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In today’s competitive market, more and more companies are utilizing various technologies to facilitate their business operations. Hiring top-notch software developers is critical to your overall business success, but it is becoming more difficult to find experienced API developers with the right skill sets.

After finding the right team members, you must also convince them to want to work for your company rather than your competition. A well-developed API is an integral part of your company’s technological capabilities, so you need to hire the best API developers if you want to have fast, secure, stable, and reliable interfaces to optimize your operational functions and improve user experience.

Technology is advancing at an astounding rate. Your API development team needs to continuously stay abreast of emerging technologies and look for innovative ways to utilize them for your project requirements to keep up with and surpass market trends.

Remaining a step ahead of your competition is more important than ever and can mean the difference between business success and failure. To develop a successful hiring strategy, you need vital information, such as the right technical skills to look for, crucial soft skills, salary data, interview questions, and the most beneficial hiring methods. Fortunately, we have gathered all the information you need in this invaluable hiring guide.

Freelance vs. Employee API Developers

Hiring a Freelance API Developer

You can hire employees or freelancers, and each option has benefits. However, utilizing freelancers gives you:

• Increased flexibility and easy scalability

• Better access to niche skill sets that aren’t always readily available in local talent pools

• Faster hiring times with less expense and minimal effort when you use a talent-matching site like Toptal

• Salary-based cost savings

• Less required commitment

Hiring freelancers doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality for savings. Many skilled API developers prefer this hiring method.

What Does an API Developer Do?

An API developer designs, builds, tests, modifies, and maintains application programming interfaces to meet your organization’s requirements. An API is a type of software interface that allows seamless communication between programs, applications, features, and other software components.

Consisting of protocols, definitions, and rules, an API can simplify and speed up development processes:

APIs have significantly impacted technological advancement at both personal and business levels. They power many interactive functions that people use daily.

You’ve likely heard of “seamless integrations.” APIs are what make those possible. Building a new application that has to work independently of others doesn’t make sense in today’s world. That’s why it’s so important to include a robust API in your development projects, and you need a first-class API development team to build it.

APIs have three primary components:

• Protocols are formats that allow different applications to transfer data.

• Procedures, sometimes called routines, are pre-defined functions or particular tasks.

• Tools refer to individual components that developers can use to build new programs.

When combined properly, these components allow data to flow between independent programs, providing a seamless user experience through effortless communication between services.

Everyday uses for APIs include gaming, online shopping, weather forecasts, GPS functions, social media, login authentications, and booking travel. Many companies also utilize APIs to provide personalized recommendations to online consumers.

Businesses use APIs to automate various tasks and to power various operational capabilities, including:

• Internet of Things tagging and tracking

• Collaboration tools

• Software-as-a-service applications

• Targeted advertising and marketing

• Data gathering and analytics

Whether your project is cloud-based, for mobile apps, or for internal use, it is unlikely to be effective or successful without APIs. For the best results, it is usually better to source and hire seasoned developers with experience successfully completing similar projects.

Why Hire API Developers?

Hiring a skilled API developer can bring many measurable benefits to your project and company. Their work can provide:

• Secure and stable software solutions

• A broader customer base due to simplified integration capabilities and improved customer experience

• Increased sales and profitability

• More business opportunities

• Faster project development

Explaining the role of APIs and how will overall API adoption change, Dr. Matthias Biehl says: 

This is why if you want to hire API developers, you’ll need to use the right site. Your organization has specific business needs and project management requirements that should not be ignored. Otherwise, the hiring process can be quite a bloated mess. Worse still, you may experience costly turnover.

In order to avoid overspending, you should do your research for the type of API development projects you need. Some of the best sites or development companies available to your organization may not have been on your radar at all. This should not exclude them. In fact, a professional freelance matching service tops our list.

Even if you’re looking for full-time, high-quality API developers , you may want to consider using a service like Toptal to help get your project going.

Choosing the Right Site to Hire API Developers

Before choosing any site or service, it’s important to consider a few factors:

• How long do you want to spend vetting API developers?
• How quickly does your development team need to scale?
• What are your API requirements and what types of connections do you work with, such as WebSockets, JSON, REST, or another data format?
• What is your timeline for the web application and API to be completed?
• How important is affordability to you?
• How important is quality to you?

Answering these questions will greatly assist you in the hiring process. Be sure to investigate each thoroughly before committing to any one path.

How To Hire API Developers

Any successful business project begins with thorough research and planning. Before you begin your search for API developers, you need to set your project parameters, including:

• Goals, nature, and scope

• Budget

• Hiring and project kickoff timeframes, along with the project duration

• Desired and required skill sets and the number of team members you need

Next, decide if you’ll hire API development companies, part- or full-time employees, or freelance remote API developers. When your game plan is ready, we recommend using the top sites listed in this guide to source and hire your team.

As you begin to review candidate qualifications, you will notice those with junior-, mid-, and senior-skill levels. These distinctions refer to the amount of experience a developer has overall or using specific skills.

How do you know which skill level to choose? A senior API developer may have project management experience, but they typically cost more to hire. Many companies build teams of developers with varied skills and experience levels to meet various needs and budgetary limitations.

When you use a talent-matching service like Toptal, you can often leave team composition decisions to the experts. After discussing your project, you will quickly receive a shortlist of qualified candidates to fill each role.

Your ideal candidate might look different than another company’s because your project requirements are unique. However, anyone you consider should have a good mix of the technical skills your project requires and the right soft skills that allow them to be effective team members.

You might be concerned about communication skills if you use offshore API developers. While this is a valid concern, you can evaluate a candidate’s fluency in your preferred language during an interview. In addition, sites like Toptal include written and verbal fluency in their vetting process.

What Skills To Look for When Hiring API Developers

Many hiring managers are unfamiliar with the specialized, role-specific technical skills that an API developer should possess. Toptal understands API development and will match you with qualified candidates based on your project description, eliminating your need to research and vet for these technical skills.

An API developer needs to possess several core technical skills , such as:

• API-first design principles, practices, and approach

• API design and management tools

• API security best practices

• Common programming languages, such as Python, Java, and JavaScript

• RESTful principles

• CI/CD practices

• API functional testing and test automation

• Database management

• API documentation tools

• Object-oriented programming

• Agile methodology

• React Native and other popular frameworks

Because APIs are integral to so many applications, your project may require various other complementary skill sets, such as a strong understanding of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, cloud-native services, cross-platform development, mobile applications, Facebook API, and others that are too numerous to mention.

Soft skills are intangible but are just as important. Critical soft skills include:

• Active listening and communication skills

• Attention to detail

• Critical thinking and creative problem-solving

• Time management, adaptability, and the ability to work well under pressure

• Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and a team mentality

• Cultural fit

An API developer with superb technical skills might not be the best choice if they don’t also have all of the necessary soft skills. These intangible skills are vital to working well with others toward a common goal, which is your project’s success.

Tips for Writing an API Developer Job Description

The job description you create is a snapshot of your company as a whole and the specific project you’re hiring for. You need to attract the right caliber of candidates to choose to work for your company, so promote your company’s highlights and culture.

What information would you want to see in a job description if you were a job seeker? Include role-specific details, such as:

• Project start date and duration

• Hiring method (part- or full-time, employee, or freelancer)

• Responsibilities

• Desired and required skills and qualifications

Provide as many details as possible for a better response.

Common Interview Questions To Ask When You Are Looking To Hire an API Developer

Whether you narrow down applicants yourself or by using a talent-matching service like Toptal, most candidates who make it to the interview stage have the right technical skills for your open position. You’ll need to ask various technical questions, but interviews are your chance to evaluate soft skills.

Word your interview questions carefully and be sure to use the same scoring model for each candidate to ensure unbiased results. As candidates answer questions, assess their attention to detail, confidence, and communication skills.

Technical questions might include:

• What is the difference between a REST API and a Web API? Web APIs automatically convert data into different formats as needed.

• What are some essential API design tools? Version control systems, linting tools, documentation, mocking, and testing tools are all critical.

• How would you build an API without using pre-built components? Define needs, consider restraints, decide on capabilities and features, define paths, select methods, build, and test.

In at least one of your questions, purposefully leave out some critical information. This strategy lets you gauge a candidate’s attention to detail, confidence in asking for clarifications, subject-matter proficiency, and communication skills.

How To Find Freelance API Developers for Hire

There are several kinds of sourcing methods you can use, such as professional networking and participating in job fairs. You can also utilize hiring agencies, job boards, and freelance marketplaces.

When deciding how to proceed, consider things like:

• How quickly you need to hire

• The work quality you need

• How much time and effort you want to spend on the hiring process

• Whether you are comfortable vetting API developer technical skills

• Your budget

• How many open positions you need to fill

• The level of commitment you plan to make

Compare the top sites listed in this guide with these factors in mind. Toptal is our top pick because it offers a no-risk trial, talent-matching, fast hiring speeds, highly skilled candidates, a wide range of available skill sets, and zero work on your part.

An effective hiring strategy that incorporates knowledge of an API developer’s skills, measurable contributions, salary ranges, job descriptions, and carefully crafted interview questions can bring top talent to your team and promote success.