Backend Developer Job Descriptions, Average Salary, Interview Questions

What Does a Backend Developer Do?

Backend developers are responsible for managing and maintaining the backend infrastructure of software applications and ensuring the exchange of data between software users and servers. They develop backend applications that ensure a high level of responsiveness and performance to front-end requests. They work in conjunction with front-end teams to integrate front-end technologies into the backend infrastructure. Backend developers can also build and support the web properties of a company. 

Backend developers need to keep up with the latest technological trends and emerging technologies. They must be well-versed in a variety of programming languages, have excellent computer skills, and have a good working knowledge of web development and programming tools. Proficiency in written and verbal communication, good collaboration skills, solid problem-solving skills, and acute attention to detail are also qualities of a backend developer. 

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National Average Salary

Backend developer salaries vary by experience, industry, organization size, and geography. To explore salary ranges by local market, please visit our sister site zengig.com.

The average U.S. salary for a Backend Developer is:

$102,450

Backend Developer Job Descriptions

Example 1

What do you need to succeed? Strong back-end skills include ORM Hibernate/myBatis, SpringBoot, Microservices, Spring frameworks, (Spring security, Spring batch, Spring MVC) and REST API. Along with the ability to synthesize requirements, underlying feature requests, recommend alternative technical and business approaches, and facilitate engineering efforts to meet aggressive timelines.

Your future duties and responsibilities

  • Engage with architects/product team to comprehend functional challenges, prototype new ideas, and new technologies, and help to create innovative solutions
  • Design and develop solutions following established frameworks, application development standards and quality processes in projects
  • Assess the impacts on technical design because of the changes in functional requirements
  • Gain knowledge and control of client integration endpoints (live API’s, Batch, Queue based processing)
  • Will work within a fast-paced Agile DevOps team contributing and collaborating with the scrum team on a daily basis
  • Participate in all phases of Agile methodology (planning, grooming, coding sprint items)
  • Mentor junior developers, which may include performing code reviews. Suggest tools, technologies, and best practices that improve stability

Basic qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in JEE technology stack. Back End Development capabilities supporting Database, server side development, and CI/CD integration
  • 5+ years of experience with SpringBoot, Sprint Data, Spring Batch, Spring cloud, and Sprint security
  • Extensive experience with WebService development (SOAP/REST)
  • Experience with ORM Hibernate and MyBatis
  • 2+ years of experience in Microservices development using Spring Boot. Understanding of key components of a micro services architecture including containers, load balancing, distributed cache, and preferable experience with Eureka and Zuul
  • Strong messaging systems knowledge, either Rabbit MQ or Kafka
  • Extensive experience writing Junit test cases, Mockito and PowerMock
  • Experience with NoSQL database, Oracle, and PostgreSQL
  • Experience handling JSON data in PostgreSQL
  • Experience with Business Rules Engine, preferably Drools
  • Experience with Business Workflow Management systems
  • Experience with Springfox 3.0 and Swagger
  • Practical knowledge of Git flow and GitHub flow branching strategies.
  • Familiar with DevOps toolchain experience: GitHub, JFrog Artifacts, SonarQube, etc.
  • Experience with ELK stack, Elastic Search, Logstash, and Kibana is a plus.

Example 2

Work you’ll do

  • Design, develop and, support Cloud-Native applications and API development using C# .NET on Azure Cloud Platform
  • Contribute to application development on multiple large-scale, mission-critical system
  • Work collaboratively as a key contributor on a high performing team which ships code and delivers value
  • Participate in requirements gathering, analysis, and technical design

Required qualifications

  • Design, Develop and support Cloud-Native applications and API development using C# .NET on Azure Cloud Platform (Experience with object-oriented languages & implementing RESTful webservices in Azure required)
  • Hands on experience with Azure App Service Model (Static Web Apps, Function Apps)
  • Strong understanding of Cloud computing concepts and technologies, such as IaaS/SaaS/PaaS, load balancing, storage, etc. (creating, deploying, configuring, and scaling applications on Azure PaaS)
  • Hands on experience on Azure storage services like SQL DB, Cosmos DB, Tables, Files and Blobs, and tools like Azure DevOps & GitHub

Preferred qualifications

  • Full stack experience with WordPress UI and backend skills isn’t required but would be a huge plus!
  • Knowledge of Azure IaaS (APIM, VMs, VNET, NSG Rules, VPN Gateways and Express Route)
  • Knowledge of networking engineering including DNS, Active Directory, Firewall, Load balancers, etc.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills coupled with analytical problem-solving skills
  • Ability to write quality unit and end-to-end tests; debug and optimize existing and new code

Example 3

Duties include working in a professional environment with a national team of developers, geospatial analysts, engineers, scientists, business analysts, and planners. The ability to effectively lead and participate in remote teams with individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds, both technical and non-technical, is required. Successful candidates will be able to lead development projects, plan and design solutions, develop database schemas and analysis methods needed to support project goals. Our projects include solutions for desktop, web, and mobile

Core skills

  • Communication. Ability to share your ideas and work with other developers in a collaborative environment
  • Problem solving. Knowing how to make a task easier, more maintainable, and stable
  • Curiosity. Knowing what’s on the horizon in web and mobile development and when to use it
  • Adaptability. Able to quickly learn and adapt to new technologies
  • Ability to manage a complex range of tasks and meet deadlines
  • Understanding and application of the agile development lifecycle

Required qualifications

  • Bachelor’s in computer science, Geography, Geospatial Science, Planning, Environmental Sciences, or relevant field
  • 2 years focusing on enterprise scale backend architectures
  • GIS development experience desired but not required
  • An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture is a must

Preferred qualifications

  • Minimum of two years’ experience in software development
  • Experience with agile development practices through Jira
  • Experience with server-side technologies (Java, .NET, NodeJS, etc.)
  • Experience with the design, development, testing and support of ETL processes
  • Should have strong knowledge of API design, development and support
  • MuleSoft Developer Level 1 certification a plus
  • Development and optimization of PLSQL queries
  • Experience with support and optimization of Oracle 11g and 12c databases

Sample Interview Questions

  • What is the CAP Theorem?
  • What does REST stand for?
  • What are the different types of NoSQL databases?
  • Can you explain SQL injection?
  • How would you mitigate SQL injection risks?
  • What programming languages do you prefer to work with?
  • What’s the hardest part about writing code?
  • How do you approach debugging?
  • What’s the difference between software architecture and design?
  • What are some CI/CD practices?
  • How do you add scalability to a program?
  • What was your most challenging project?
  • How would you organize a software development team?
  • Can you describe a Java Classloader?
  • How would you use a static initializer?
  • What’s an example of an item that can only be implemented using reflection?

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