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The Ultimate Guide for Hiring Serverless Developers
The future of development is serverless—where resources are auto-provisioned, allowing developers to focus on building, not maintenance. A skilled serverless developer can help you reduce costs, scale efficiently, and speed up deployments while adapting to your project’s unique challenges.
BairesDev streamlines the hiring process by connecting you with top serverless talent. With a team of over 4,000 experts, we match you with professionals who meet your technical needs and collaborate seamlessly within your time zone, boosting productivity.
Hiring the best serverless developers requires more than just technical skills. You’ll need to evaluate their experience with serverless frameworks and their ability to communicate and collaborate effectively. This guide covers everything you need to find the right serverless engineer for your team.
Before You Start Hiring
Project or Team Requirements
Hiring developers with niche serverless expertise gives you a competitive edge. Whether building new serverless apps or optimizing existing systems, the right talent saves time and streamlines execution. For cloud-native systems, focus on developers skilled in serverless architecture. For hybrid environments, seek those experienced in microservices integration and cost optimization.
Timeline and Budget
Your timeline and budget determine the type of serverless developer needed. For quick deployments and real-time scaling, hire a senior serverless developer skilled in event-driven architecture. For ongoing tasks, a mid-level developer can manage daily execution while keeping costs under control.
Niche Experience in Serverless
Developers experienced in serverless frameworks like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, or Azure Functions streamline execution. Look for expertise in managing cold starts, API gateways and integrations with services like DynamoDB to keep the project moving.
Location and Timezone
Serverless projects need quick updates and troubleshooting. Hiring developers in your time zone improves real-time collaboration and issue resolution. Connect with serverless experts who work in your time zone for faster communication.
Communication Skills
Communication is key in serverless development. Developers must document logic, deployment strategies and integrations clearly while collaborating with distributed teams. Look for candidates who can explain complex architecture decisions for seamless collaboration.
14 Skills Every Serverless Developer Should Have
Hiring a serverless developer goes beyond technical expertise. While serverless architecture removes infrastructure headaches, it introduces challenges like mastering cloud platforms, event-driven systems and microservices. Your developer must optimize performance and costs while navigating these complexities in distributed environments.
The real challenge is finding a developer who balances technical skills with problem-solving, communication and adaptability. A developer who can’t explain cloud solutions or adjust to changing needs may struggle. Here are the technical and soft skills to look for in top-tier serverless developers.
Technical Skills to Look for in Your Ideal Serverless Developer
1. Cloud Platforms (AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions)
Proficiency in cloud platforms like AWS Lambda, Azure Functions or Google Cloud Functions is required to deploy, scale and monitor serverless software. Mastery of these Serverless technologies helps developers manage performance and costs within the cloud infrastructure.
2. Event-Driven Architecture
Serverless systems are event-driven so developers must be able to build apps that respond to triggers like HTTP requests or database changes. This is key for real-time data processing and keeping systems responsive within a Serverless framework.
3. API Gateway Management
Developers need to configure and manage API gateways to maintain secure and reliable communication between services in serverless software. Proper API management is critical for stability, scalability and data protection.
4. Microservices Design
Breaking down applications into microservices simplifies scaling and maintenance in a serverless framework. This makes managing complex serverless architectures more efficient and faster iterations during development.
5. Containers (Docker, Kubernetes)
Although serverless technologies abstract much of the infrastructure, understanding containers like Docker or Kubernetes adds flexibility when managing workloads that need persistent processes. This is useful in managing distributed cloud infrastructure environments.
6. Database Integration
Expertise in integrating serverless apps with databases like DynamoDB or Firebase is vital for managing triggers, optimizing queries, and providing reliable, scalable data storage in serverless software.
7. Security Best Practices
With applications distributed across cloud environments, developers must implement good security practices like encryption and access control to protect data and meet regulatory requirements.
8. Function Orchestration
Orchestrating functions across different services using tools like AWS Step Functions is key to managing complex workflows. This coordination ensures seamless communication and task execution in a serverless environment.
9. Cost Optimization
In a pay-per-use model, serverless developers need to monitor performance and usage closely. Efficient cost management prevents unnecessary expenses and helps developers make the best use of cloud resources.
10. Monitoring and Logging
Using monitoring and logging tools like CloudWatch or Azure Monitor helps developers quickly identify and resolve issues. This proactive approach keeps serverless systems running smoothly and reliably.
Soft Skills to Look for in Your Ideal Serverless Developer
11. Communication Skills
Clear communication is key to aligning teams and services. A good developer explains cloud functions, event-driven architectures and API management in a way non-technical stakeholders can understand. They also write thorough documentation to keep distributed systems running smoothly, no misalignment across development stages.
12. Adaptability
Serverless technology evolves fast with frequent updates like AWS Lambda updates or new event-driven services. A top developer stays up-to-date with these changes and adjusts to new architectures, using the latest best practices to keep your project efficient and up-to-date.
13. Problem-Solving
Serverless apps face unique challenges like auto-scaling or third-party integrations. A skilled developer solves bottlenecks like slow function execution or API gateway issues, optimizes cloud resources and minimizes service disruption risk.
14. Teamwork
Serverless developers work with cloud architects, DevOps and other teams to integrate services smoothly across platforms. They share knowledge, align deployment strategies and contribute to scaling and monitoring for more coordinated and successful project outcomes.
9 Questions to Identify Top Serverless Developers
When interviewing for serverless development positions, it’s important to ask questions that first assess the candidates’ technical skills and knowledge. Employers will also usually conduct a coding test to further assess specific on-the-job knowledge.
The following set of questions aim to uncover not only the developers’ technical knowledge but also their problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication skills and adaptability – all important for success in a collaborative environment.
Here are a few examples of technical interview questions:
1. How do you handle state in a serverless environment?
Serverless functions are stateless so I use external services like AWS DynamoDB for databases or Redis for caching. If state needs to be maintained across calls, I use AWS Step Functions to orchestrate workflows. Choosing the right tools ensures state management without impacting the stateless design.
2. What are the benefits of using AWS Lambda for serverless functions?
AWS Lambda is cost-effective since you only pay when your code runs. It autoscales with traffic and integrates well with services like S3, API Gateway and DynamoDB, making complex applications easier to build. It’s flexible, scales easily and handles high availability without manual effort.
3. What is a cold start in serverless computing?
A cold start occurs when an idle function is called and there’s a delay as resources spin up. To reduce this I keep functions warm by pinging them periodically or optimize the deployment package for faster loading. Managing cold starts improves overall app performance.
4. How do you secure a serverless application?
I use least privilege with AWS IAM, restrict each function’s access to only what’s needed. I also use encryption for data and secure API Gateway for request authentication. Monitoring and logging helps detect security issues early, keep the environment secure.
5. How would you optimize a serverless application for performance?
I reduce execution time by trimming unnecessary code and processes. I fine tune memory allocation to avoid over or under allocation. Asynchronous processing for API calls and caching data externally also boosts performance, makes the app faster and more efficient.
6. Can you give an example of when you had to optimize a serverless application for cost? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
This question shows the candidate’s ability to balance performance with cost which is key in serverless architecture. Their answer will show practical experience in optimizing cloud resources, e.g. minimising cold starts or fine tuning the serverless backend. It will give insight into their problem solving approach and how they apply their knowledge to real projects.
7. Tell me about a project where you integrated multiple services using serverless technology. How did you handle the complexity of those integrations?
This question will reveal the candidate’s expertise in integrating 3rd party services, APIs or microservices in serverless development services. The candidate’s answer will show their experience with API gateways, event driven architecture and managing dependencies and how they handle communication between systems during software development.
8. Describe a time when you encountered scaling issues with a serverless architecture. How did you fix it?
This question will explore the candidate’s experience with scaling serverless architecture especially during high traffic events or increased workload. Their answer will show how they optimize performance, address bottlenecks and adapt serverless development to meet business growth.
9. Can you give an example of how you monitored and debugged a serverless application? What tools did you use and what did you learn from the experience?
This question will assess the candidate’s knowledge of monitoring and debugging tools in serverless architecture. Their answer will give insight into how they troubleshoot serverless systems and keep the application running smoothly during software development, using tools like AWS CloudWatch or Azure Monitor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is serverless development?
Serverless developers build event-driven applications where functions are triggered by specific events like HTTP requests, database changes or file uploads. Using platforms like AWS Lambda with API Gateway, they design scalable architectures that respond to real-time events, so applications can handle user interactions and data updates efficiently and cost effectively.
How do serverless developers monitor and debug applications?
Serverless applications require specialized tools. Developers use services like AWS CloudWatch or Azure Monitor to track function performance, execution times and error logs. Tools like AWS X-Ray can help trace requests and identify performance bottlenecks. These monitoring services ensure issues are identified and fixed quickly and the application runs smoothly.
Why should I hire serverless developers?
Hiring serverless developers reduces operational overhead as server management is abstracted away. While physical servers still exist, the cloud provider takes care of them, so your developers can focus on optimizing your application and efficiency. Serverless experts use automatic scaling so your app can handle fluctuating demand. This means better performance during traffic spikes and lower infrastructure costs. They also help you streamline development processes, accelerate time-to-market and scale your application fast so you can stay competitive.
How does BairesDev assess a developer’s serverless expertise?
We use a multi-step process to find the top 1% of serverless development candidates. Candidates go through a technical screening to test their knowledge of cloud platforms and serverless frameworks. We give them coding challenges to solve real world problems. We also interview them to gauge their experience in serverless architecture, event driven programming and security. In those interviews we also evaluate soft skills like communication and teamwork.
What cloud platforms do serverless developers use?
Serverless development teams work with AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions and Azure Functions. These platforms manage the infrastructure automatically, scaling based on demand.
AWS Lambda is popular for event-driven applications, while Google Cloud Functions integrates well with Google services. Azure Functions is popular for enterprises in the Microsoft ecosystem. Each platform has built-in security, monitoring and deployment tools so developers can build robust and scalable applications without worrying about servers.
Can serverless applications handle enterprise workloads?
Yes, serverless applications can handle enterprise workloads. They scale automatically to meet demand so they’re perfect for large scale projects. Serverless platforms like AWS and Azure are designed to handle fluctuating traffic and complex architectures so uptime, reliability and performance is guaranteed even during traffic spikes.
With built-in security and compliance, serverless applications meet enterprise requirements. They also allow businesses to scale fast without manual intervention.
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