How to Hire a Software Developer: 10 Questions to Ask Before Signing

Non-technical founders get burned by developers all the time. The pattern is always the same: you find someone on Upwork or through a referral, they seem competent, you agree on a price, and then three months later you have a half-built app, an empty bank account, and no source code.

I'm a freelance developer telling you how to evaluate freelance developers. Yes, this is self-serving — but I'd rather compete against higher standards than race to the bottom.

Here are the 10 questions I wish every client asked me before signing. The good developers will have clear answers. The bad ones will dodge.

1. "Can you show me 2-3 live projects you built?" Not mockups. Not designs. Live, working software that real people use. If they can't show you something live, they haven't shipped. Ask for URLs and poke around — does the app actually work? Is it fast?

2. "What tech stack will you use and why?" The answer should reference YOUR requirements, not their preferences. "I'll use React because your app needs fast, interactive UI and it's easy to hire React developers later" is a good answer. "I always use React" is a bad answer.

3. "How will you handle authentication and security?" This is a trap question. If they say "I'll build it myself," run. Authentication should use a battle-tested service (Clerk, Supabase Auth, Auth0). Any developer building custom auth in 2026 is either inexperienced or reckless.

4. "What's your deployment plan?" They should mention: hosting provider, CI/CD pipeline, environment management (dev/staging/prod), and monitoring. If they say "I'll deploy it to a server," ask which server, how, and who monitors it at 2 AM.

5. "How will we communicate during the project?" Weekly updates are the minimum. I do weekly video demos on Friday. They should propose a specific cadence, not just "we'll stay in touch."

6. "What happens if you get hit by a bus?" Morbid, but essential. Where is the code? Who else can access it? Is it in a private GitHub repo that you own, or on their personal machine? Your code should live in YOUR GitHub/GitLab organization from day one.

7. "How do you handle scope changes?" The right answer is a change request process with cost estimates before work begins. "We'll figure it out" means they'll either overcharge you later or cut corners to stay within the original budget.

8. "What's your testing strategy?" At minimum: manual testing of critical flows before each release. Better: automated tests for business logic. If they look confused when you ask about testing, that's your answer.

9. "Can you walk me through the architecture of your last project?" This separates developers who build from developers who copy tutorials. They should explain their decisions clearly — why they chose certain technologies, what trade-offs they made, what they'd do differently.

10. "What's your payment structure?" Red flags: 100% upfront, hourly with no cap, vague milestones. Good structure: milestone-based payments tied to deliverables. My structure: 30% upfront, 30% at midpoint demo, 40% at delivery and deployment.

Green flags: - Portfolio of live, working projects (not just screenshots) - Clear communication — responds within 24 hours, writes coherently - Asks YOU questions about the business problem before talking about technology - Provides a written proposal with scope, timeline, and cost breakdown - Uses version control (Git) and gives you repository access from day one - Has a contract that protects both sides

Red flags: - "I can build anything in any language" — Generalists rarely ship quality - No portfolio or only Figma mockups — If they haven't shipped, they can't ship yours - Won't show code samples — Why not? - Quotes without asking questions — If they price your project in 5 minutes, they don't understand it - No contract or milestone structure — Protect both sides - Disappears for days without updates — This will only get worse during the project

Price expectations in India (2026): - Junior freelancer: ₹500-1,500/hour - Mid-level freelancer: ₹1,500-3,500/hour - Senior freelancer (5+ years, portfolio): ₹3,500-7,000/hour - Agency: ₹5,000-15,000/hour (but you're paying for overhead)

If someone quotes dramatically below market rate, they're either desperate or lying about their experience. Both are bad.

I'll answer my own questions so you know what good answers look like:

1. Live projects: rohitraj.tech/projects — ClinIQ AI, StellarMIND, SanatanApp, myFinancial, MicroItinerary. All live.
2. Tech stack: I recommend based on requirements. Spring Boot for complex backends, Next.js for web apps, React Native for mobile.
3. Auth: Supabase Auth or Clerk. Never custom.
4. Deployment: AWS Amplify or Vercel with CI/CD from GitHub. Staging + production environments.
5. Communication: Weekly Friday demos via video call. WhatsApp/Slack for async.
6. Bus factor: Code lives in your GitHub org. I document architecture decisions in the README.
7. Scope changes: Written change request with cost estimate. Approved before work begins.
8. Testing: Integration tests for critical paths. Manual QA before each release.
9. Architecture: Happy to walk through any project — ask me about ClinIQ AI's RAG pipeline or SanatanApp's offline-first architecture.
10. Payment: 30-30-40 milestone structure. Contract signed before work begins.

The goal isn't to find a perfect developer. It's to find one who communicates clearly, ships working software, and doesn't disappear. These 10 questions will filter out 80% of the bad ones.