At 3 years of experience in PHP development we would expect that the developer has advanced more than just writing PHP code. They should have some experience in maintaining real applications, working with databases, fixing bugs, use or have knowledge on some frameworks etc.
Three years doesn’t mean all PHP developer would have worked in same technology. Based on job they could have worked in CMS like WordPress, Frameworks like Laravel, codeigniter or a custom PHP application. In the backend, experience with APIs is commonly expected.
What kind of exposure should we reasonably expect from someone with three years of PHP development experience?
What Does Three Years of PHP Experience Usually Mean?
A developer with 3 years experience has probably worked on some real world web application and exposed to following –
- Developing new features
- Fixing bugs
- Working with databases
- Creating or consuming APIs
- Implementing authentication and authorization
- Working with a PHP framework
- Integrating third-party services
- Using Git with a development team
- Debugging application problems
- Deploying or supporting applications in some capacity
However, the amount of responsibility can vary considerably. For example, someone might have worked closely on existing application under a senior’s supervision. Another might have worked on developing some new feature or database queries on their own.
That difference matters. Because, in the interview for experienced developers you will not be tested if you have memorized the PHP functions and definitions. Questions will be asked if you understand the technology and services you are working with and whether you can solve problems independently.
What Exposure Should We Expect in 3 years experience developer?
Before looking at specific concepts, let’s consider what a typical three-year PHP developer may have encountered during their work.
Working With existing PHP Application
They should have experience working inside an existing PHP codebase rather than only creating small programs.
They may have had to understand existing classes, functions, database queries, configuration, authentication, business logic and application flow.
They should be comfortable in working in an unfamiliar PHP project.
Working With a Database
Most PHP applications depend a lot on a relational database.
A three-year developer has probably worked with MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or a similar database and should have experience get, insert and update data.
Using a Framework
Professional PHP development commonly involves a framework. Laravel and Symfony are examples, although developers may have experience with other frameworks or custom frameworks.
A developer with three years of experience should be able to explain not just how they use their framework, but also understand some of the ideas behind it. Like MVC architecture and why its beneficial.
If they use dependencies, then questions about why dependency injection is useful can be expected.
Working With APIs
Many modern PHP applications communicate with other systems.
A developer with 3 years experience may have built REST APIs, consumed third-party APIs, integrated payment providers, worked with webhooks, or connected a frontend application to a PHP backend.
This means they should have some practical understanding of HTTP, JSON, authentication, status codes and handling failures.
Debugging Real Problems
Three years of experience in PHP should also mean exposure to problems that do not appear in simple tutorials.
- A feature may work locally but fail in production.
- A database query may become slow as the amount of data grows.
- An API may occasionally return an error.
- A user may report that something works for one account but not another.
A developer does not need to have encountered every possible problem, but they should have developed a reasonable approach to investigating problems.
Working as Part of a Team
Experience with Git and working with other developers is expected from 3 years experience developer.
They may have experience with branches, pull requests, code reviews, merge conflicts, development and production environments, and some form of deployment process.
The depth of knowledge will be different for each. A developer may use Git every day without being responsible for deployments or infrastructure.
Interview questions will be asked to distinguish a developer who have just ‘used a technology‘ vs ‘understands technology well enough to work independently‘.