Question 1

What’s the difference between a prototype, an MVP and a production build?

Accepted Answer

They answer different questions, so they’re built differently. A prototype tests whether an idea or a technical approach works; it’s fast, uses synthetic data, and much of it is meant to be thrown away. An MVP is the smallest version real customers can sign up for and rely on, so authentication, data protection, backups and error tracking are in from the start while features are cut hard. A production build is what a growing product needs: load testing, security review, observability, safe releases and an on-call process. I’ll tell you which one you need now and what moving to the next stage would involve.

Question 2

Do you always use Next.js?

Accepted Answer

It’s my default for new React web apps, because routing, server rendering and data mutations come in one well-supported package that deploys to Vercel or to containers. It isn’t always the right tool. A highly interactive app that lives entirely behind a login can be a plain React single-page app built with Vite, talking to an API. If your team works in Vue, Nuxt offers the same capabilities. And if you already have a working stack, I’ll usually build within it rather than migrate for its own sake.

Question 3

Node.js or Python for the backend?

Accepted Answer

For most web products I prefer TypeScript on Node.js, because one language across frontend and backend lets types, validation schemas and developers move freely between the two. Python makes sense when the backend does heavy data processing or machine learning, when an existing Django codebase works well, or when your team is Python-first. Plenty of products use both: a Node.js API for the application and a Python service behind it for data or AI work.

Question 4

Can you build a HIPAA-compliant app?

Accepted Answer

I can build software with the technical safeguards HIPAA expects: PHI minimization, access controls, audit logs, encryption in transit and at rest, and vendors covered by business associate agreements. But compliance belongs to your organization as a whole — policies, risk analysis, training, contracts and how the system is operated — not just to the code, and there is no official certification that makes software “HIPAA compliant”. I work with your compliance officer or legal adviser, document how the system handles PHI, and recommend their review before launch.

Question 5

How do you keep one customer’s data away from another in a SaaS product?

Accepted Answer

Tenant isolation is designed before the first feature. In a shared database, every tenant-owned row carries a tenant ID, the API scopes every query to the signed-in tenant, and PostgreSQL row-level security acts as a second layer, so a missed filter returns nothing instead of someone else’s data. Automated tests try to read and write across tenants through every endpoint. For customers with stricter requirements, a separate schema or database per tenant is possible, and I design so that option stays open.

Question 6

Our enterprise prospects want SSO. How hard is that to add?

Accepted Answer

Usually a contained piece of work, especially with a managed identity provider that supports per-tenant SAML and OIDC connections. The effort is in the details: verifying which email domains a tenant owns, mapping identity-provider groups to your roles, deciding what happens to existing password accounts, and deprovisioning users through SCIM when they leave. I also add an admin screen so your team or the customer’s IT admin can configure a connection without a developer.

Question 7

Can you set up Stripe billing for us?

Accepted Answer

Yes: subscription plans, per-seat and usage-based pricing, trials, coupons, the customer portal, failed-payment handling and Stripe Tax where it applies. The part that needs the most care is webhooks, because they’re how your app learns about renewals, failures and cancellations, so I make them signature-verified, idempotent and regularly reconciled against Stripe. For marketplaces, Stripe Connect handles seller onboarding and payouts. Which tax registrations you need is a question for your accountant, but the app will collect what they’ll ask for.

Question 8

Should we add AI features, and how do you keep them reliable?

Accepted Answer

Only where a specific task clearly gets better: answering questions from your documentation, drafting replies, summarizing long threads, extracting data from documents. I start with an evaluation set of real examples, so we can tell whether a prompt or model change helps or hurts. Answers are grounded in your data through retrieval, outputs are validated, costs are capped per request and per customer, and consequential actions keep a human in the loop. If the evaluation shows a feature isn’t good enough yet, that’s a useful result too.

Question 9

Where should the app be hosted: Vercel or AWS?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the workload. Vercel is the quickest path for a Next.js frontend, with preview deployments for every pull request and a global CDN built in. AWS suits long-running services, background workers, WebSocket servers and anything that needs fine-grained networking or cost control as usage grows. Many products use both. For healthcare products the deciding question is often which vendors will sign a BAA for the specific services you need, so I check that before recommending anything.

Question 10

How do you approach security?

Accepted Answer

As part of the design rather than a final check. Authorization is enforced on the server for every request and server action, inputs are validated at every boundary, and the OWASP Top 10 is my baseline for reviews. Secrets live in a managed store and can be rotated, dependencies are kept current with automated update pull requests and scanning, and production access is limited and logged. Before a launch or a large customer’s security review I run a focused review and fix what it finds, and for products that handle sensitive data I recommend an independent penetration test as well.

Question 11

Can you take over an existing web app?

Accepted Answer

Yes. I start with an audit: whether it builds and deploys reliably, which runtimes and dependencies are outdated or unsupported, where the security risks are, what the error tracker and slow-query statistics say, and how much of it is covered by tests. You get a written summary and a prioritized plan. Most apps can be stabilized and modernized in steps that each ship; I only recommend a rewrite when the audit shows incremental work would cost more.

Question 12

Who owns the code and the accounts?

Accepted Answer

You do. The code lives in your repository from the first commit, and the cloud, database, Stripe, identity-provider and monitoring accounts are created under your organization, with me added as a member. Secrets are stored in your secrets manager or hosting platform, never in the repository. When the engagement ends you have everything needed to keep running the product, including architecture notes and runbooks.