React Native Skills

What is React Native?

React Native is an open-source framework developed by Facebook. It allows developers to build cross-platform mobile applications using JavaScript and React. React Native enables developers to write mobile apps using a single codebase that runs on both iOS and Android platforms. It offers a consistent user experience across devices.

React Native leverages native components and APIs provided by iOS and Android platforms. This allows developers to create high-performance, native-like mobile apps with the flexibility and productivity of web development.

What to use React Native for

Here are some key applications of React Native:

Mobile App Development

React Native is used for building mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms, including consumer-facing apps, enterprise apps, and internal tools. With React Native, developers can leverage a single codebase to build and deploy apps that run seamlessly on both iOS and Android devices.

Cross-Platform Development

React Native developers can write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms, saving time and effort in maintaining separate codebases for iOS and Android. Developers can also share business logic, UI components, and third-party libraries between iOS and Android apps. This streamlines the development process.

Rapid Prototyping

React Native is great for rapid prototyping and iterative development, allowing developers to quickly build and iterate. With its hot reloading feature, developers can see changes instantly reflected in the app during development. This speeds up the feedback loop and the development cycle.

Hybrid App Development

React Native can be used for building hybrid mobile apps that combine web technologies with native components. With React Native, developers can embed web views into mobile apps and leverage web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript alongside native UI components to create hybrid apps with native-like performance and functionality.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

React Native can also be used for building Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that offer a native app-like experience in the web browser. With React Native, developers can use tools like React Native Web to share code between mobile apps and web apps, enabling a seamless user experience across platforms.

Companies of all sizes use Hired to find engineers with React Native skills

What is a React Native developer?

A React Native developer is a skilled software engineer who specializes in using the React Native framework to build and maintain cross-platform mobile applications. Beyond just writing code, a React Native developer is proficient in understanding React Native’s architecture, components, and ecosystem, designing scalable and performant solutions, and collaborating effectively with other team members.

Here’s what it means to be a React Native developer:

1. Proficiency in React Native: A React Native developer is fluent in building mobile applications using React Native, including understanding React Native’s component model, navigation patterns, state management, and lifecycle methods. They are familiar with React Native’s APIs, libraries, and tooling ecosystem and know how to leverage them effectively in their projects.
2. JavaScript Expertise: React Native developers have expertise in JavaScript, including ES6+ features, functional programming, asynchronous programming, and modern JavaScript tooling like Babel, Webpack, and ESLint. They understand JavaScript’s runtime environment, event loop, and memory management, and know how to write clean, efficient, and maintainable code.
3. Mobile Development Skills: React Native developers have skills in mobile app development, including iOS and Android platform-specific concepts, APIs, and best practices. They understand mobile UI/UX design principles, performance optimization techniques, and device-specific considerations, and know how to create mobile apps that offer a native-like experience on iOS and Android devices.
4. UI/UX Design: React Native developers have skills in UI/UX design and implementation, including using React Native’s component library, styling components with CSS-like syntax, and creating responsive and accessible user interfaces. They understand design principles like layout, typography, color theory, and user interaction, and know how to create visually appealing and intuitive mobile app interfaces.
5. Cross-Platform Development: React Native developers have expertise in cross-platform development, including sharing code, assets, and resources between iOS and Android apps. They understand platform-specific differences and constraints and know how to write platform-agnostic code that runs consistently across different devices and screen sizes.

Most important React Native developer skills in 2024

Here are some of the most important skills for React Native developers in 2024:

1. React Native Performance Optimization: This includes reducing startup time, improving rendering performance, and minimizing memory usage. Developers should understand its rendering pipeline, virtual DOM reconciliation algorithm, and performance profiling tools.
2. Native Module Development: Skills in developing custom native modules for React Native apps allow developers to access platform-specific APIs and functionality that are not available out-of-the-box in React Native. They should be familiar with platform-specific development tools like Xcode and Android Studio, and know how to bridge JavaScript code with native code.
3. React Native Testing Frameworks: React Native developers need skills in writing unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests for React Native apps using testing frameworks like Jest, Detox, and React Native Testing Library. They should understand the principles of test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD), and know how to write tests that cover critical functionality and edge cases in React Native apps.
4. State Management Solutions: React Native developers should have skills in managing application states in React Native apps, including choosing and implementing appropriate state management solutions like Redux, MobX, or React Context API. They should understand the trade-offs between different state management approaches and know how to design scalable and maintainable state management architectures for React Native apps.
5. React Native Tooling and DevOps: React Native developers need skills in using React Native’s tooling ecosystem and DevOps practices for automating the software development lifecycle. They should be familiar with tools like React Native CLI, Expo, and React Native Debugger for building, debugging, and testing React Native apps, and know how to set up continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipelines for React Native projects.

React Native resources

Check out our resources to continue sharpening your React Native skills.

Hired profiles help developers showcase their top tech skills

After passing Hired skills assessments, candidates have the chance to showcase their skills to employers. They can opt to present an ‘Assessments’ badge on their profile. Candidates may take various assessments including Programming Skills, Full Stack, Backend, Frontend, iOS, Android, Debugging, Dev Ops Generalist, and Dev Ops AWS.

Why should you hire React Native developers?

Hiring React Native developers can bring numerous benefits to your organization:

• Cross-Platform Compatibility: React Native developers can build cross-platform mobile apps that run on both iOS and Android devices.
• Faster Time-to-Market: Leveraging React Native’s hot reloading feature allows developers to see changes instantly reflected in the app during development, speeding up the feedback loop and reducing time-to-market.
• Cost-Effectiveness: React Native developers can save time and resources by sharing code, assets, and resources between iOS and Android apps, minimizing duplication and overhead in development, testing, and maintenance.
• Native-Like Performance: React Native developers can create mobile apps with native-like performance and user experience, thanks to React Native’s use of native components and APIs provided by iOS and Android platforms.

Assess tech candidates for React Native skills

Looking for candidates skilled in React Native? Technical assessments are a multi-pronged solution. They allow you to streamline the hiring process and reduce bias with tech skill-focused benchmarks. 

Hired Assessments offer a library of hundreds of questions and customizable coding challenge campaigns tailored to technical preferences. Centralize and standardize your evaluation process as you surface top talent with specific, hard-to-find skills.

See how Mastercard and Axon used Hired Assessments to vet top candidates.