Top 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a React Native Developer

Hiring the wrong React Native developer does not just waste money — it can set your entire project back by months. The good news is that a well-structured interview process filters out bad candidates early and surfaces the genuinely skilled ones. Whether you are looking for a freelance mobile developer, a dedicated developer, or a whole team through an app development company, these ten questions will help you separate talent from talk.

Why Interviewing Matters More Than CVs

A CV tells you what someone claims to know. An interview tells you what they actually understand. In the world of mobile app development, the gap between those two things can be enormous. React Native moves fast — libraries deprecate, best practices shift, and new patterns emerge every quarter. A developer who learnt the framework three years ago and has not kept pace is a liability, no matter how impressive their CV looks. These questions are designed to expose that gap.

Question 1: Can You Walk Me Through a React Native App You Built From Scratch?

This is your opening move, and it is deliberately broad. You are not looking for a rehearsed pitch — you are listening for depth. A strong candidate will talk about the problems they solved: how they structured navigation, how they handled state across screens, how they dealt with platform-specific quirks on iOS versus Android. A weak candidate will recite a feature list without explaining any of the technical decisions behind it.

What to listen for: Specificity. Real developers remember the friction points. They remember the bug that took three days to track down and the architectural shortcut they almost took.

Question 2: How Do You Approach Performance Optimisation in React Native?

React Native apps can feel sluggish if the developer does not actively prevent it. This question reveals whether performance is an afterthought or a discipline. Strong answers mention techniques like React.memo, FlatList virtualisation, lazy loading, reducing bridge traffic, and profiling with tools like Flipper or React Native Debugger.

What to listen for: A developer who treats performance as something to bolt on at the end is going to cost you time and money in the polish phase. You want someone who optimises as they build.

Question 3: How Do You Handle State Management in a Complex App?

State management is one of the most consequential architectural decisions in any React Native project. Redux, Context API, MobX, Zustand, Jotai — each has trade-offs, and the right choice depends on app size, team size, and data-flow complexity. A seasoned React Native developer will not just name a library; they will explain why they chose it for a particular project and how it scaled as the app grew.

What to listen for: Nuance. If they say “I always use Redux” without qualification, they are not thinking critically about the problem. The best developers match the tool to the context.

Question 4: What Is Your Experience With Native Modules?

React Native is 80–95% JavaScript, but that remaining 5–20% can be the difference between a good app and a great one. Native modules let developers tap into device hardware — the camera, Bluetooth, sensors — or squeeze out performance that JavaScript simply cannot deliver. If your app needs any of these capabilities, you need a developer who has written or integrated native modules before, ideally in both Swift (for iOS) and Kotlin (for Android).

What to listen for: Hands-on experience, not just theoretical knowledge. Ask them to describe a specific native module they built and why React Native’s built-in options were not enough.

Question 5: How Do You Ensure Your Code Is Testable and Maintainable?

A developer who writes code only they can understand is a ticking time bomb. This question probes their discipline around code quality, testing practices, and long-term maintainability. Strong candidates talk about unit tests with Jest, component tests, end-to-end tests with tools like Detox, clean folder structures, and meaningful code documentation. They understand that the app will outlive their involvement and that someone else — or a future version of themselves — will need to work in the codebase.

What to listen for: A testing philosophy, not just a testing tool. The best developers treat tests as a safety net that frees them to move faster, not as a tick-box exercise.

Question 6: How Do You Stay Current With React Native Updates and Best Practices?

The React Native ecosystem evolves rapidly. A developer who stopped learning two years ago is already out of date. This question reveals whether they are actively engaged with the community — following the official blog, contributing to open-source projects, attending conferences or meetups, reading release notes, and experimenting with new APIs.

What to listen for: Specific examples. “I follow the React Native blog” is not enough. “I noticed the new architecture rollout last quarter and built a test app to understand the impact” — that is the kind of answer that signals genuine commitment.

Question 7: Can You Describe Your Experience With App Store Deployment?

Building an app is one thing. Getting it through Apple’s App Store review and Google Play’s automated checks is another. Developers who have navigated app-store submissions understand the pitfalls: provisioning profiles, code signing, screenshot requirements, privacy-policy obligations, and the dreaded rejection email. If your developer has never shipped an app to production, expect delays at the finish line.

What to listen for: At least two or three successful submissions — ideally with at least one rejection they had to debug and resubmit. Rejections teach more than smooth rides.

Question 8: How Would You Architect an App That Needs to Work Offline?

Offline capability is a common requirement for mobile apps, and it is technically demanding. The developer needs to understand data synchronisation strategies, local storage options (AsyncStorage, SQLite, Realm), conflict resolution when the device reconnects, and how to keep the UI responsive whilst the network is unavailable. This question also reveals how they think about edge cases — the situations that separate robust apps from fragile ones.

What to listen for: A structured approach to the problem, not just a tool recommendation. Architecture questions have no single right answer; you want to see how they think.

Question 9: How Do You Handle Security in a Mobile Application?

Security is non-negotiable, especially for apps that handle user data, payments, or health information. A strong React Native developer knows about secure token storage (not plain AsyncStorage), SSL pinning, input validation, dependency auditing, and platform-specific security features like the iOS Keychain and Android Keystore.

What to listen for: Awareness of the threat landscape, not just a checklist of tools. Developers who can explain why a particular security measure matters are far more valuable than those who simply follow a template.

Question 10: What Questions Do You Have About This Project?

This final question flips the dynamic — and it is often the most revealing. A developer who asks zero questions is either overconfident or disengaged. The best candidates ask about business goals, user personas, scaling expectations, existing infrastructure, and long-term roadmap. They are already thinking about how to build the right thing, not just how to build a thing.

What to listen for: Questions that demonstrate they are thinking beyond the current sprint. A developer who asks “What problem does this app solve for the user?” before asking “What is the tech stack?” is someone who will build a better product.

Putting It All Together: The Interview Scorecard

Score each candidate on a scale of one to five across these dimensions after walking through the ten questions:

Technical depth and accuracy
Communication clarity
Problem-solving approach
Awareness of current best practices
Genuine curiosity about your project
Evidence of shipped, production-grade work

The candidate with the highest aggregate score — not necessarily the one with the most impressive job title — is almost certainly your best hire. Cross-reference the interview with a short paid technical trial (two to four hours of real work) and you have a hiring process that rival companies would envy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I ask the same questions to freelancers and agency developers? Yes, with one addition for agency interviews: ask who specifically will be working on your project day to day. The person you interview at an agency is often not the person who writes your code.

How long should the interview take? Plan for 45 to 60 minutes. Rushing through ten substantive questions leads to shallow answers and missed red flags.

What if a candidate does not know the answer to one of these questions? One gap is fine — nobody knows everything. Two or more gaps in core areas (testing, security, deployment) should make you pause. Honesty about gaps is better than bluffing, but the gaps themselves matter.