Hiring guide · Engineering
How to hire a
full-stack engineer.
Full-stack engineers are the workhorses of modern startups. Hiring well means evaluating system design, not just coding tests.
Comp range$130k-$280k base depending on seniority.
Timeline6-14 weeks.
When to hire
Hire in-house
You have ongoing product work — basically always for a software company.
When to outsource
Outsource to a studio
You need a quick one-off feature or to bridge a gap before hiring.
Evaluation · 02
Signs of strong candidates.
Strong signals
- Has shipped production systems, not just exercises
- Comfortable across frontend, backend, and ops
- System design fluency
- Knows database fundamentals
- Has on-call experience
Red flags
- ✗Bootcamp-only with no production experience
- ✗Knows frameworks but not fundamentals
- ✗No on-call experience
- ✗Refuses to learn the rest of the stack
- ✗Inflated titles vs actual scope
Interview · 03
Questions to ask.
- Q1
Walk me through a system you designed. What would you change now?
- Q2
How do you handle a production incident at 3am?
- Q3
When would you reach for a queue?
- Q4
How do you migrate a schema with zero downtime?
- Q5
What's your debug strategy when you have no logs?
Considering a studio?
We bridge
to your hire.
We help with technical screens. If you're not ready to hire a full-stack engineer yet, brief us — we can fill the gap and help you hire later.
Brief us