Complete Hiring Guide
Everything You Need to Know
Solana development requires Rust — a language with a steep learning curve and a much smaller developer pool than Solidity.
The Anchor Framework
Most production Solana programs are written using Anchor — a framework that abstracts much of the low-level Solana program boilerplate. An Anchor-proficient developer can build Solana programs significantly faster than one working with native Solana. Require Anchor proficiency, not just Rust proficiency.
Key Anchor concepts to verify in an interview:
- Account validation macros (`#[account]`, `#[derive(Accounts)]`) and what they prevent
- How Anchor handles CPI (Cross-Program Invocations) and why CPI signer seeds matter for security
- The difference between `has_one`, `constraint`, and `seeds` in account validation
The Most Common Failure Mode
Solana developers from an Ethereum background who have not fully internalized Solana's account model. In Solana, programs do not store state internally — they operate on external accounts that must be passed into each instruction. A developer who thinks in Ethereum's storage model will design Solana programs incorrectly — resulting in either non-functional code or security vulnerabilities in account validation.