Hire Java developers by skill

Which screening questions work for Java roles?

Screening questions go out by email right after a candidate enters the pipeline. Answers are scored against the skill matrix, with a written reason. Here are three from the Java library.

1. Q1 Tell us about a concurrency bug you found in a Java service. How did you prove the fix?
2. Q2 When do you choose plain JDBC over JPA?
3. Q3 How do you keep a large Spring codebase from turning into one big module?

What does the Java coding task look like?

Inventory reservation service. Build a service that reserves stock for orders, never oversells under concurrent requests, and releases expired holds. Time limit 90 minutes.

1. Model stock and reservations
2. Make reservations safe under concurrent calls
3. Release holds older than 15 minutes
4. Test with parallel requests

@Transactional
public Reservation reserve(String sku, int qty) {
    Stock stock = repo.lockBySku(sku);
    if (stock.available() < qty) throw new OutOfStock(sku);
    return reservations.save(stock.hold(qty, clock.now()));
}

Running hidden tests
passed 9 of 11
failed never_oversells_in_parallel, releases_expired_hold

How much does a Java developer cost?

Pay varies a lot by country, city, seniority and company. Public salary surveys show broad yearly ranges like these for mid-level to senior Java developers. Treat them as a starting point and check current surveys for your market.

Java roles in finance and large enterprises often pay above the middle of the range, especially with messaging and cloud experience.