• Origin story: Miško Hevery, a software developer at Google, built a side project to make his internal projects of building web applications more efficient. This side project later became known as AngularJS. The name angular came from the angular brackets in HTML. Misko, along with a few others, started to create a few more internal apps with AngularJS and eventually released it as an open-source project in 2010.
• Widely popular: The United States has the most number of websites developed using Angular (65K+), followed by Taiwan(45K+) and Russia(30K+).
• Used by top companies: Top companies like Google, Microsoft, Autodesk, MacDonald’s, Adobe, GoPro, ProtonMail, Upwork, Udemy, YouTube, Paypal, Nike, Telegram, AWS, etc. use Angular.
• Other trivia: The purpose of Angular was to make static HTML- based documents into dynamic content. But, Google’s release of Angular 2+ in 2016 was so radical that it seemed like a complete rewrite that forced a lot of companies to migrate to other JavaScript frameworks like React. The team later in updates introduced migration techniques and tools to make the transition from Angular less painful.

• Dependency Handling: Angular makes it easy to arrange dynamic loading and dependencies and utilizes them as required without having to worry about instances and namespaces.
• Robust and secure: Angular has features like filters, data binding, scope management, directives, API client, and form validation that make the web applications more straightforward and easy to detect & troubleshoot bugs.

Here are some of the tools that Angular developers make use of:

1. Angular IDE

Made by CodeMix, Angular IDE is the first choice for development for both beginners as well as experienced Angular developers. It offers highly useful features including real-time validation and auto-completion of code.

2. Protractor

This is an end-to-end testing tool that is specialized for Angular and AngularJS development. It automatically syncs the web pages with the testing sessions, a unique feature that ensures a thorough testing experience.

3. NG-Inspector

NG-Inspector is a browser extension that helps you to test and debug your code comfortably from your browser. It can be used on Safari and Google Chrome to test the hierarchy of Angular scope on the page.

4. Restangular

When there is a heavy dependence on the data from REST APIs, Restangular is a must-have tool. It powers commands that enable you to fetch data from REST APIs with minimal need for coding these commands.

5. Angular-gettext

A necessary tool for new Angular developers, Angular-gettext processes the code written and converts it into natural language. This way, developers can understand components in simple terms.

Below are some key points that we at Flexiple have learned through trial and error - a process of filtering through over 15,000 developers. You can use these in your process to hire Angular developers.

• Years of software development experience: Be specific about the technology you’re looking for and the number of years of experience needed. A proxy to years of experience can be the number of production-level apps worked on.
• Type of products built in the past: Based on the type of product you are trying to build - social network, SAAS product, etc. - you can prioritize certain developers over others.
• Exposure to specific industries: Developers who have built products in certain industries will already know key aspects of laying the foundation for a great product and will be able to predict possible problems.
• Experience working remotely: A developer with past remote work experience is an added advantage as they would have first-hand experience of everything - right from how contracts work to streamlined communication, as well as timelines and deliverables.
• Strong communication: An essential thing to look at when hiring a freelancer is excellent communication skills. Since all the interaction happens online, a freelancer should be able to effectively communicate to ensure a streamlined execution of all work.

You can check out a more detailed Angular developer job description here.

Now that you have made a quality JD, it can still be tricky to evaluate the skills of your applicants when you hire Angular developers. To help you with that, we have created a pool of questions that a good Angular developer should be comfortable with. You can check out some more Angular interview questions here.

It is important to note that the ability to answer these questions doesn't imply that you have a top quality candidate. But it definitely is a big step in that direction.

To help you navigate through these questions, we’ve categorized the interview questions in 3 parts:

A. Basic concepts: Includes all basic concepts used across languages but we've focused on their significance in Angular. This will give you an understanding of how strong their programming foundation is.

B. Advanced concepts: Includes all concepts that someone with higher expertise should know.

C. DS/Algorithm questions: To test the logical capability of the candidate.

A. Basic concepts

How is Angular 7 different from AngularJS?

Angular and AngularJS are two entirely different and unrelated frontend frameworks, although both are built by Google and have the same prefix in their name. AngularJS was released in 2010 and it was eventually replaced by Angular. Angular 7 is the latest version of Angular.

Angular is a TypeScript based development platform whereas AngularJS is a JavaScript-based platform.

Angular 7 comes with powerful methods to easily build frontend applications. These features include support for two-way data binding, Angular Elements, CLI workspaces, Extended library support, Animation improvements, RxJS, etc.

What is two-way binding?

Two-way binding is a common Angular 7 interview question. It is a process in Angular that gives components a way to share data between the component class and its template. In essence, if the data is changed in one place it will automatically change the data at the other end.

Two-way binding is commonly used to listen for events and update values between parent and child components.

This is yet another very common Angular 7 interview question.

B. Advanced concepts

What is metadata?

Metadata is used to decorate a class and hence it is always represented in the decorator. This helps the class exhibit the desired behavior.

The below code is an example of using metadata in Class decorators:

import { NgModule, Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'new-component',
  template: '
Class decorator
',
})
export class NewComponent {
  constructor() {
    console.log('This is a new component!');
  }
}

@NgModule({
  imports: [],
  declarations: [],
})
export class NewModule {
  constructor() {
    console.log('This is a new Module');
  }
}

What are pipes in Angular? Explain with an example.

Pipes receive input data and transform it into the desired output so that it can be displayed properly.

Example - In the below code we have used the DatePipe to display a date in the desired format.

import { Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-birthday',
  template: `
Date is {{ birthday | date }}
`
})
export class BirthdayComponent {
  day = new Date(2021, 7, 21); // July 7, 2021
}

C. Data Structure/ Algorithm

1. Given a string containing just the characters '(', ')', '{', '}', '[' and ']', determine if the input string is valid. An input string is valid if: Open brackets must be closed by the same type of brackets. Open brackets must be closed in the correct order. Note that an empty string is also considered valid.

class ValidParenthesesFunc {
    func isValid(_ s: String) -> Bool {
        var sta = [Character]()

        for char in s {
            if char == "(" || char == "[" || char == "{" {
                sta.append(char)
            } else if char == ")" {
                guard sta.count != 0 && sta.removeLast() == "(" else {
                    return false
                }
            } else if char == "]" {
                guard sta.count != 0 && sta.removeLast() == "[" else {
                    return false
                }
            } else if char == "}" {
                guard sta.count != 0 && sta.removeLast() == "{" else {
                    return false
                }
            }
        }
        return sta.isEmpty
    }
}

The above code will input 0(false). 

2. What will the output of the following code be?

var p = 10;
var q = 5;
var r = 3;
if (p / q / r)
     document.write("hi");
else
    document.write("hello");

a) hi
b) hello
c) error
d) no output

The answer is A because the floating-point division returns a non zero value = 0.66 which evaluates
to true and outputs ‘hi’.

3. What will the output of the following code be?

var a = 2;
var b = 4;
var c = 6;
if (a > b > c)
     document.write("true");
else
    document.write("false");

The answer is False. It may look like the output can be true because 6 > 4 > 2 is true, but PHP evaluates $z > $y 
first, which returns a boolean value of 1 or true. This value (true or 1) is compared to the 
next integer in the chain, bool(1) > $z, which will result in NULL and echo “false.”

That is everything you need to know about hiring a freelance Angular developer. As discussed, it isn't easy to find a quality freelance Angular developer but this guide makes the process easier for you. To offload the entire hiring process, reach out to us at Flexiple. We've designed a high-quality, 6-step screening process to find the top 1%, freelance developers. You can find the best freelance Angular developers here. We've already served over a hundred clients, earning great reviews for the quality of service.

Lastly, to quickly summarize it for you:

• Note your project requirements and hire accordingly. Do not go for the lowest or the highest-paid developer.
• Don’t hire without vetting- consider asking questions right from the basics to advanced to logical questions.
• Look for companies like Flexiple that help you find the perfect fit.

That's about all you need to know to hire Angular developers. Happy hiring! :)