Finding the best Laravel developer for your project can be hard and time-consuming. There are tons of Laravel developers in the market, but they might not possess the skills that match your project needs. So, knowledge of technical skills to look for in Laravel candidates can help you screen out an excellent match for your project. Therefore, saving you from subpar performances, unnecessary delays, and extra cost.
You must invest in the right talent for success, and in this blog, we are exactly going to tell you how to!! So, add this to your favorites because after reading it you are going to know all about Laravel developers skills technical & non-technical to find a perfect candidate.
Without further ado, let’s start with how you can test your desired developers.
How to Test Your Laravel Candidate Skills?
Finding the right Laravel developer takes skill and a very detailed interviewing process. Let us tell you how you can evaluate the candidate and find a perfect match for your project.
Soft Skills
This might seem unnecessary to you, but you should check the soft skills related to
teamwork, pressure management, and communication. Because being a developer is not only about sitting in a dark room and coding. It is about effectively communicating with your team and working to fulfill deadlines.
Now, the most important part is assessing the technical skills and for this, you need to do technical interviews and tests so let us tell you more.
Technical Interviews
In these interviews, you should prepare technical questions about your project needs. Just concentrate on assessing their technical knowledge and skills, you can also present different scenarios and ask them to find the best possible solutions. You don’t have to ask about their communication skills etc. Remember, this is a part where you are judging their technical knowledge. If you are confused, then we have prepared a list of basic questions. You can find the technical aspects discussed in detail further in this blog too.
- Are you skilled in PHP & PHP Unit?
- Have you implemented Laravel security features such as passwords, & authentication, etc.?
- How proficient are you in RESTful API, API authentication & authorization?
- Do you know about the utility of front-end frameworks with Laravel?
- Are you proficient in Laravel components?
Coding Tests
You can present them with coding tests to further assess their technical skills once you are done with the interview. Just make sure to design your tests to check their problem-solving skills resembling the candidate’s daily job.
You can present them with coding tests to further assess their technical skills once you are done with the interview. Just make sure to design your tests to check their problem-solving skills resembling the candidate’s daily job.
Technical Skills to Look for in Laravel Developers
Indeed, Laravel is a popular framework, and everyone wants to try their luck in it. But there are only a few in the industry who are competent enough to deal with Laravel projects. And to find a competent developer there are certain prerequisites that an ideal candidate must have. So, below is the list of technical skills that an expert Laravel developer should have!!
The skills that can help you find a master of Laravel who can enrich your project with dynamic capabilities are given below.
- Expert in PHP
PHP is at the core of Laravel, which means that comprehension of PHP is necessary for any Laravel developer. Such as contemporary PHP practices and PHP syntax. Some other things that can help you assess their skills are:
- Understanding of PHP features (closures, namespaces, & traits).
- Know-how of PHP frameworks & libraries beyond Laravel.
- Adept in writing clean, efficient & maintainable PHP code.
- Expertise in PHP 7.x and 8.x.
- Proficient in Laravel Framework
The Laravel programmer should have experience in core concepts of Laravel such as Eloquent ORM, Blade templating engine, middleware, and routing. If you are looking for senior and highly proficient developers, then the expert Laravel developers should know:
- Laravel tools such as Laravel Mix, Laravel Sail, & Laravel Forge.
- Laravel features, its versions, & design patterns.
- Skills in Database Management
The Laravel developers should be apt in databases as most of the apps developed in Laravel need strong data management. This also includes the understanding of MySQL or PostgreSQL. Plus, the key indicators that can help you find the perfect candidate are given below:
- Expert in Laravel Eloquent ORM for smooth interaction with databases.
- Experience with migrations, and database testing in Laravel.
- Adept in implementing & designing relational database schemas.
- Web Technologies
If you want to transform your dreams into reality, then hire Laravel developers who are skilled in fundamental web development technologies. This will help you in getting a flawless app that fulfills all your business and customer needs. The basic technologies they should be proficient in are:
- Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): It allows the differentiation of elements such as body text, headlines, and subheadings.
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): CSS styles the content by dictating the HTML elements of the website.
- JavaScript: It is primarily used to change the content of the website and make it dynamic.
To perform a better job, the Laravel developer should know these technologies because Laravel works directly with them.
- Skills in Front-End
Another essential thing included in Laravel developers skills is knowledge of frontend frameworks. Although the skills in backend development are mandatory, the knowledge of frontend frameworks should be necessary. Some of the technical aspects they should know are:
- Blade templating & integrating front-end assets.
- Front-end tools such as Webpack and NPM.
- Highly responsive design principles, & best practices.
- API integration & Development
The ideal candidate should be adept in integration & development of APIs. The knowledge of other frameworks is a bonus. For instance, Symfony, because in comparison of Laravel vs Symfony, Symfony offers more flexibility. The other technical skills you should look for are below:
- Expertise in Laravel’s API routes & resources.
- Understanding of API tools (e.g. Postman etc.).
- Experience in OAuth, JWT, & other authentication mechanisms.
- Knowledge of RESTful API principles.
- Debugging & Testing
Before you hire a Laravel developer for your project just ensure proficiency in writing and running tests that certify the stability of the app. As well as help in catching bugs early in the process in addition to maintaining code quality. Some of the key abilities that should be present in the developer are given below:
- Expertise in PHPUnit & built-in testing tools.
- Best in writing unit tests, feature tests, & integration tests.
- Know-how of debugging tools & techniques.
- Expertise in Version Control
Laravel developers must know about Version Control systems like Git. This is a crucial part of modern software development which helps in managing code and promotes collaboration with other team members. So, the version control skills they should possess are below:
- Knowledge of Git Commands & workflows.
- Expertise in GitHub, Bitbucket, & GitLab.
- Strong grasp of pull requests, branching, & merging.
- Object Oriented Programming
Laravel supports Model View Controller (MVC) architecture, which helps in the swift beginning of the project. Making it one of the top frameworks to build web apps with its Object-oriented programming (OOP) philosophy and its concepts such as objects, traits, classes, and methods. Some of the key skills that can help you assess their skills in OOP are below:
- Understanding of encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, & abstraction.
- Knowledge of Eloquent ORM, dependency injection, & class management.
- Knowledge of Cloud Computing Platforms
Every Laravel developer should be proficient in Cloud computing systems such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure. This knowledge helps in developing scalable and flexible solutions.
- Experienced in deploying apps & managing environments of AWS, Google Cloud, & Azure.
- Pro in the integration of Laravel apps with cloud services such as cloud storage (e.g. S3), databases (e.g. RDS), & caching solutions such as Redis.
- Knowledge of cloud systems such as virtual machines, CI/CD pipelines, or containers.
Other than these technical skills, you should also assess qualities related to project management and communication.
Project Management Skills
This is entirely avoided by the recruiting managers, but it is necessary for Laravel developers to have project management skills. They should be proficient enough to know the application of different methodologies (e.g. Waterfall and Agile). This helps in the efficient development and completion of projects with the necessary tools and processes.
Also, this skill is enormously potent if you are seeking a developer who will be responsible for the entire development of the project.
If you don’t have the budget for experienced Laravel developers, then go for juniors who know these methodologies or have experience of working in them.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, you need a perfect Laravel developer with essential technical as well as soft skills to make your project a success. Otherwise, you can end up with a candidate who can only cause project delays and hinder your project’s success. Thus, wasting your time, resources and money.
So, to land a perfect candidate assess the technical skills of the developer based on the criteria above!! And we hope that you find the perfect candidate who can elevate your project with their efforts and talent.