Elixir is a relatively recent programming language that many top companies consider a great choice for building applications. Discord, Adobe, Slack, and Pinterest are only a few of the brands that chose Elixir for the development of their products.
Characteristics like high concurrency, low latency, impressive fault tolerance, and the potential for scalability make Elixir the coding language of choice for developers when developing new apps.
The number of IT professionals proficient in Elixir is still relatively low, even though its popularity has been increasing since its creation. The limited number of experienced professionals coupled with the intense market competition makes hiring Elixir developers a complicated task.
This, along with many other benefits, is why many companies turn to Elixir outsourcing providers to get their Elixir projects done without breaking the bank or extending timelines.
How to Work With the Top 1% of Elixir Developers in Your Time Zone
Developers built the Elixir programming language on top of Erlang’s virtual machine and compiled it into Erlang bytecode. In fact, Elixir combines the syntax of the Erlang programming language with certain features of Ruby, which results in high-level performance and code reusability.
Elixir features the ability to successfully execute multiple processes at the same time, has built-in safety procedures, and comes with its own set of development tools that encourage developers to produce concise and fast code that’s easy to maintain.
Because of how recent this programming language is, it’s hard to find Elixir developers with the right set of skills and experience to successfully complete certain projects for companies. This is why many of them are choosing to outsource Elixir development.
By working with outsourcing providers like BairesDev, companies get to work with the top 3% of Elixir developers at affordable prices and without sacrificing the high quality of the final products. Outsourced Elixir developers guarantee a quick turnaround while still following an agile development methodology that helps them better fulfill the needs of their clients.
How to Hire an Elixir Developer: Considerations, Skills & Questions
There are quite a few things to consider before choosing to hire Elixir developers. Companies need to take some time to gather the requirements of the project, compile a list of necessary skills, create an appealing job description, and develop a set of pertinent questions for the interview process.
Before You Hire an Elixir Development Team
Before hiring an Elixir development team, the hiring company needs to have a clear understanding of the project’s requirements and goals. Determining these parameters will allow the company to have a better idea of the technology they’ll need, the necessary skill set to complete the project, and the size of the team required.
Once the company knows exactly what it needs for its Elixir project, it’s time to go look for suitable Elixir developers. There are several places where companies can find good developers.
Having a good job description is important to attract only the best Elixir developers. A job description needs to be well-structured, clear, and informative so that candidates know exactly what they’re applying for.
Companies should use the job description to describe the role they want to fill, list the skills and responsibilities of the Elixir developer they’re looking for, and mention salary expectations, benefits, and perks associated with the job.
The more detailed a job description is, the more the company can avoid vague applications from candidates who don’t necessarily meet the required parameters.
If the company still receives a lot of applications and needs to reduce the list of potential candidates before moving on to the interview stage, they might consider administering a technical test to evaluate the candidates’ practical knowledge.
There are a few online platforms that companies can take advantage of for this sole purpose. Recruiters create different problems pertaining to the project and determine which candidates are up for the task.
After this prescreening phase, recruiters should now have a reduced list of the Elixir developers who did well. These are the ones they should invite for a final interview, where recruiters need to test their general subject knowledge, evaluate their communication, and determine if they’re a good cultural fit for the company.
This, however, is quite a bit of work required by the hiring company’s team and requires a significant amount of money, time, and legwork completed by internal teams. Instead, many hiring companies make the more efficient choice of working with an outsourcing provider for all of their Elixir needs.
Skills to Look for in an Elixir Developer
There are certain particular characteristics of the Elixir programming language that developers need to master. The most important ones are concurrency, HTTP, databases, and pipeline-style data processing.
As important as hard skills and technical knowledge are, soft skills are also crucial for good Elixir developers. Communication, in particular, is extremely important for these professionals in a wide variety of situations.
Concurrency
As previously mentioned, developers built the Elixir programming language on top of Erlang’s virtual machine (VM), called BEAM. Whenever developers create process threads, these aren’t actual processes that run on their machine. They run in the Erlang VM.
This means that in an Elixir application, developers can create thousands of Erlang processes without the application skipping a beat. Concurrency in Elixir is a big selling point for the programming language, and Elixir developers should have no problem understanding it.
HTTP
A lot of Elixir development relates to web applications that are mostly governed by the HTTP protocol and server infrastructure. Elixir has a fair amount of good development tools and web frameworks, like Phoenix and Absinthe, but developers need to have solid web knowledge of how to use them.
Databases
Elixir developers need to be familiar with databases. Initially, Elixir might work well with its own database wrapper, Ecto, which handles both SQL and NoSQL for the developers. However, in the long run, they’ll need more data storage for their projects.
Elixir developers should invest in learning more about databases like SQL, PostgreSQL, or similar ones right from the beginning.
Pipeline-Style Data Processing
Elixir developers should be comfortable with this style of data processing, because Elixir, as a functional programming language, promotes a type of data processing described as pipelines modeled as compositions of functions that transform immutable data structures.
They should also have a solid knowledge of libraries like GenStage or Flow that they’ll then apply to Elixir’s distributed environments.
Communication
Good communication skills are a must for every software developer. It allows them to work as a team, properly communicating any issues, questions, or suggestions they might have. It also facilitates the development of high-quality products by quickly determining any changes that they might require.
However, because Elixir is such a recent programming language, non-tech personnel like company leaders and stakeholders might have some trouble understanding it. This is why great communication skills are imperative in good Elixir developers.
They must be able to bridge the gap between the development team and other non-tech business departments, to convey any required knowledge.
Top Interview Questions to Hire Elixir Software Development Experts
When interviewing potential Elixir developers, recruiters should try to evaluate the candidates’ technical expertise and general subject knowledge, and assess some of their soft skills, like communication.
It is at this stage that the recruiters also try to determine if the applicants are a good cultural fit for the company by asking a few personal questions. To make sure recruiters land the right Elixir developer, they should take some time to create a list of Elixir interview questions.
What data type categories are there in Elixir?
Developers can classify Elixir data into two broad data type categories. There are constant data types, like numbers and atoms, and there are compound data that allow the connection between constant data.
Define Elixir modules
An Elixir module is a piece of Erlang code that consists of function declarations and attributes. Module attributes have a well-defined structure, with a value and a tag. A value of an attribute is a literal item, while a tag is an atom. The meanings of an attribute can be predefined or user-defined.
Name two advantages of Elixir compared to other web development languages
Two advantages of Elixir compared to other web development languages are its high fault tolerance and high readability. Elixir has several safety mechanisms, including a robust failure alert system and the independence of application elements.
It also uses simple and intuitive expressions and methods to execute commands. The programming language is easy to understand.
What is the difference between concurrency and parallelization?
Concurrent processes are independent of each other. They can run during the same period of time, but they don’t have to. Parallel processes, on the other hand, have to run during the same period of time.
Two parallel processes are always concurrent; however, two concurrent processes aren’t necessarily parallel.
What operator types does Elixir support?
To create and manage arithmetic expressions, Elixir supports Boolean operators, arithmetic operators, misc operators, and comparison operators.
Explain Elixir’s handling of concurrency
Elixir concurrency is built upon the Actor model, in which a single process is an independent actor. The elements of the system can exchange data, but the virtual machine manages them.
Each process has its memory completely isolated from others, allowing developers to ensure the independence of elements. For communication, processes rely on the mailbox and commands like “send” and “receive.”
Hire Elixir Developers — Final Considerations
Elixir is a recent programming language in the market; however, companies already use it to create high-performing web apps. Taking advantage of certain characteristics from other programming languages like Erlang and Ruby, Elixir offers code reusability that’s concise, fast, and easy to maintain.
It’s not easy finding good Elixir developers with enough solid knowledge and experience to develop and maintain an Elixir product from beginning to end. This is why many companies choose to outsource Elixir development.
This gives them access to Elixir developers from all over the world that are true experts using this programming language. They’re a lot more affordable than building an entire in-house development team and can guarantee high-quality final products.
Before hiring an Elixir development team, companies need to devote some time and effort to follow a few important steps. They need to gather the project requirements to determine the skill sets they’ll need for the project development. Then the company has to determine where they’re going to source their Elixir developers.
The next step is to create an appealing and well-structured job description. Prescreening candidates by conducting technical evaluations is a great way to narrow down the pool of candidates.
The final step before hiring an Elixir developer is to conduct an interview that allows recruiters to assess the applicants’ general subject knowledge and communication skills to determine if they’d be a good fit for the company. Feel free to read our complete list of Elixir interview questions for a better understanding of the type of questions to ask during an interview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Elixir developers in demand?
Yes, Elixir developers are in high demand. Even though Elixir is a recent programming language, it is extremely useful for developing websites that have a high traffic load and applications that are highly scalable. This is why Elixir developers are so incredibly sought after.
How does an outsourcing provider vet a developer’s Elixir skills?
Outsourcing providers like BairesDev vet a developer’s Elixir skills by making them perform technical tasks that can pertain to a project’s specifications. They also evaluate the developers’ English proficiency levels, background experience, and overall eligibility.
At BairesDev, any potential candidate must pass stringent testing in both technical and soft skills in order to join the outsourcing team.
How much do qualified Elixir developers make?
The average Elixir developer salary in the United States is $125,000 per year or $60.10 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $110,000 per year, while experienced workers make up to $170,000 per year.
What does an Elixir developer do?
An Elixir developer uses a combined knowledge of Elixir coding, concurrency, databases, and other subjects to create high-performance web applications. Many popular companies like Discord, Slack, and Pinterest use Elixir in their products.
What is Elixir suitable for?
Elixir is good for many different types of applications. It works well on web apps of any size, web APIs like JSON or GraphQL, event-driven systems, distributed systems, embedded systems, and many others.
