Some Node Skills to Explore

We are hiring a bunch of Node.js developers at the moment. You may be as well. I'm sure you have a good list of skills that you're looking for in developers that join your posse. Here are a few technical things I think about when getting the opportunity to sit down with a Node developer.

What might you add to the list?

Async Programming

• What are options for async flow control? Favorites? Least? Pros? Cons?
• Node event loop -- How does it work? What applications does it fit?

Error Handling

• Limitations/advantages in handling async errors?
• Handle errors in Promises?
• Handle errors in callbacks?
• What errors should be thrown?

Functional

• What is immutability? Why want it?
• Basic Array.prototype methods?
• What does shared state give you?
• Advantages to pure functions?
• Applications of higher-order functions?

API

• Specifically, how does CORS work?
• Familiar with which request and response formats? Favorite? Worst? Why?
• How does middleware work? When do you like to use it?

Ops

• How can you use all CPUs on a server?
• How to associate logs together with a single request path?
• How to recover from fatal errors?
• How do you load per-environment configuration?
• How do you handle versioning of your apps and libs?

Modules

• Why use modules?
• How do you organize your API apps' modules?
• Flavors of exports? When do use each?

ES Next

• Which new features have you used? Like, not like?
• async/await - Used instead of what?
• Object literal extensions - How used?
• Spread operator - Helpful usecases?
• Arrow functions - What do they help with?