Insights

Thinking Outside the Cube: Layer

Layer’s VP of Engineering’s three rules to rock distributed Thinking Outside the Cube is a series of posts that introduce unique insights from CTOs and other tech leaders at companies who have successfully implemented distributed models—a more thorough version of remote work—into their workforce policies.   —   Like many of its counterparts and competitors […]

GraphQL: Queries, Mutuations and Subscriptions

In my first article, I talked about GraphQL types and relationships. This time, I’ll be focusing  on queries, mutations and subscriptions. lI’ll also provide an overview of how variables are used. This is all necessary setup for the final piece in this series, where I’ll show you how to combine all this knowledge together to […]

GraphQL: Types and Relationships

This is a multi-part tutorial by Kingdom Orjiewuru, an Andela Developer based in Lagos. By the time you finish reading this article, you should have a clear understanding of GraphQL types and schema to the extent that you can create them yourself. And if you’re an absolute beginner, don’t fret—think of GraphQL schema as just […]

A Dive Into Python Closures and Decorators – Part 1

This is a multi-part guest tutorial post by Moyosore Sosan, an Andela developer based in Lagos.   We will be looking at local functions, the concepts of closure and what decorators are, sounds like a lot? Then let’s dive into it.   Local functions   Probably most functions you are familiar with are either defined in […]

Build an iOS app from scratch

This is a three-part guest tutorial post by Johnson Ejezie, an Andela developer based in Lagos. iOS app: From scratch to app store Part 1 What we will be building We will be using the traktv api to build a movie and tv show app. We will be figuring out functionalities to add to our […]

Re-upping on a birthday pledge to be limitless

Last year I advised that we all abandon “sure,” and I pledged to give 100% to my work at Andela. This year, after both struggle and triumph, I’m renewing that pledge. Why? Well, it’s not just because I believe in the mission, my team, and our chances to impact the future of tech work and […]

Setup React Environment Using Webpack and Babel

More and more devs are using React, a Facebook and community developed JavaScript library, to craft the kinds of data-heavy, auto-uploading web apps that are used for things like making live social streams populate and render seamlessly. Featuring a multitude of native-use advantages, its use has grown markedly over the past four years, finding favor […]

Deploying Docker App on Google Container Engine

The Google Cloud Platform is a cloud computing service from Google that offers a set of enterprise capabilities that leverages the same technologies that are used at Google. It provides a multitude of advantages, including instant scaling of any online solution and live migration of Virtual Machine functionality.   In this Scotch.io tutorial, John Kariuki, […]

Welcoming Uganda to the Andela Family

When we launched in Nigeria three years ago, there’s no way we could have predicted how much of a continent-wide phenomenon Andela would become. In that time, we’ve grown from a founding team of six to over 600 Andelans spanning three countries and two continents.   Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of our […]

How to Use JavaScript Hoisting to Your Advantage

Hoisting in JavaScript is a tricky technique, but when used correctly can be beneficial to your code. However, if misused it can turn a harmless looking declaration into a persistent issue. Hoisting is a mechanism where variables and function declarations are moved to the top of their scope before code execution. In this Scotch.io tutorial, Nairobi-based […]

Andela Opens New Nigerian HQ! Hint: It’s EPIC

At Andela, we consider ourselves pretty Excellent. We love to infuse Passion into our work. We approach our gigs with Integrity, and we leverage the amazing people that surround us through relentless Collaboration. In short, we’re a pretty EPIC company.   These EPIC values are Andela’s core values—they guide our mission, illustrate our vision, and […]

A Case for Progressive Web Applications

TL;DR — If your company is or is planning on doing business in emerging markets, architecting your web applications for performance through progressive enhancements is one easy way to drastically improve accessibility, retention, and user experience.   Disclaimer: It so happens that not only people in emerging markets suffer from poor networks.   Towards the […]

New Podcast: Building for the Next Billion

If there is one thing most people can agree on, it’s that podcasts are awesome. We are excited to announce the launch of Building for the Next Billion, Andela’s podcast discussing the most prominent trends in software development with leading technologists from around the globe. This will serve as an unbiased platform for engineers to […]

An Engineering Manager’s Guide to the Future of Work

Last month, Stack Overflow released its annual Developer Survey, which polled over 64,000 developers across the globe about their favorite technologies, coding habits and work preferences. One of the key highlights was a strong preference for distributed work. A majority of developers (64%) reported working remotely at least once day a month, and 11% reported […]

Geeks On A Plane Visits Andela

Andela Lagos has gotten its fair share of high profile visitors in the past year, starting with Captain Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) last summer, to the Grandfather of Extreme Programming, Kent Beck, and now 500 Startups’ group, Geeks On A Plane. It’s more than people sightseeing in Africa — it signifies a deeper movement of Silicon […]

Cent and Fiyin’s Dedication Gets a Payoff

Payoff, a 7 and a half-year-old financial wellness company that provides personal loans to pay off credit card debt, is one of our treasured partners. They’re also hot off a $67.4M funding round (congrats!) that closed earlier this year. They started working with two of our rockstar devs, Cent and Fiyin, in June 2015 to help accelerate their […]

NYC Panel: The Future of Work in a Global Ecosystem

Last week we hosted a panel with our CEO and Co-Founder, Jeremy Johnson, Knotel’s Co-Founder and CEO, Amol Sarva, and PowerToFly’s Co-Founder and CEO, Milena Berry to discuss how to utilize diversity and talent, regardless of geographical location, in today’s global economy.   Andela, Knotel and PowerToFly are actively working to make diverse talent more […]

Becoming a Magnet for Product and Engineering Talent

Yesterday we hosted Keith Cowing, Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health, for a webinar on How to Become a Magnet for Product and Engineering Talent.   Keith has a diverse background, having served as a business analyst at Goldman Sachs, CEO and Founder of Seamless Receipts, and a Product Manager at LinkedIn and Twitter […]

U.S. Ambassador Visits Andela Lagos Office

Earlier this year, we were honored to receive the 2016 Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence from Secretary Kerry at the annual ACE ceremony on January 5th. It was a momentous occasion for us, and a true testament to the amazing work our developers are producing for our partners on a daily basis. Last week, […]

Happy International Women’s Day. Now Go Hire.

On January 21st, I flew from Lagos, Nigeria, to Washington DC to pour into the streets with hundreds of thousands of women. It was exhilarating. I loved every second of it, every poster, every parent there with their children. I felt the strength in numbers that one can only feel out on the streets demonstrating […]

Jeremy Johnson Joins The Twenty Minute VC Podcast

In case you missed it, Jeremy sat down with Harry Stebbings during a very special episode of Founders Friday to discuss fundraising, the future of work, and more. We’ve included an outline of the episode below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast audio here!   In This Episode You Will Learn:   1.) […]

What an Engineer Looks Like

This past weekend, an Andela engineer from Nigeria named Celestine Omin made his first trip to the United States. He’s not what many in Silicon Valley think of when they imagine a stereotypical software engineer. Celestine — a tall, lanky 28-year-old Nigerian who just became a father — is a leading figure in the Lagos, […]

Demand mastery, reject hubris

I know many people who think that you have to be excellent at something to be successful. I know some people that are successful simply because they are excellent at talking about themselves. Unfortunately, being good at something doesn’t make you successful, and being successful doesn’t make you good at something (although it can often […]

How to Avoid Handover Nightmares

A handover is the process of migrating resources and responsibility of a project from one team to another. It is one of the critical stages of any software development cycle. The way this process is carried out affects the project outcomes and therefore should be well planned and executed.   Being software engineers, we spend […]

Android Learning Community (ALC 1.0) January 2017

In 2017, Andela and Google piloted the Android Learning Community  with a training  program meant to empower the community by training participants in Android.  Over 4,500 people applied within a 3-week period, and more than 2,500 completed an assessment of which 2,370  were selected to kick-off the program. The program combined Google’s community science, Andela’s […]