Apple earns over $600K in profit per employee. Google pulls in around $400K. That kind of output isn’t possible without exceptional engineering talent. Both companies rely on software developers who consistently deliver at scale and under pressure.
Your business may not be operating at their level, but the lesson still applies: every software developer you hire is a bet on performance, stability, and speed. The return on that bet can mean hundreds of thousands in saved cost or lost opportunity. In this blog, we’ll uncover the 10 most important software developer skills to look for when hiring—based on years of working with teams that ship real software, fast.
Category 1: Technical software developer skills
The technical core includes the fundamental software developer skills that underpin effective engineering: proficiency in a programming language, understanding of data structures and algorithms, and mastery of version control systems. These tech skills are the backbone of reliable software.
Skill 1: proficiency in programming languages
What the skill involves:
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A strong grasp of one or more coding languages such as Python, Java, or C++, and the ability to write code that is clear, correct, and maintainable.
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Familiarity with multiple programming languages is often expected as modern software programs span stacks and platforms.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Developers with deep experience in a programming language are more productive. Research shows a 30% increase in output when engineers have three or more years with a language.
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High-level languages improve speed and reduce bugs. Using Python or Java, for instance, boosts productivity by 5 to 15 times compared to low-level languages, which helps build software faster and more reliably.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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The ability to write compilable code and solve problems with clean syntax.
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Demonstrated proficiency in widely used languages like JavaScript, Python, and SQL. Good software developers often know many of these, as confirmed in HackerRank’s 2023 Developer Skills Report.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Assign practical coding assessments.
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Review candidates’ GitHub projects. Real code in public repositories often reveals more than a résumé.
Red flags:
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Candidates who list languages but can’t solve basic problems in them.
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Overreliance on frameworks without understanding the underlying language concepts.
Skill 2: A mastery of data structures and algorithms
What the skill involves:
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A deep understanding of how to organize and manipulate data structures (like arrays, trees, graphs) and how to apply algorithms efficiently.
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This includes selecting the right approach for performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Good DSA skills lead to better performance. A study on Darwinian Data Structure Selection found that optimizing data structures improved runtime by 4.8%, memory use by 10.1%, and CPU use by 5.1%. In deployed applications, gains like these can reduce latency, lower compute costs, and improve system performance.
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Strong DSA skills can prevent infrastructure collapse. For example, in 2000, Google engineers were struggling to scale their infrastructure to process huge volumes of data. Their solution was MapReduce, a framework for distributing algorithmic tasks across many machines. MapReduce showed how strong DSA skills can solve performance problems that brute force alone can’t.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Ability to apply data structures and algorithms to real-world problems, not just passively recall definitions.
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Awareness of trade-offs, such as when to prioritize time vs. space complexity.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Use structured problem-solving sessions with live coding.
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Focus on how they reason through problems, not just if they get the right answer.
Red flags:
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Candidates who memorize textbook examples but can’t apply them to new scenarios.
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Struggles with debugging software due to inefficient or misused data structures.
Skill 3: An understanding of version control systems (VCS)
What the skill involves:
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Knowing how to use tools like Git to manage changes in software code.
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Creating branches, resolving conflicts, and reviewing code in collaborative environments.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Version control is essential for software developers to work efficiently in teams. According to Atlassian, Git allows engineers to move faster, avoid overwriting code, and maintain system integrity as teams scale.
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Productivity gains of version control are measurable. For instance, Meta used Diff Authoring Time (DAT) to track developer productivity and found that version control practices—like improved code sharing workflows—saved thousands of authoring hours annually, reducing time spent on changes by over 50%.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Daily use of Git and GitHub. Experience with rebasing, squashing commits, and resolving merge conflicts.
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Familiarity with Git workflows like feature branching or trunk-based development.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Give real-world Git tasks. One hiring manager on Reddit noted that this filters out those who inflate their Git skills on paper.
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Ask candidates to explain how they’d handle merge conflicts or use pull requests in a team setting.
Red flags:
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Using Git only through the IDE or with limited understanding of command-line tools.
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Inability to explain basic version control concepts like rebase vs. merge.
Category 2: Problem-solving and engineering thinking skills for software developers
Problem-solving abilities support hard skills. They separate adaptable engineers from rigid executors in the job market. They’re what allow software developers to anticipate cascading effects, tackle multi-layered problems, and design software that holds up under pressure.
As software engineers must collaborate across disciplines, juggle dependencies, and make resource calls in real time, these ways of thinking are as essential as any coding language.
Skill 1: Strategic thinking
What the skill involves:
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The ability to align technical choices with broader product goals.
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Anticipating downstream impacts and identifying optimal trade-offs in the software lifecycle.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Strategic thinking helps how teams solve bottlenecks before they slow delivery. For example, in 2014, Facebook’s team built Origami—a no-code prototyping tool—so designers could test ideas without waiting on engineers. That decision, rooted in strategic thinking, sped up workflows and led to a smoother mobile user experience.
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Without strategic foresight, teams risk building features no one needs or optimizing for the wrong metric, thereby wasting time, money, and trust.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Describes past work not just in terms of tasks, but why decisions were made and what outcomes followed.
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Connects technical work to business impact, e.g., improving latency or enabling a new monetization stream.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Use project debriefs or “job talks,” as done by Zymergen. These give insight into how candidates structure decisions and measure trade-offs.
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Ask how they’ve adjusted direction mid-project based on shifting requirements. This reveals agility, not just planning.
Red flags:
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Talks only about tech stacks or tools with no mention of goals or constraints.
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Unable to explain why a solution was chosen or how they would approach the same problem differently with new information.
Skill 2: Parallel thinking
What the skill involves:
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Handling multiple dimensions of a problem at once: code quality, scalability, and delivery timelines.
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Weighing how code changes will affect systems, timelines, and team workflows so that decisions don’t create downstream bottlenecks.
Why it matters in real projects:
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High-performing software development teams rely on contributors who can keep the big picture in mind while solving specific problems.
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Parallel thinking prevents chaos at scale. Monty Taylor’s work on OpenStack is strong proof of this. He built a system that automatically tested every code change from developers at over 150 companies before allowing it into the main OpenStack codebase. This kept OpenStack stable while dozens of teams worked at the same time.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Demonstrates how they managed overlapping dependencies or multi-stream delivery.
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Explains the impact of their work across infrastructure, front-end performance, or developer experience.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Take a cue from WibiData. Custom challenges, like their Portal 2 levels, test how a developer uses simultaneous logic tracks to solve a problem.
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Look for examples where the candidate balanced constraints: e.g., speed vs. quality, innovation vs. deadline.
Red flags:
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Fixates on one layer of the stack and ignores broader implications.
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Struggles with questions that require juggling multiple inputs, suggesting difficulty with prioritization or abstraction.
Skill 3: Testing and debugging
What the skill involves:
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Building and maintaining integration tests that catch failures early before they affect the larger system.
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Diagnosing hard-to-spot bugs in live systems that slow performance, cause errors, or disrupt the user experience.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Testing early reduces defect costs. IBM found that fixing bugs through inspection takes just 3.5 hours vs. 15 - 25 hours when discovered during testing.
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In real-world projects, debugging often happens under pressure—when issues surface late in the cycle and threaten performance, stability, or user experience. Tal Weiss, co-founder of VisualTao, called it “open-heart surgery on a train going 100 mph." In those critical moments, strong debugging skills are what keep systems running and teams from falling behind.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Comfortable isolating defects across operating systems, cloud computing environments, or complex databases like MySQL or SQL Server.
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Writes tests not as an afterthought, but as a necessary step to build software programs that are reliable and ready for real-world use.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Incorporate debugging scenarios into job interviews. Platforms like AlgoCademy and discussions on Stack Exchange recommend live exercises with broken code.
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Review GitHub commits or ask candidates to explain a bug they solved. They should clarify how they discovered it, their fix, and how they ensured it wouldn’t happen again.
Red flags:
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Reluctant to write tests or shows weak understanding of coverage strategies.
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Over-reliance on IDEs or print statements without systematic debugging methods.
Skill 4: Refactoring and optimization
What the skill involves:
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Cleaning up messy codebases, improving readability, and optimizing the parts of the system that handle heavy load or directly affect response times for users.
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Improving performance without sacrificing readability or maintainability, especially in large-scale systems where messy optimizations can slow teams down later.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Refactoring improves long-term maintainability by reducing structural issues that make code harder to update and more prone to bugs. For instance, in a study of 30 Java projects, developers reduced code smells by 24% through refactoring. For context, code smells are signs of poor code structure—like unnecessary complexity or duplication—that don’t cause immediate errors but can lead to bugs and maintenance headaches. Removing them made the code easier to work with and more stable over time (arXiv)
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Refactoring enables the team to organize data, reduce cognitive load, and develop software that adapts.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Recognizes problematic coding patterns, e.g., duplication or overly complex logic and suggests small, targeted improvements instead of large rewrites.
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Shares concrete outcomes from past refactoring work, like faster load times, fewer post-release bugs, or quicker turnaround on new feature development.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Use real codebases and ask candidates to improve clarity or performance. Upwork suggests assigning known-problem files and observing the developers' approaches.
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Ask about past optimization wins, e.g., boosting FPS in a mobile devices app or reducing memory usage in a Microsoft SQL Server process.
Red flags:
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Avoids touching legacy code, or insists on rebuilding from scratch.
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Believes refactoring is only for tech debt, not performance or user impact.
Category 3: Skills that portray a future-ready mindset
Hiring developers who meet today’s job description isn’t enough. Software developers need to keep pace with shifting tools, languages, and business goals, not just to do the job, but to stay ahead of what the job becomes. That means learning fast, adapting faster, and anchoring their work in the bigger picture—even as that picture keeps changing.
According to WIRED, job skill requirements have already changed by 25% since 2015, and are projected to shift another 65% by 2030. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum reports that 40% of workers will need reskilling in the next three years due to AI. That level of volatility demands more than technical capabilities. It demands flexible thinkers. The right software developer doesn’t just write code. They help you future-proof your business.
Skill 1: Adaptability and continuous learning
What the skill involves:
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Keeping up with changes in frameworks, coding languages, and tools.
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Willingness to unlearn legacy practices and re-skill as platforms evolve.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Developers need to keep up or get left behind. We see Symfony, GNOME, and Kubernetes releasing updates every 3–6 months. Missing just one cycle can introduce security risks or break core integrations.
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When developers stop learning, delivery slows. That’s why 53% of companies are investing in reskilling to avoid bottlenecks caused by outdated knowledge and to keep shipping on schedule.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Evidence of recent coursework, certifications, or side projects in emerging technologies like AI, cloud-native tooling, or DevOps.
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Demonstrates career progression not just in job title, but in skills to learn and tech fluency.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Ask candidates what they’ve learned in the last six months and why.
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Review GitHub or personal repositories for recent activity and range across different software stacks.
Red flags:
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Overreliance on outdated tools or resistance to newer frameworks.
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Passive attitude toward skill growth. “I’ll learn it on the job” is not a plan.
Skill 2: Understanding business logic
What the skill involves:
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Knowing the “why” behind the code: how features tie into strategy, revenue, and the software development process.
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Making architectural and design choices based on business needs, not just engineering preferences.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Developers who understand business goals are more likely to deliver successful outcomes. A study of 600 engineers in the UK and US found that teams with clear requirements upfront had a 97% higher project success rate.
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Without clear business alignment, developers risk building the wrong things. It's estimated that 10% to 40% of new software features go unused, often because they were never tied to real priorities.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Connects past development decisions to KPIs, user metrics, or customer feedback.
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Can articulate trade-offs, such as optimizing one feature at the cost of delaying another.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Ask candidates to describe a business problem they helped solve. They should describe not just the code, but the impact of the code.
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Provide case scenarios and ask what they would prioritize based on constraints.
Red flags:
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Describes tasks with no context or outcome.
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Builds “technically elegant” solutions with no business justification.
Skill 3: Articulating technical concepts
What the skill involves:
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Explaining technical ideas clearly to product managers, designers, and other team members who don’t share the same technical background.
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Helping teams work together more effectively by translating technical context (like system behavior, constraints, and trade-offs) into language everyone can act on during planning and decision-making.
Why it matters in real projects:
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Communication failures slow teams down. When engineers can’t explain what they’re doing or why, it creates delays that ripple through the build cycle.
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In every software development lifecycle, clarity accelerates decisions and reduces churn.
What it looks like in a strong candidate:
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Uses analogies, diagrams, or prototypes to communicate with non-engineers.
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Writes clear documentation specifying what the code does and why.
How to evaluate it during the hiring process:
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Ask them to explain a recent technical decision to someone non-technical.
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Review how they communicate in writing. Check PRs, READMEs, or even emails.
Red flags:
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Talks in jargon, dismisses non-technical feedback, or “explains” in a condescending tone.
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Avoids documentation or claims it’s someone else’s job.
Final thoughts for hiring managers and developers
If you’re looking to secure job openings for programmers, don’t stop at asking: What skills do you need to be a software developer? Go further and ask what kinds of problems you want to solve, and whether you’ve built the software developer skills needed to solve them reliably, under pressure, and at speed. The market is shifting toward proof, not promise: 80% of employers now prioritize practical ability over degrees, and 89.9% say they’d rather hire based on experience than education alone.
That shift in priorities isn’t just advice for candidates. It’s a cue for hiring managers, too. Now, knowing what to look for when hiring means cutting through buzzwords. The top skills for software developers that matter most are the ones that reduce churn, enable handoffs, and keep business-critical systems running. Common skills you should look for include soft skills like communication and clarity, and technical skills like debugging, version control, and scalable architecture.
The skills needed for software developer roles today are easy to list but much harder to demonstrate when requirements change, or teams scale fast. While software developers often know many tools, what sets a developer apart is how they use those tools under real-world constraints. They need to know the skills required to fix production issues at 2 a.m., reason through architecture, and collaborate cross-functionally.
Software developers use more than code to prove their value—they use judgment, context, and timing. But technical judgment only works if it’s grounded in context—where the code runs, what it touches, and how it’s maintained.
Being a good software developer is not just about building one software program—it’s about knowing how that program fits into systems, teams, and workflows. That means understanding information in a database, managing Amazon Web deployments, and thinking beyond code snippets. It also means knowing how to work with specialized development tools while supporting broader project management efforts.
The knowledge and skills that move teams forward are the ones that reduce friction: knowing when to simplify, how to document, and where to draw the line between fast and fragile. Those habits build trust and create real job opportunities, because they’re what teams look for when stakes are high.
