Complete hiring guide for Angular developers

The hiring process, in general, is not something simple and fast, but it can be simplified with good assistance and external help. For example, referring to hiring guides like this will navigate you in the right direction regarding recruiting, interviewing, and matching with the perfect Angular developer for your business needs.

You’ll find valuable information below regarding how recruiters find and filter out applicants and applications, how assessments are done, what skills the dev must-have, and more. Additionally, we cover statistics like salaries, demand, and popularity of this framework, as well as possible challenges and how to resolve them for a successful final hiring decision.

About Angular

Angular represents an open-source, front-side, and client-side framework written in TypeScript and used mainly for single-page app building. Commonly, this framework is named Angular+2 and Angular CLI and is supported by Google. In summary, Angular is a rewritten version of Angular JS based on JavaScript.

This framework implements optional functionality as part of the numerous TypeScript libraries that the developer imports to the apps. The whole architecture uses a standard structure that provides reliability for the developers’ work.

Angular is a popular development framework due to its simplicity and ability to contribute to creating interactive websites, as well as practical and captivating UIs, through easy document transformation via HTML into more dynamic versions.

The creation of Angular was started by Adam Abrons and Misko Hevery in 2009. The first release of the original version was in 2010, with the latest version, v14, available as of June 2022.

Useful stats

In this section, we will see the valuable stats around Angular dev hiring, salaries, the future of this framework, and similar.

The average salary of an Angular dev is $103,621 annually, with the minimum pay ranging between $63K and $77k, and the highest salary is $160K annually.

According to a Stack Overflow survey of 2021, this web framework is in the top 3 most commonly used ones, with 26.23% of respondents using it. However, the opinions of professional developers still differ in terms of the ratio between those that truly like working with this framework and those that avoid it, with 55.82% preferring it and 44.18% avoiding it for their work—those that definitively want to use it are summed to 8.47%.

A fact that instill a hopeful viewpoint is that the Angular download number stats are increasing over the years, with just slight and rare downfall peaks and steady popularity afterward. Still, an even more promising and beneficial fact is that Angular is also more frequently used for app creation.

Popular brand names that rely on Angular usage

Many brand names and companies worldwide rely on Angular in their work. Some of them are:

1. Snapchat
2. Upwork
3. PayPal
4. Microsoft Office
5. Forbes
6. Gmail
7. Samsung
8. iStock—Royalty-free and stock images
9. Deutsche Bank
10. Delta Airlines

Interviewing an Angular developer

Helpful tips for a pre-screening interview

Even the most experienced hiring managers need external help, like recruiters and talent acquisition specialists. These experts are crucial for overcoming initial challenges at the beginning of the hiring process, like time management with finding suitable candidates, filtering the applications, interviewing, and ensuring no resources or time are lost.

The recruiters and talent acquisition specialists pay close attention to the abovementioned aspects. With their help, you can together decide whether or not the shortlisted candidates continue further or not, or if they are a strong fit for the company/client.

They will always focus on soft and technical skills, etiquette, experience and years of expertise, communication skills, and professionalism, so hiring managers can focus on the big picture and finalize decisions later.

Technical skills of an Angular developer

The Angular dev with great expertise needs to have extensive knowledge and possess all the technical skills, such as:

• Angular—Every aspect of this framework needs to be handled and known in-depth, with a solid understanding of components and their usages.
• Angular CLI (Command Line Interface)—With CLI, the process of installing Angular packages gets easier.
• npm (Node Package Manager)—A primary tool for installing client-side web packages like Angular.
• HTML and CSS
• TypeScript—A programming language based on JavaScript, i.e., builds on JavaScript and used for tooling improvement.
• Git—A beneficial open-source and free control system for small and large project handling.
• RxJS—A reactive programming library, independent from Angular and useful for HTTP data requests.
• RESTful API integration

We asked Abdulrahman Hashem, a frontend developer of Proxify, to tell us more about the crucial technical skills of an Angular dev:

“The Angular dev needs to be extremely proficient in HTML, CSS page structure building, and JavaScript for making those pages interactive and adaptive. They should also convert UI designs to responsive pages and understand some SEO. Also, they need expertise in SPAs (Single Page Applications) and RESTful API integration.”

Abdulrahman Hashem

Non-technical skills of an Angular developer

The non-technical skills are a vital component of the hiring process. They affect the developer primarily in terms of how well the dev will blend into the company culture and the overall relationship with the client.

Several factors are the focus point during recruiting and initial interviews. First, punctuality and presentability are essential. This is the very first impression the dev makes on the representatives and recruiters for a company. Being on time, being in a well-lit and neat environment, and using good quality equipment (camera, headset) bodes well, always.

Further, the level of English proficiency is another point to check because there should be no linguistic barriers and obstacles later on, no matter how solitary or technical the job position is.

And, it goes without saying that the personal traits of the dev, like openness and communicativeness, are another underrated but crucial asset. The dev with a curious, open, professional attitude and etiquette will likely be a good team player and communicator with everyone involved in the project.

Angular interview questions to consider

Depending on the level of expertise you need from the Angular developer, you can choose between beginner-level and pro-level questions. Here are just some question examples out of many:

1. Explain the difference between Angular and Angular.JS

Expected answer: Simply put, as the name suggests for these frameworks, Angular.JS is based on JavaScript, and Angular is based on TypeScript. These two frameworks share similarities as well, such as both of them being open-source and frontend.

Angular is based on directives and components, whereas Angular.JS functions on the MVC (model-view-controller) pattern. When it comes to being mobile-friendly, we can achieve that with Angular, but not with Angular.JS. Last but not least, among other things, Angular has a good and solid structure that enables managing large apps, but Angular.JS makes this same process difficult as the source code size increases.

In this context, it’s crucial to mention that the Angular JS long-term support has been officially discontinued as of January 2022.

2. Define AOT (ahead-of-time) compilation in Angular.

Expected answer: AOT stands for Ahead-of-time, and it represents a compiler that works with Angular HTML and TypeScript by converting them to JS code. This occurs in the build phase and is followed by the browser downloading that code to run it. We do this compiling to achieve a quick rendering speed in a browser.

The AOT is a good alternative to the Just-in-time type of compilation (code compiling right immediately before we run it in a certain browser).

3. What are annotations in Angular?

Expected answer: The annotation in Angular represents a text block that we can display over a connector or node, and we can use the annotation basically to represent an object in a textual way, through a string that’s editable at runtime. We can also use more than one annotation for adding it to a connector or node.

How do we define the text we want to display? Well, easy, through the annotation ‘content’ property.

4. What are templates in Angular?

Expected answer: The HTML snippet that directs how Angular will render a component in the app is called a template.

The views have an order in a hierarchy, and this lets us show, hide, or modify entire (complete) pages or UIs as a complete unit.

There are static and dynamic templates in Angular. The static type uses a script tag, and to start working, there has to be a type attribute (value: text/ng-template) and an id. The dynamic type depends on the runtime environment, and only when the user demands, the template gets compiled and rendered by Angular.

5. What is Angular CLI?

Expected answer: Angular CLI means ‘command-line interface’, a practical tool for initialization, developing, scaffolding, and maintenance of the apps in Angular. We do this easily, and straight from a command shell.

There are several benefits of Angular CLI, like making services, components, and modules, but with just a single line of commands. All of this means the app size will be smaller, and the process of development is simplified.

You can install CLI with an ‘npm’ package manager. Of course, it goes without saying, but, the Angular CLI is obligatory if you want to create apps in Angular.JS.

6. Elaborate on the interaction between the components parent and child

Expected answer: We use the @input decorator in the child when we have to pass the data from parent to child. When it is the other way around (passing data from child to parent), then we use @output decorator, also in the child.

Sharing data in this way is a common pattern practice in Angular.

7. How would you secure the Angular app?

Expected answer: Let’s try and simplify the steps and basic tips for securing the Angular app:

• Ensure that requests are not coming from external websites, but instead come from your app
• Double-check and ensure data sanitization
• Skip the DOM APIs and use an Angular template
• Rely on the Content Security Policy for Angular, to reduce the risk of web attacks
• Also, complete the data validation that has server-side code
• Execute compiling, but use an offline type of template compiler
• In general, skip using any external URLs
• Regarding the JSON responses, try to convert them to a non-executing format
• Regularly update frameworks and libraries

8. What can you say about the interaction of Bootstrap and Angular? Can you also elaborate on Angular Bootstrap as well?

Expected answer: Bootstrap is a super-match for Angular. It is a popular HTML framework, but it’s also a JS and CSS-compatible framework too, and it’s mostly used for frontend web development. So, due to this, Bootstrap (as a compatible framework for JS mobile and web frameworks) is a perfect match for Angular.

Angular Bootstrap, in turn, is a component for starting the Angular app, and this leads and controls the process of initialization for the app. We do this through angular.bootstrap (element, [modules], [config])

When we need to make responsive and quality designs, we basically urge Bootstrap to use JS plugins. Next to clarify now would be embedding Bootstrap into Angular, and we can do this in two ways:

• Angular Bootstrap embedding through CDN (Content Delivery Network)
• Angular Bootstrap embedding through NPM (Node Package Manager)

9. Elaborate on Angular Routing.

Expected answer: Let’s say we have a single-page app. We can easily control and alter what is visible to the user by simply controlling what to hide and show on the display with certain components. The good thing here is that we don’t need to go to the server if we need a new page. Overall, when the users execute some tasks in the app, they will move in between views, but those views are defined by the developer.

Now, the role of Angular Router really comes in handy because it’s key for navigating from one to the next view. Navigation is easily enabled when the Router starts with the interpretation of a browser URL after it was instructed to make a view change.

10. Can you say something about constructor and ngOnInit?

Expected answer: The Constructor represents a default class method, and it gets executed upon class instantiation. The Constructor secures the fields’ initialization within the entire class and the subclasses as well. The constructor parameters are analyzed in-depth by Angular, and it then continues browsing for providers that are a match for the specific parameters of the constructor. However, this is done only after Angular calls MyClass(), and once done, the providers are resolved and passed to the constructor.

Now, for ngOnInit. It represents a life cycle hook that Angular calls for, indicating that the process of component creation is finished by Angular. Still, for us to use OnInit, first we need to do a component class importing. We can do this with import {Component, OnInit} out of @angular/core.

Apart from focusing on questions like the ones suggested above, you need to ensure that you, or the recruiters/talent acquisition specialists, ask about the following:

• Git—A vital requirement for almost any project nowadays.
• Agile and project management tools—Tasks managing is a crucial part of a successful development job, so the dev must organize and prioritize their tasks accordingly, for example, with Trello and Jira.
• Testing expertise—What expertise does the dev have with functional and unit development and testing code performance.

Essentials and assessment of an Angular developer

The ideal Angular dev would need excellent experience and knowledge of the following:

• JavaScript—Eventually, the Angular app is compiled into a JavaScript bundle.
• TypeScript—Angular is also written in TypeScript, so it is recommended to know this programming language for future Angular app creation.
• HTML and CSS—For page styling, structure, and layout.
• Cypress, Jasmine, Karma—Cypress is a JS-based framework for end-to-end testing, Jasmine is a framework for testing JS code, and Karma is a tool for executing JS code into browsers.
• npm—Node Package Manager for management of third-party libraries.
• Angular CLI—Command-line interface for Angular elements management.
• RxJs—Library with observable streams, used for reactive programming, independently from Angular, but bundled within it.
• Webpack—A JS supplementary bundler for modules, crucial for Angular usage.

To this, Hashem added:

“As a developer with Angular experience, I would inquire about a quick test dealing with Angular router and lazy loading module. Then, about handling URL query parameters change with RxJS reliable stream and operators, parallel with error handling, and completed with cleaning up subscriptions to avoid memory leaking. Overall, this would take around 15 minutes.”

What distinguishes a great Angular developer from a good one?

When choosing the perfect candidate for the Angular development job position, you might face a situation where more than one candidate has an excellent background and experience. In other words, there could be some differences between the great and good dev, making it difficult to finalize the decision.

Still, despite the similarities of the great and good Angular developers, it would be obvious what traits the best one has.

The great Angular dev will have more experience with this framework, more years working with it, and more extensive usage of it in their past work experiences. Further, a great dev will not shy away from voicing their opinions where applicable—if they want to use something for improvement, they would suggest it or do it, all to reach the objectives for that Angular project.

Another thing that makes a great Angular dev stand out is the combination of their timely delivery of the work and flawless execution and quality of it. With remarkable work speed and excellent quality, they would prove to be the best candidate that should be considered for the job. You could test this before the hiring, of course, and you will see their performance through the technical and practical tests.

To sum it up, the great Angular dev needs to have the essential knowledge of dealing with new versions and updates, embedding state management libraries, differentiating between pull-based and push-based architectures of Angular, tackling RxJS stream issues, and also designing Angular architecture patterns like DDD, push-based, and similar.

Possible challenges during the hiring of an Angular developer

The obvious challenge that comes to mind is hiring an unqualified or not enough qualified Angular developer. This is a common issue, but you can avoid it aforehand with the right professionals like recruiters and talent acquisition specialists who dedicate themselves to narrowing down the pool of candidates to reach the best candidates for interviewing.

Another challenge could be that there are not enough well-qualified candidates in total, and the pool of talent is quite limited. Parallel with this, with a limited pool of the best developers in one place, candidates applying could likely inquire about a higher salary sum than you have planned. Here it is helpful to know your budget and its limitations or know how much you can go overboard or not if you urgently need to hire the best Angular dev.

Keep in mind another challenge—recruitment costs. The harder it is to find a group of candidates to interview, the longer the process will take; with this, you will likely need more resources to conduct it successfully until someone is hired.

And, last but not least, remember, it is quite likely that competitors already are doing the same as you, and perhaps are willing to offer more just to get the best developer for their company. It might not be just about the salary, but there can be other perks and benefits along with a higher salary, all guaranteeing that the developer would choose the offer with the most perks and earnings.

Why and when do you need to hire an Angular developer?

By defining the needs for growth of your business or defining which development aspects need improving, you’ll know why you need to hire the Angular developer or what that will mean for the work progress overall. Consider the following as possible reasons why you need to hire an Angular developer:

• Creation of Single Page Applications (SPAs)—The dev will create apps in a robust and efficient way
• Launching a large-scale web application
• Good offline and background support—Angular PWA (Progressive Web Apps)
• Dynamic views of web applications
• Efficient and quick full-page updating—Angular acts like a DOM (Document Object Model) that updates the whole page, regardless of the number of updates needed. Angular will cover all of these at once, instead of one by one,
• Efficient directives usage—with this feature, the dev can use Angular to create entirely new HTML syntax with certain specifications for the app.
• Easy maintenance of the codebase—There is a much better syntax structure that, in turn, makes the codebase simple to learn, understand, and maintain, all with the help of TypeScript of JS.

Benefits of Angular

Overall, there are benefits of working with Angular, both for the developer, as well as the company or client, and the whole work dynamics:

• Speed and performance—Angular serves as the first view for near-instant rendering in HTML and CSS and provides better SEO optimization and better SSR (Server Side Rendering) through Angular Universal
• Cross-platform experience—With Angular, there is the ability to build app-like experiences, offline web apps, and native mobile apps with Ionic and Cordova.
• Multiple options in an opinionated framework—Angular provides a predictable and manageable development experience with a completely integrated ecosystem too,
• Dynamic content webpages—Interactive UIs and fast adaptation to user actions.
• Enterprise web apps—Angular is perfect for enterprise web apps because TypeScript applies OOP (Object Oriented Programming) principles along with structured code and protected classes.
• CMS usage—Angular is excellent for using the CMS (Content Management System) because it fully supports the SEO apps through the Universal module.