Hiring guide for Elixir Deployment Engineers

Elixir Deployment Developer Hiring Guide

Elixir Deployment is a dynamic, functional programming language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications. It was developed by José Valim in 2011 with an aim to enhance the features offered by the Erlang VM, which is known for its low-latency, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems. Elixir uses the syntax of Ruby and the power of Erlang to provide a high level of abstraction without sacrificing performance or maintainability. It has gained popularity in the tech industry for its immense support in metaprogramming, polymorphism, and concurrency. Its robustness and scalability make it a preferred choice for web development and embedded software among developers worldwide.

Ask the right questions secure the right Elixir Deployment talent among an increasingly shrinking pool of talent.

First 20 minutes

General Elixir Deployment app knowledge and experience

The first 20 minutes of the interview should seek to understand the candidate's general background in Elixir Deployment application development, including their experience with various programming languages, databases, and their approach to designing scalable and maintainable systems.

What is the main use of Elixir in web development?
Elixir is mainly used in web development for building scalable and maintainable applications, thanks to its fault-tolerant and concurrent nature.
How would you install Elixir in a Linux environment?
You can install Elixir in a Linux environment using package managers like apt or yum. For example, 'sudo apt-get install elixir' would install Elixir on a system with apt.
What are some of the advantages of using Elixir for web development?
Some advantages of using Elixir for web development include its scalability, concurrency, fault tolerance, and the ability to build real-time distributed systems.
Describe the difference between Elixir and Erlang.
Elixir and Erlang are both functional programming languages that run on the BEAM virtual machine. However, Elixir provides a more modern and approachable syntax, as well as powerful metaprogramming capabilities.
How would you handle errors in Elixir?
In Elixir, errors are typically handled using the 'let it crash' philosophy. This means that instead of trying to catch and handle every possible error, you design your system to be fault-tolerant and to recover from errors automatically.
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What you’re looking for early on

Does the candidate have a solid understanding of Elixir and its ecosystem?
Can the candidate demonstrate experience with deployment tools and practices?
How well does the candidate understand distributed systems?
Is the candidate able to solve problems and debug issues effectively?

Next 20 minutes

Specific Elixir Deployment development questions

The next 20 minutes of the interview should focus on the candidate's expertise with specific backend frameworks, their understanding of RESTful APIs, and their experience in handling data storage and retrieval efficiently.

What are Elixir's GenServer and Supervisor modules used for?
GenServer is a behaviour module for implementing the server of a client-server relation, and Supervisor is a behaviour module for implementing fault-tolerant supervision trees.
How would you deploy an Elixir application using Docker?
To deploy an Elixir application using Docker, you would first need to create a Dockerfile that describes how to build a Docker image for your application. Then, you can use Docker commands to build the image and run it as a container.
Describe the difference between Elixir's mix and hex tools.
Mix is a build tool that provides tasks for creating, compiling, and testing Elixir projects, managing its dependencies, and more. Hex is a package manager that is suitable for adding packages as dependencies to your projects.
What are some strategies for handling state in Elixir?
State in Elixir can be handled using processes, which can maintain their own state. You can also use ETS (Erlang Term Storage) or databases to store state.
How would you implement real-time features in an Elixir web application?
Real-time features in an Elixir web application can be implemented using the Phoenix framework's channels and PubSub system, which allow for real-time communication between the server and clients.
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The ideal back-end app developer

What you’re looking to see on the Elixir Deployment engineer at this point.

At this point, a skilled Elixir Deployment engineer should demonstrate strong problem-solving abilities, proficiency in Elixir Deployment programming language, and knowledge of software development methodologies. Red flags include lack of hands-on experience, inability to articulate complex concepts, or unfamiliarity with standard coding practices.

Digging deeper

Code questions

These will help you see the candidate's real-world development capabilities with Elixir Deployment.

What does the following Elixir code do?
IO.puts "Hello, World!"
This code prints the string 'Hello, World!' to the console.
What will be the output of the following Elixir code?
IO.inspect({:ok, "Hello"})
This code will print the tuple {:ok, "Hello"} to the console. IO.inspect is used for debugging as it returns its argument unchanged and prints it to the console.
What does the following Elixir code do?
list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Enum.map(list, fn x -> x * 2 end)
This code multiplies each element of the list by 2. Enum.map is a function that applies a given function to each item in an enumerable and returns a list of results.
What does the following Elixir code do?
spawn(fn -> 1 + 2 end)
This code creates a new process in Elixir. The spawn function creates a new process that executes the given function. In this case, the function is a simple addition operation.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for Elixir Deployment Developer role questions

The final few questions should evaluate the candidate's teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, assess their knowledge of microservices architecture, serverless computing, and how they handle Elixir Deployment application deployments. Inquire about their experience in handling system failures and their approach to debugging and troubleshooting.

Describe the difference between Elixir's Agent and GenServer.
Both Agent and GenServer are used for state management in Elixir. However, Agent is simpler and only provides functionality for storing state, while GenServer also allows you to handle synchronous and asynchronous calls.
What are some ways to optimize performance in Elixir?
Performance in Elixir can be optimized by taking advantage of its concurrency features, using efficient data structures, minimizing IO operations, and using tools like the Erlang profiler.
How would you handle distributed computing in Elixir?
Elixir has built-in support for distributed computing. You can use features like distributed tasks and the global module to run processes and store state across multiple nodes.

Elixir Deployment application related

Product Perfect's Elixir Deployment development capabilities

Beyond hiring for your Elixir Deployment engineering team, you may be in the market for additional help. Product Perfect provides seasoned expertise in Elixir Deployment projects, and can engage in multiple capacities.