InstaTalent
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Hire backend developers who already passed an interview.

Backend developers build the services behind your product: APIs, business logic, databases, background jobs and the security and monitoring that keep them running. Every backend developer on InstaTalent took a 25-minute spoken interview pitched at their level, and a person on our team reviewed it before the profile went live.

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  • 25-minute spoken interview
  • Pre-vetted: AI-interviewed, human-reviewed
  • Salary and availability up front
  • Pay only when a candidate says yes

When to hire a backend developer

  • Your product needs new APIs, integrations or data models faster than your team can ship them.
  • Outages, slow queries or security questions keep landing on the same one or two people.
  • You are splitting a monolith, moving to the cloud or scaling past what the first version was built for.

Skills you’ll find

Node.jsPythonPHP and LaravelJavaGoPostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBREST and GraphQLDockerCloud

What every profile shows

  • Interview result by skill
  • Level and experience
  • Skills and headline
  • Estimated English level (CEFR)
  • Salary range (USD / month)
  • Availability and notice
  • Time zone and work arrangement

Names show as first name and initial. Contact details, CV and the interview recording are shared once the candidate accepts your introduction.

{The interview}

How we interview backend developers

A 25-minute spoken interview with our AI interviewer, pitched at the level the candidate chose. Questions are drawn at random for each interview and followed up with questions about the candidate’s own work, so answers can’t be rehearsed. Each skill is scored against written anchors for that level, and a person on our team reviews the interview before the profile goes live.

  • 40%

    Experience and behaviour

  • 40%

    Spoken technical questions

  • 20%

    Spoken English (CEFR estimate)

What we assess, by level

The same four skills at every level, with the bar set for that level. These are the standards our interviewer scores against and what a strong answer looks like.

Junior backend developer

About 0–2 years, including first jobs, internships, bootcamps and self-taught

Backend engineering
Designs and builds backend services and APIs: routes and endpoints, request handling, structure of the code, integration with other services.
Strong: Has built a complete small API end to end on their own (routes, validation, database, errors) and explains clearly how a request flows through it and why they structured it that way.
Data and databases
Models and stores data well: schema or document design, queries, migrations, performance and keeping data correct and consistent.
Strong: Designs a clean simple data model with sensible relationships, explains their choices, and notices basic problems such as duplicates, missing values or too many queries.
Reliability and security
Makes backend systems dependable and safe: testing, error handling, logging and monitoring, debugging, and security basics such as input validation, secrets and access control.
Strong: Handles errors and input deliberately, has written some tests, logs useful information, knows basics such as hashing passwords, and explains how they found and fixed a real bug.
Ownership and collaboration
Takes responsibility for their work, communicates clearly, asks for and gives help, handles feedback and works well with other developers, designers and product people, including remotely.
Strong: Shows strong initiative in learning, communicates clearly about progress and blockers, works smoothly with others on a shared project and reflects honestly on what they would improve.

Mid-level backend developer

About 2–5 years of professional work

Backend engineering
Designs and builds backend services and APIs: routes and endpoints, request handling, structure of the code, integration with other services.
Strong: Owns substantial production services: clear structure, deliberate use of caching, queues and auth, safe API changes, and explains trade-offs without being prompted.
Data and databases
Models and stores data well: schema or document design, queries, migrations, performance and keeping data correct and consistent.
Strong: Models data deliberately, investigates query performance with evidence, runs migrations safely on live data and reasons clearly about concurrency and consistency.
Reliability and security
Makes backend systems dependable and safe: testing, error handling, logging and monitoring, debugging, and security basics such as input validation, secrets and access control.
Strong: Builds reliability in: a clear testing strategy, useful monitoring and alerts, calm methodical incident handling, follow-up fixes and security considered by default.
Ownership and collaboration
Takes responsibility for their work, communicates clearly, asks for and gives help, handles feedback and works well with other developers, designers and product people, including remotely.
Strong: Drives outcomes beyond their tasks, resolves disagreements with evidence, helps teammates grow and works smoothly with remote and cross-functional colleagues.

Senior backend developer

5+ years, including leading work or mentoring others

Backend engineering
Designs and builds backend services and APIs: routes and endpoints, request handling, structure of the code, integration with other services.
Strong: Designs systems deliberately for change, scale and cost; explains boundaries, communication patterns and trade-offs unprompted, including decisions they would now reverse.
Data and databases
Models and stores data well: schema or document design, queries, migrations, performance and keeping data correct and consistent.
Strong: Leads large data migrations without downtime, designs data ownership across services, reasons precisely about consistency, scaling and recovery, with real examples.
Reliability and security
Makes backend systems dependable and safe: testing, error handling, logging and monitoring, debugging, and security basics such as input validation, secrets and access control.
Strong: Raises the reliability and security of whole systems: clear targets, observability that answers new questions, calm incident leadership, lasting follow-ups and security designed in from the start.
Ownership and collaboration
Takes responsibility for their work, communicates clearly, asks for and gives help, handles feedback and works well with other developers, designers and product people, including remotely.
Strong: Multiplies the team: mentors effectively, raises engineering quality, influences decisions with clear written proposals and evidence, and works smoothly across teams and time zones.

How hiring works

  1. 01

    Browse interviewed talent

    Filter by role, level, interview result, English level, budget, availability and time zone.

  2. 02

    Read the evidence

    See how each candidate did in the interview, their strengths and what to explore next.

  3. 03

    Ask for an introduction

    Share the role and salary range. Candidates answer within 72 hours; a decline costs you nothing.

  4. 04

    Talk directly

    Once they accept: name, contact details, CV and the full interview recording and transcript.

Questions, answered

Candidates work in Node.js, Python, PHP, Java and Go, usually with PostgreSQL, MySQL or MongoDB. Each profile lists the candidate’s stack, and the interview asks about systems they built themselves.

Designing APIs and services, modelling and querying data, and making systems reliable and secure: testing, error handling, monitoring and incidents. It also covers ownership and collaboration, and estimates spoken English. Each area is scored against written anchors for the candidate’s level.

Yes. Senior interviews expect candidates to explain trade-offs in services and data at scale, how they handle failures in production, and how they lead technical decisions, and they are judged against senior anchors.

Each candidate takes a 25-minute spoken interview with our AI interviewer, pitched at their role and level. Questions are drawn at random and followed up with questions about their own work, so answers can’t be rehearsed. A person on our team then reviews every interview before the profile goes live. You see bands and evidence, never a ranking by an AI score alone.

The Free plan includes one introduction a month; paid plans include more. An introduction only counts when the candidate accepts it, and there are no placement fees when you hire.

Yes. Every profile shows the candidate’s time zone and how they want to work (remote, hybrid, on-site or open to relocating), and you can filter by both.

You do. The AI gathers evidence and our team checks quality, but every hiring decision is made by people at your company.

Other roles

Meet backend developers with the interview already done.

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