StackOverflow is more of a Q&A site where developers post and answer technical questions. You would need to look at candidates addressing such specific questions to see if they fit your requirements
The complete guide to hiring a Python developer
Why do you need Python?
Python is a great choice for organizations that want to thrive on the current market needs and ride the wave of fast development. There are numerous reasons why developers love using this language:
- It is highly readable because it is dynamically typed and mandates indentation
- It has numerous libraries which makes it easily accessible to developers
- It is a scalable language which makes it easy to handle tasks of all sizes
- It is used to create prototypes and minimum viable products in a very short time
According to StackOverflow, Python is one of the most loved programming languages among developers. Thanks to its versatility, this language can easily address any challenge that could affect an organization’s solutions in the long run.
Why do programmers love Python?
We’ve asked our 3 million strong developer community on why they love coding in Python and this is what they had to say –
What skills are companies looking for in a Python developer?
According to cvcompiler.com, here are the list of skills most tech companies look for while hiring a Python developer
- AWS
- Django
- API
- Docker
- Linux
- Cloud computing
- Machine Learning
- JavaScript
- Java
- Git
- Continuous integration
- SQL
- React
- Flask
- REST
- PostgreSQL
- DevOps
- Microservices
- Go
- Kubernetes
- Security
- Apache Spark
- MySQL
- TDD
- Google Cloud Platform
Skills required for an entry-level Python developer
Experience level: 0 to 2 years
An entry-level programming position in Python calls for the following skills:
- Knowledge of general Python syntax
- Knowledge of data structures
- Basic knowledge of SQL
- Basic CVS skills
- Experience with any popular web framework
In a nutshell, candidates should be able to make a simple web app from scratch. In addition, also check if they have done any project in Python. Few examples could be a program that reads a CSV file and displays a formatted output, a blog, or a message board.
Skills required for a mid-level Python developer
Experience level: 3 to 6 years
A mid-level Python developer position calls for the following skills:
- Strong knowledge of object oriented design, coding, and test patterns
- Experience with building Big Data solutions and software development experience in Python
- Experience in building and maintaining software platforms (commercial or open source)
- Exposure to a cloud computing service such as an AWS is an added advantage
Skills required for a senior Python developer
Experience level: 6+ years
A senior Python developer position calls for the following skills:
- Proficiency in writing complex logic in Python as per industry standards
- Knowledge of front-end technologies such as JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3
- Knowledge of object-relational mapper (ORM)libraries
- Experience in data visualization tools such as Tableau and Qlik and Query languages like SAS, SQL, and Hive
- Exposure to AWS or other cloud computing services
- Knowledge of Big Data technology such as HDFS, Pig, Hive, Spark, and Scala
- Strong unit test and debugging skills and understanding of threading limitations of Python
Python developer salaries in United States
Average base pay
According to Glassdoor, the national average salary for a Python developer is $85,992 in the United States.
Top companies hiring Python developers
These are the most popular companies for Python developers:
Instagram Spotify Amazon Survey Monkey Facebook Google YouTube Quora Dropbox Yahoo Reddit Bitly
Sourcing Python developer talent
Tech communities are full of potential hires waiting to be discovered. Here are 2 such communities from where you can source talent for free.
Hiring Python developers from GitHub
GitHub is one of the world’s largest code hosts, with close to 31 million developers. A developer’s GitHub profile gives you a wealth of information.
Before shortlisting profiles on GitHub, make sure that the Python developer is open to recruiters approaching him/her with jobs. Once this is sorted, follow these steps to find the best talent on GitHub:
- The first step is to create a profile on GitHub
- Once the profile is created, run a search using 3 parameters—language, location, and followers
- By default, GitHub shows results for the list of repositories. You can change this to users by choosing the users option from the left hand side menu. You now have a list of developers you can reach out to.
Here are a few things to remember before you connect with potential Python developers.
- Check their repositories to familiarize yourself with their work. This would be mutually beneficial as you can filter out candidates who you think will not fit into the job role on offer
- Cross-reference their profiles on either Linkedin or Twitter to be doubly sure if they would be a perfect fit or not
- Don’t judge profiles on how active or complete they are. Sometimes developers do not tend to share code publicly for security reasons. Also, not having a great social following is not an indication of how good their tech skills are
For more info, download our in-depth e-book on hiring GitHub developers.
Hiring developers from StackOverflow
StackOverflow is a Q&A site for professional and enthusiast programmers. Just like GitHub, StackOverflow is also a great platform to hire amazing Python talent.
The process of shortlisting Python developer profiles is similar to GitHub. However, here are a few things to remember before connecting with your first Python developer via StackOverflow:
Developers are segregated based on their user badges and reputation scores. An ideal candidate ranks high for both
Every question which is posted has tags associated with it. You can use these tags to find developers who fit the bill
Some other places to find great developer talent include HackerEarth, Reddit, and Kaggle.
JD for the role of a Python developer
Here is a JD sample for a Python developer for hiring challenges at HackerEarth:
Python developer Job Description
Company Introduction
HackerEarth provides enterprise software solutions that help organisations with their innovation management and technical recruitment needs. HackerEarth has conducted 1000+ hackathons and 10,000+ programming challenges till date. Since its inception, HackerEarth has built a developer base of over 2 million+.
Required Skills:
- Strong Analytical Skills with 3-8 years of software product development experience
- Extensive experience in client and server side development using Python
- Should be well versed in using decorators, meta-programming aspects of Python
- Experience with Reportlab, Matplotlib or libraries that o er similar functionality
- Experience with NoSQL Databases such as HBase or MongoDB and SQL (Postgres a plus) databases
- Well versed in Object Oriented Design (OOD), programming and design patterns
- Experience in developing multi-tier Client-Server Architecture
- Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills
- Strong Version control skills (GIT, Mercurial)
- Working experience in SCRUM (Agile) development process
- Extensive experience in the full life cycle of the software design process including requirement analysis, design, prototyping, coding, documentation, implementation, and maintenance
Desired Skills:
- Experience in performance tuning, resolving scalability related issues at server side
- Experience in memory footprint optimization on low-end devices
- Domain knowledge in telecommunications and RF engineering
Personal Skills:
- Self-motivated, independent, proactive, detail oriented and responsible team-player
- Passion for innovation and for new and emerging technologies
- Excellent Communication and Interpersonal skills
- Good at meeting deadlines
- Ability to keep cool under pressure
- Comfortable working in an extremely dynamic and fast paced environment.
- Able to handle multiple priorities
- Demonstrated ability to continuously learn and apply new technologies
- Excellent analytical skills
- Attention to details and persistence at improving things until they are right
Recruiter email templates
Outreach email
Subject – Join our amazing team of developers at <Company name>
Dear <First_Name>
I am <Name> and I work as a Recruiter for <Company name>. I came across your profile on <Social media or Job board> and I was very impressed with your skills especially <describe a project or a particular programming skill set>.
We are currently looking for a Python developer to join our amazing team and I think you would be a great fit. Here are some of the cool projects that we are working on currently – <provide a link to projects at your organization>
If this is something that interests you, please write back to me and I will be happy to explain more over a call.
Have a great day, and I hope to hear back from you soon!
Best,
<Your name>
Follow-up email
Subject – Following up!
Hi <First_Name>,
Hope you are doing great!
Have you had a chance to read my previous mail?
We are looking for some super talented Python developers to join our team at <Company name> and I thought you would be a great fit.
Our team of developers has been working on some cool projects <link some of your work> and I thought you would find them interesting.
And if you are wondering what it is like to work for <Company name>, here is a short video of what our employees think – <Include an employer branding video>
If you are interested in this opportunity, do drop me an email so we can take this forward. Have a great day!
Best,
<Name>
Assessing Python developers using a developer assessment software
Entry level Python developer assessment
HackerEarth Assessments creates tests for entry-level Python developers. These tests are the right mix of MCQs that evaluate the candidates’ knowledge of the fundamentals of Python. In addition, it has basic programming questions.
A sample basic programming question that can be included in the test for entry-level Python developers
A few MCQs that you can test candidates on
Mid-level Python developer assessment
HackerEarth’s coding tests software creates tests for mid-level Python developers. These tests include:
A sample programming question with difficulty level hard
A few MCQs that you can test candidates on
Senior Python developer assessment
HackerEarth’s developer assessment software creates tests for senior Python developers
A sample programming question with difficulty level hard
A few MCQs that you can test candidates on
Python interview questions
According to softwaretestinghelp.com, these are the most frequently asked interview questions for Python professionals –
- Can Python be used for web client and web server side programming? And which one is best suited to Python?
- Mention at least 3-4 benefits of using Python over the other scripting languages such as Javascript.
- Explain List, Tuple, Set, and Dictionary and provide at least one instance where each of these collection types can be used.
- Does Python allow you to program in a structured style?
- What is PIP software in the Python world?
- What should be the typical build environment for Python based application development?
- What tools can be used to unit test your Python code?
- How does For loop and While loop di er in Python and when do you choose to use them?
- How are data types defined in Python and how much bytes do integer and decimal data types hold?
- How do you make use of Arrays in Python?
- How do you implement JSON given that Python is best suited for the server-side application?
- What is the best way to parse strings and find patterns in Python?
- Which databases are supported by Python?
- What is the purpose of _init_() function in Python?
- What is the significance of ‘self' parameter in an object method? Should we always name this parameter as ‘self'?
- How does Lambda function di er from a normal function in Python?
- How is Exception Handling done in Python?
- What is the starting point of Python code execution?
- Name some of the important modules that are available in Python.
- Which module(s) of Python can be used to measure the performance of your application code?
- How do you launch sub-processes within the main process of a Python application?
- As Python is more suitable for the server-side application, it is very important to have threading implemented in your server code. How can you achieve that in Python?
- Do we need to call the explicit methods to destroy the memory allocated in Python?
- Does the same Python code work on multiple platforms without any changes?
- How can you create a GUI based application in Python for client-side functionality?
Numbers at a glance
3 million
developers
1,000+ customers
worldwide
18,000+ tests
created
"70% of the candidates that passed the assessments were hired"
Phuong Huynh
Technical recruiter, Zalora