The Central Intelligence Agency has used it for hacking, Google for crawling web pages, Pixar for producing movies and Spotify for recommending songs. – The Economist
The Economist research suggests that Python is becoming the world’s most popular programming language. Today, any business that leverages data science to build software solutions faces a creeping need for professional Python developers. According to the Hacker News’ April 2018 Hiring Trends, Python is the second most-in-demand skill after React that employers look for.
The competition for Python developers in the markets of Western Europe and North America is fierce so companies that can’t hire the necessary skills locally often partner with Python development companies in other countries. Therefore, Eastern European countries, and especially Ukraine, have become popular destinations for outsourcing Python development. Ukraine is home to the large number of software engineers with outstanding Python expertise and experience in various industries. Finding Python developers in Ukraine can be a viable option for companies who want to scale their development teams, avoid the recruitment headache, and find a reliable IT outsourcing partner.
Why is Ukraine the best country for hiring Python developers?
#1. Vast Python developer talent pool
In Ukraine, Python is among 5 most popular programming languages and Python developers make up the large part of the IT community. According to Linkedin, Ukraine boasts over 22,000 Python developers. Plus, 52% of Ukrainian software developers surveyed by DOU plan to learn this technology next year. With more people getting into Python, the talent pool will only increase.
By contrast, in the USA and the UK the demand for software engineers, especially Python developers, is currently surpassing the supply. According to Indeed, there are over 60,000 open Python jobs in the USA and the IT industry is having difficulties with finding the right specialists to meet the job requirements.
The UK IT market is expected to have more than 750,000 new digital jobs by 2020. British companies will need to train nearly 2.3 million people to meet the demand in such key areas as data analytics, machine learning, big data, cyber security, GUI, where Python is one of the required skills.
#2 Ukrainian Python developers are highly skilled in various frameworks and libraries
According to DOU survey, an average Python developer in Ukraine is 27 years old and has more than 3-year work experience. Although Python is not the most used language among developers due to the huge popularity of Java and JavaScript, it has become the second most popular programming language Ukrainian developers use as a supplementary language.
Source: DOU
Python developers in Ukraine have vast experience working with Python frameworks, libraries, extensions, and APIs. They are expert in both types of Python frameworks – Full Stack Framework and Non-Full Stack Framework. Django and Flask are the most popular frameworks among Ukrainian Python developers for web development and NumPy and SciPy are most used for data science. The variety of open source libraries help Ukrainian developers reduce software development time and automate repetitive tasks.
Here at N-iX, we have developed software with Python for a number of clients across the globe. Our portfolio of Python projects includes a range of B2B portals, cloud-based solutions, e-commerce projects, web applications, etc. N-iX Python developers have worked on the high-load information management platform for Vable, an innovative healthcare app for CureForward, a security management platform for AlienVault (AT&T company), and many other projects.
#3 Decent Python education
Python is the programming language that is taught at many Ukrainian schools. Children are encouraged to solve programming puzzles and use Python to develop simple games.
At universities, Python is on the curriculum from the first year on. Master’s programs are also designed to train students in various areas like data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. For instance, Ukrainian Catholic University offers programs in Computer Science with specialization in Data Science. The Master’s Program in Computer Science/Data Science gives knowledge and skills in programming, big data system architecture, product development, and more. A lot of other Ukrainian universities in different cities have similar programs.
Besides, there are a number of specialized courses for software developers who want to level up their Python skills. Many tech companies offer traineeship programs to prepare new hires and inspire students to embark on the career of a Python developer.
The community of Python developers in Ukraine is steadily growing. The two biggest Python clusters – Kyiv Python User Group and Lviv Python User Group – hold a number of conferences, workshops, and hackathons dedicated to Python programming language, Python applications, toolkits, and frameworks. This helps shape a vibrant community of Ukrainian Python developers where they can develop their skills and share their knowledge.
Tips to consider when looking for Python developers in Ukraine
Due to the lack of Python expertise in house, many international businesses tap into offshore tech talent pools. When it comes to hiring Python developers in Ukraine, a lot of companies face the challenge of finding a vendor they can trust. For any business that wants to outsource Python development, it is important to establish clear criteria for choosing a partner, such as solid expertise and a proven track record of successfully delivered Python projects.
Here are our 5 tips for hiring the best Python development team:
1. Review the developers’ tech qualifications
Here is the list of must-have skills an experienced Python engineer should possess:
- Fundamental knowledge of core Python concepts: Python syntax and semantics, Python built-in container data types and libraries, threading limitations and ways to overcome them, etc.
- Experience with popular Python libraries and frameworks: Django, Flask, Requests for web development; NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, TensorFlow for machine learning and data science, etc.
- Knowledge of the Python ecosystem and Python development tools such as debuggers, editors and IDEs, etc.
- General knowledge of front-end technologies like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.
- Understanding of how to integrate different data sources into a single system.
- Basic database knowledge.
- Experience of working with version control systems.
- Profound knowledge of key software testing principles.
2. Ask the right questions during the technical interview
When you choose to outsource your Python project to software development companies in Ukraine, the majority of providers will help you select the right talent to suit your needs. This includes resume screening, initial assessment of the applicant’s relevant experience, technical interviews, etc. And here come the questions that are usually asked to evaluate the technical background of Python developers during the technical interview:
- Do you know how ternary operators can be used in Python?
- Could you explain the difference between list and tuples?
- What is monkey patching? How can you do it in Python?
- Do you know the difference between deep and shallow copy?
- Could you explain how sessions work in Django/Flask?
- How to use Python’s range and xrange?
- How does Python memory management work?
- Could you explain how multithreading is achieved in Python?
- Are you familiar with pickling and unpickling processes in Python?
- What are Python decorators?
These are only a few basic Python-related questions that are most frequently asked at interviews. This list can be easily extended according to your specific project requirements.
3. Don’t forget about technical puzzles
A practical part of the interview is very important when hiring any IT specialist, including a Python engineer. Here at N-iX, we help our partners recruit the most qualified software developers and put a particular emphasis on assessing the candidate’s technical skills in real time. The important thing here is to provide an applicant with an issue we have already encountered in similar projects and ask them to provide an optimal solution to it. This way it is easier for us to decide whether the person is really the right fit for your project.
Also, by giving a candidate a simple coding task, we receive the opportunity to evaluate their programming skills and coding standards. All we need to do is to prepare the input data and specify task details to avoid miscommunication. Below, we’ve indicated a few Python programming exercises we usually task our applicants with:
- Write a Python program that swaps keys and values in the dictionary:
Input data: d = {1:2, 3:4, 5:6}
Expected output: d = {2:1, 4: 3, 6:5}
To check the applicant’s understanding of Python fundamentals, you can additionally ask the following questions: “What are the potential problems with this code?”, “Is it possible to overcome them?”, “How would you cope with them?’, etc.
- Write a Python program to count the number of occurrences of each word in the given string, starting from the most frequently used words to the least frequently used ones.
Input data: The API interface is the same as the interface for the old API
Expected output:
4 the
2 API
2 interface
1 old
1 for
1 is
1 same
1 as
- Write a Python function to find the Max of three numbers:
Input data: a= 2, b=5, c=8
Expected output: c=8
4. Consider hiring dedicated Python developers
A dedicated development team model works best for long-term projects with evolving requirements. Here at N-iX, we can gather for you a team of Python software engineers entirely focused on your project. You can define their workload and get full control over the process. This model is highly flexible and fully adaptable to the changing project needs.
The dedicated development team model is perfect for companies that do a lot of software development in-house and want to extend their team with Python developers from Ukraine for a long period of time to delegate a variety of tasks. In comparison to other cooperation models like Fixed Price and Time & Material, you get the transparent budget, the ability to manage the workload of Python developers, and change requirements as the project evolves. From our experience we know that this model brings the most tangible results for our clients when they outsource their Python software development projects to N-iX.
5. Do research on potential Python development companies
Before making a final decision about a Python development company in Ukraine, it is essential to check their portfolio of the successfully delivered projects and gather references from existing clients. You can visit some popular review platforms such as Clutch, G2Crowd, and AppFutura to gather real customer feedback about different vendors.
Besides, you can also review your potential partner in terms of industry recognition. It is important to take into consideration only those industry awards that would really help you choose the best Python development company in Ukraine.
Bringing it all together
Despite the growing popularity of Python, finding experienced Python developers is becoming more and more challenging. Thus many businesses choose to outsource their software development projects to the destinations in Eastern Europe such as Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Bulgaria, which boast an abundant supply of competent Python engineers.
Granted, hiring professional Python developers requires in-depth research and preparation. Here at N-iX, we can help you with all the recruitment processes and provide you with dedicated developers with solid Python skills. Should you have any questions regarding hiring Python developers in Ukraine, please contact our experts.
