been in the software and open-source community for two decades, she worked as an engineering manager at Stack Overflow, a leading Q&A resource for software developers around the world. A New York-based developer, she now works with LinkedIn and is a role model for women programmers and all those looking to make a difference in the world.

Chris DiBona – 40.2K followers

https://twitter.com/cdibona

Chris DiBona is the director of Open Source and Science Outreach at Google. He also contributed to the game ‘Fractured Veil’. Prior to his stint at Google, he was a writer/editor at Slashdot and had co-founded Damage Studios. He specializes in many fields including open source and related methodologies, C++, Python, game development, marketing, and public relations.

Bryan O’Sullivan – 11.7K followers

https://twitter.com/bos31337

Bryan O’Sullivan is the engineering director leading the Developer Infrastructure team at Facebook. He builds teams by promoting collaboration, team spirit, setting bold goals, and executing them to build responsive and delightful products. He also lectures at Stanford University and has authored a book ‘Real World Haskell’ besides co-authoring in ‘Mercurial: The Definitive Guide’ and ‘The Jini Specification.’

Jennifer Dewalt – 10.9k followers

https://twitter.com/jenniferdewalt

Jennifer Dewalt is the techie who built 180 websites in 180 days – a feat of pure skill and intelligence that very few are equipped to do! She has immense knowledge in coding and is an inspiring personality for any coder. She founded multiple startups including ‘Zube’, a project management platform for agile development teams.

There is no dearth of influential and innovative tech-wizards on Twitter, but these 13 should inspire you to think big. Many of them started small and are now impacting real-world change. Following these frontrunners and learning from them is a proactive approach to growth, which is a necessity to stay ahead of the competition. Another way to give yourself an edge is to achieve your potential with Talent500.

Our skill assessment algorithms align your profile with the right job opportunities at Fortune500 companies across the globe. With our assistance, you can work with the best in the world, contribute to innovation, and maybe someday, even feature on a list like this one! To get #twostepsahead and take control of your career, sign up today.

7 ways to secure a Node.js application

Posted on September 9, 2021 by vallish

JavaScript was always popular among developers, especially for frontend development. Then came Node.js in 2009, which made backend development possible. It has since been a go-to in a developer’s toolkit, now supported by a suite of libraries, frameworks and tools. What’s more, Node.js has a sizable developer community, helping boost its popularity within the industry. In fact, it is so widely accepted that websites such as PayPal, Netflix, and many others use it too!

Developers across the globe use Node.js for several purposes, one of which is as a backend server for applications. These exist in almost all platforms of technology, and power several services on the internet. Microservices practically rely on such applications; however, due to its popularity, or those of its frameworks, there are myriad vulnerabilities to account for. Hackers or those with malicious intent will try to steal crucial data, impair functionality, or expose a vulnerability.

To prepare for such attacks and secure your Node.js application, take a look at these pointers.

Prioritize input validation and sanitization

Most web applications are designed to perform a certain function based on user input. Therein lies a vulnerability, as certain users can be malicious through their inputs. This is known as SQL injection, allowing users to issue an SQL statement through their input and evoke a response. For instance, when asked to enter a profile ID, attackers can send a DROP TABLE SQL command and completely wipe certain parts of your database.

The countermeasure to this is to validate and sanitize inputs from the user. Through validation, you set the criteria for acceptable inputs, and sanitization modifies inputs, thus ensuring that they are valid. You should also have the application escape values, using libraries that automatically perform escaping. The most common ones include mongoose or node-mysql. While basic in concept, this is something you shouldn’t overlook during development.

Limit error information sent to the client

While it is common to run into errors from time to time, you should be careful about how much error information is being sent to the client. Sending the full error object, while helpful for developers, can help attackers by providing them with critical information. The error could reveal broken paths, libraries in use, or even secrets. Be mindful of the error information you send out and you can address this problem quite easily.

Another tactic to employ is to wrap routes with a catch clause. This not only prevents Node.js from crashing due to a request, but also helps protect against attackers looking to crash the applications with a bad request.

Share only the bare minimum with the frontend

In a bid to save time and effort, many developers revert to a few old, lazy habits. One of which is to send all the data within an object to the frontend, when only specific information from the same object needs to be accessible. This poor practice increases the risk of data leaks as it all available in the developer console, and is only gated by filters.

For instance, if the frontend requires a list to be populated for all the registered users, do not send an SQL query to send all user data to the frontend, and have it filtered there to display only what’s required. The other information is still available there, when it shouldn’t be.

When sending any data to the frontend, always assume that there’s an attacker amongst the users. Your goal should be to protect all the sensitive data in a given object and so, only send what needs to go out. While it does result in more work in the backend, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Use robust authentication mechanism

Any Node.js application is only as secure as the authentication mechanisms in use. Too many developers assume that security should only be part of the final stages in the development cycle, and that simply having it in place is enough. It isn’t. In most cases, authentication mechanisms can be bypassed. Developers must be proactive about security during development and top it off with proven solutions like OAuth or Okta.

Developers who prefer the native approach can use Scrypt or Bcrypt instead of the built-in library, and implement two-factor authentication too. Common modules like speakeasy or node-2fa are two you can rely on to implement and offer this security measure.

Have clear authorization and authentication parameters

With clear parameters, attackers have little room to work with and are likely to fail in their attempts to harm your application. This applies to both authentication and authorization functionalities. In the first case, be sure to cap the number of failed authentication attempts. Brute-force attacks rely on this type of repeated effort, and limiting it by banning the IP for a few hours, known also as rate-limiting, works well. If nothing, it will slow down the attacker.

On the other end, authentication parameters primarily govern data and its access. An application without the right roles for users and associated permissions allows malicious persons to act freely within the ecosystem. Through Node.js, you can assign these roles and permissions with the ACL module.

Implement safeguards against race conditions

Race conditions can be quite uncommon, but it is always best to prepare for them. They can cause crashes, and can be painstaking to debug. Thankfully, they’re rare in JavaScript, but nonetheless, safeguarding against it is a way to secure the application. One way to go about it is to utilise callbacks smartly and efficiently. This way, the process invoking the function applies the values to the parameter and only then invokes the other. Without a callback, you’d likely have a null token.

Run scan utilities to rule out vulnerabilities

Developers are rarely security experts—and they aren’t always required to be. Due to the rising number of exploits and their occurrences, it can be hard to keep track but with Node.js, you don’t have to. You can use a scanning utility like Retire.js to scan the application and find vulnerable dependencies.

Even in a high-stress and deadline-bound environment, application security should never take a backseat during development. Staying updated about the various attacks and how they exploit a system is a smart way to stay ahead of the curve, but isn’t always enough. You need to create secure and stable applications, as this is the mark of a reliable developer. There’s an ocean of opportunity for such individuals and if you fit the bill, sign up on Talent500.

This platform aligns your profile with job postings and career opportunities at top companies. Based on your merit and experience, you can work with reputed Fortune 500 companies in the world. Take two steps ahead to your dream job and work with the best. All you have to do is sign up today!