Select your current position

Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.

Development path

Junior

0-2 years

Current

Responsibility: Building CRUD functionality in Laravel/Symfony. Writing migrations and Eloquent/Doctrine models. Writing feature tests. Fixing bugs. Working with Blade/Twig templates.

Key skills:

Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
GraphQL Design Need
MySQL / MariaDB Need
PHP Frameworks Need
PostgreSQL Need
RabbitMQ Need
Redis Need
Task Queues Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
API Versioning Strategies Need
Caching Strategies Need
API Testing Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Transactions & Concurrency Need

Middle

2-5 years

Next

Responsibility: Designing REST APIs. Working with queues (Laravel Queue/Symfony Messenger). Optimizing N+1 queries. Setting up caching. Integrating with external APIs. Code review.

Key skills:

Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
GraphQL Design Need
MySQL / MariaDB Need
PHP Frameworks Need
PostgreSQL Need
RabbitMQ Need
Redis Need
Task Queues Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
API Versioning Strategies Need
Caching Strategies Need
Data Structures Need
API Testing Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Transactions & Concurrency Need

Senior

5-8 years

Responsibility: Application architecture design (DDD, Hexagonal). Performance optimization (OPcache, Swoole/RoadRunner). Migration to PHP 8.3+. Event-driven system design.

Key skills:

Apache Kafka Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
GraphQL Design Need
MySQL / MariaDB Need
PHP Frameworks Need
PostgreSQL Need
RabbitMQ Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Task Queues Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
API Versioning Strategies Need
Caching Strategies Need
Data Structures Need
API Testing Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Transactions & Concurrency Need

Lead / Staff

7-12 years

Responsibility: Microservice architecture on PHP. Coding standards. Legacy code modernization strategy. Framework selection. Coordinating backend and frontend.

Key skills:

Apache Kafka Need
Clean Architecture Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
GraphQL Design Need
JWT / OAuth2 / OIDC Need
MySQL / MariaDB Need
PHP Frameworks Need
PostgreSQL Need
RabbitMQ Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Task Queues Need
TDD & BDD Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Message Broker Patterns Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
API Versioning Strategies Need
Caching Strategies Need
Data Structures Need
API Testing Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Transactions & Concurrency Need

Principal

10+ years

Responsibility: Technology strategy: PHP vs other languages. Modernizing enterprise applications. Scalable system architecture. Participating in PHP community.

Key skills:

Clean Architecture Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
GraphQL Design Need
JWT / OAuth2 / OIDC Need
MySQL / MariaDB Need
PHP Frameworks Need
PostgreSQL Need
RabbitMQ Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
Task Queues Need
TDD & BDD Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Async Programming Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Message Broker Patterns Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
API Versioning Strategies Need
Caching Strategies Need
Data Structures Need
API Testing Need
Type Safety & Type Systems Need
Transactions & Concurrency Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

To reach the next level you'll need to develop:

Elasticsearch / OpenSearch

Independently implements Elasticsearch / OpenSearch tasks. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests.

GraphQL Design

Designs efficient schemas: relay-style pagination, input types, unions/interfaces for polymorphism. Solves N+1 via DataLoader. Implements subscriptions for real-time. Configures query complexity limits.

MySQL / MariaDB

Designs normalized schemas for business domains. Optimizes queries via EXPLAIN and slow query log profiling. Uses MySQL specifics: partitioning, full-text search, JSON columns. Configures master-slave replication for read scaling.

PHP Frameworks

Independently implements tasks with PHP Frameworks. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests.

PostgreSQL

Uses PostgreSQL features: JSONB for semi-structured data, CTEs for complex queries, window functions for analytics. Works with GIN/GiST indexes. Configures pg_stat_statements for monitoring. Applies LISTEN/NOTIFY for real-time events.

RabbitMQ

Designs exchange topology: fanout for broadcast, topic for routing, headers for complex rules. Configures dead letter queues and retry mechanisms. Ensures idempotent message processing.

Redis

Applies different strategies: cache-aside, write-through, write-behind. Uses Redis for queues (lists), rate limiting (sorted sets), pub/sub. Designs keys with namespaces. Handles cache stampede.

Task Queues

Independently implements Task Queue tasks. Understands internals and optimizes performance. Writes tests.

Algorithms & Complexity

Analyzes algorithmic complexity of PHP code and SQL queries. Optimizes collection processing — replaces nested loops with hash tables. Applies binary search, greedy algorithms in business logic. Profiles via Xdebug.

Async Programming

Designs async flows: priority queues, delayed tasks, retry logic. Works with message brokers for inter-service communication. Handles errors and dead letter queues. Uses Fibers for concurrent I/O.

API Documentation

Generates OpenAPI specification from code automatically. Creates examples for each scenario: success, validation errors, 404, 500. Versions documentation. Adds authentication section with examples.

Database Indexing

Analyzes execution plans via EXPLAIN ANALYZE. Creates composite indexes considering selectivity and column order. Uses covering indexes for optimizing frequent queries. Monitors unused indexes and their impact on write speed.

Code Quality & Refactoring

Configures static analysis at high strictness level. Refactors legacy code: extracts methods, simplifies conditions, eliminates god classes. Writes self-documenting code. Conducts peer code reviews.

Database Migrations

Writes safe migrations for PHP projects: adding columns with defaults, indexes without locking, separating destructive changes into phases. Manages seed data. Ensures rollback capability for each migration. Tests migrations on production data copies.

Query Optimization

Optimizes SQL queries in PHP applications: eliminates N+1 via eager loading, rewrites subqueries into JOINs, uses batch operations. Analyzes slow query log. Applies query builder and raw SQL when ORM generates suboptimal queries.

Data Modeling & Schema Design

Designs data schemas for business domains: normalization to 3NF, denormalization for performance, polymorphic relationships. Models soft deletes, record versioning, audit logs. Chooses between EAV and JSON columns for flexible attributes.

API Versioning Strategies

Implements versioning: version-based routing, transformers for different response formats, deprecation headers. Defines breaking vs non-breaking changes. Migrates clients between versions.

Caching Strategies

Implements multi-level caching: OPcache for bytecode, APCu for local data, Redis for shared cache. Designs invalidation strategies: TTL, event-based, tag-based. Measures hit/miss ratio.

Data Structures

Chooses structures for the task: SplPriorityQueue for queues, SplFixedArray for numeric data, generators for streaming. Understands PHP array internals as hash table. Works with category trees and dependency graphs.

API Testing

Automates API tests: integration tests for all endpoints, response structure assertions, auth flow testing. Creates fixtures and factories for test data. Runs in CI.

Type Safety & Type Systems

Independently applies PHP type system features — intersection types, enums with backed values, and readonly properties for immutable DTOs. Understands trade-offs between phpstan level strictness and development velocity. Applies type-safe patterns with generics in doc-blocks, typed collections, and strict return type declarations in code reviews.

Transactions & Concurrency

Independently designs transaction management strategies in PHP applications using PDO, Doctrine, or Eloquent ORM. Implements proper transaction scoping for complex business operations. Handles deadlock detection and retry logic, manages savepoints, and optimizes transaction duration to reduce lock contention.