What to Ask When Hiring an App Developer (Even If You’re Not Technical)
You don’t need to be a software engineer to hire a good one. The right questions reveal whether a developer can deliver or just talk a good game.
Picture this: your organisation decides to build an app. You’re the “tech person” — or at least, the closest thing to one — so the task of vetting the developer lands in your lap. You’re not an app developer. You’ve fixed a few computers, maybe built something small in a class. Now you’re across the table from someone who speaks in frameworks and deployment pipelines.
It’s a familiar situation for many people in small organisations. The good news? You don’t need to understand code to ask the right questions. In fact, the most important things to probe have nothing to do with syntax.
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Start with the portfolio
Before any meeting, ask to see their previous work. A strong developer will have a portfolio of finished apps — ideally available on the App Store or Google Play. Look for projects similar in scope or domain to yours.
In the meeting, don’t just nod at screenshots. Ask them to walk you through the development process of one of their projects: what challenges came up, how they solved them, what they’d do differently. How they explain their own work tells you a great deal about how they’ll communicate with you throughout yours.
Consider this
If you have a technical contact — even a friend studying computer science — ask whether they’d be willing to sit in on the conversation. An extra set of informed eyes is invaluable when you’re evaluating someone outside your own expertise.
The questions that really matter
Forget brain teasers and whiteboard problems. For a small organisation hiring a single developer, the most revealing questions are about planning, communication, and accountability.
- How will you communicate your progress to us? Daily updates? Weekly milestones? Ask them to propose a structure — and watch whether they can define specific, demonstrable checkpoints.
- Given this project, what’s your time estimate for the full build? A good developer won’t give you a number off the top of their head. They’ll ask for time to review the spec, and then come back with a broken-down estimate.
- How would you divide this project into phases? Can you walk us through each one and give time estimates per section?
- How far in advance will you let us know if a deadline is at risk?
- What are the expected costs — broken down between labour and any infrastructure, licences, or third-party services?
- What ongoing maintenance will be required after launch? Will the infrastructure scale if user numbers grow?
- How will bugs be handled post-launch? What does your process look like when something breaks?
- Have you submitted apps to the App Store or Google Play before? Are you comfortable handling that process?
- Can you explain the core technical approach in plain language — as if explaining it to someone non-technical?
What good answers look like
The strongest candidates won’t bluster through uncertainty. They’ll acknowledge what they don’t yet know, commit to finding out, and give you a timeline for getting back to you. Estimation is a genuine skill — the best developers can break a project into components and give you reasoned numbers for each one.
Green flag: “I’d need to look at the full spec before giving you a firm number. Can I take a few days and come back with a phased breakdown?” — This shows maturity and honesty.
Red flag: “It’ll take a couple of months.” — Vague, uncommitted, and shows no instinct for structured delivery.
Red flag: “You’d really need to be a developer to understand why I can’t answer that.” — A strong developer can translate technical constraints into plain language. If they won’t, that’s the whole interview right there.
If you’re still unsure
Third-party technical screening services — such as Karat — exist specifically for situations like this. They provide experienced engineers to conduct technical vetting on behalf of companies that don’t have that capacity in-house. If budget allows and the stakes are high, it’s worth exploring.
Alternatively, a small paid trial task — fixing a minor bug in an existing project, for example — gives you a concrete sample of their work before you commit.
The bottom line
Technical interviews are only one part of hiring a developer. For small organisations, communication style, transparency about uncertainty, and structured thinking about delivery are often more predictive of success than any specific framework knowledge. Ask the questions above, and trust your read on how they handle the ones they can’t immediately answer.
