Full-Stack Developer for Live Trivia Game – Firebase & Game Logic

We are looking for an experienced **Full-Stack Developer** to work on a fast-growing live trivia game. **This job is NOT about creating or writing trivia questions.** The work is focused on the **technical side of the game**, especially how questions are stored, selected, delivered, updated, and managed. Our game is already live with active users, so one of our biggest priorities is being able to **make updates to the game without negatively affecting users who are currently playing**. ### $150 Paid Trial The initial **$150 fixed-price project is a paid trial**. We want to see how you work, how well you understand the existing codebase, the quality of your solutions, and whether you can work independently without creating new issues. If the trial goes well, we are looking for someone who can work with us **long term**. The compensation will **increase over time** depending on your performance, responsibilities, and the continued growth of the game. For the right developer, this can become a very good long-term opportunity. ### What We Need Help With One of the most important parts of our game is the question system. We need someone who can review our current implementation and make sure it is reliable, scalable, and properly designed. This includes: * Making sure users do not receive duplicate questions when they should not * Preventing the same question from appearing twice within the same game/session * Properly tracking questions a user has already played * Creating a reliable question rotation system * Preventing unnecessary repetition for returning users * Making sure question selection remains random while following the correct rules * Handling different categories and question banks correctly * Making sure the system continues working correctly as the number of questions grows * Making sure the system continues working correctly as the number of active users grows * Preventing race conditions and other issues caused by multiple users playing at the same time * Improving database structure where necessary * Finding and fixing existing logic problems and edge cases ### Making Updates Without Affecting Active Users **This is one of the most important requirements for this role.** The game is live, and we want to be able to continuously improve it while people are playing. We need a developer who knows how to safely make updates such as: * Editing or correcting questions * Adding new questions * Disabling or removing questions * Updating categories * Changing game logic * Fixing bugs * Adding new features * Updating database structures * Deploying new versions of the game These updates should be handled in a way that **does not break, interrupt, reset, or negatively affect active users who are already inside a game**. For example, if a player starts a game using a certain version of a question, and we update that question while they are playing, their active game should continue working correctly. The new version should be used when appropriate without unexpectedly changing the experience for someone who is already in the middle of a session. We want someone who understands concepts such as: * Safe production deployments * Backward-compatible changes * Question/data versioning * Active session protection * Database migrations * Feature rollouts * Rollback strategies * Testing before production deployment * Avoiding breaking changes * Handling live database updates safely We want to be able to **continuously update and improve the game even when users are online and playing**. We do not want to have to wait until nobody is playing before every update. ### Reliability Is Extremely Important We do not want temporary fixes that solve one problem and create another problem later. We want the system to be designed properly. We care heavily about: * No unexpected duplicate questions * No broken active games * No incorrect question states * No database inconsistencies * No unnecessary Firebase reads/writes * No race-condition problems * No updates that negatively affect active players * Clean and maintainable code * Proper testing before changes are pushed live * Ability to roll back safely if something goes wrong * Scalability as the game continues growing ### Current Technology Our game currently uses technologies including: * Next.js * React * Firebase * Cloud Firestore * JavaScript / TypeScript Strong **Firebase and Firestore experience is very important** for this role. ### Experience We Are Looking For We strongly prefer developers who have previously worked on: * Trivia games * Quiz applications * Question-bank systems * Educational testing platforms * Games with large content databases * Session-based applications * Firebase / Firestore applications * Live production applications with active users * Applications that require updates without downtime Experience with a **similar trivia or quiz game is a major advantage**. If you have previously worked on a system where questions needed to be rotated, tracked per user, prevented from repeating, and safely updated while users were actively playing, please explain this in your application. ### AI Usage Please do not apply if you rely on AI to do the majority of your development work without fully understanding, reviewing, and testing the code yourself. Using AI as a development tool is completely fine. However, we want a developer who **actually understands what they are doing**. You must be able to: * Understand the existing architecture * Explain why you are making a change * Identify possible edge cases * Review your own code * Properly test your changes * Understand the consequences of changes before deploying them * Diagnose problems yourself when something goes wrong We do not want copied AI-generated solutions that have not been properly understood or tested. ### Long-Term Opportunity We are not looking for someone just to complete one $150 task and disappear. The game is growing quickly, and there will be more development work as we continue adding users, questions, categories, game modes, and features. We want to find a developer who understands the project and can potentially continue working with us for a long time. **The initial $150 is only the trial. Compensation can increase significantly over time for the right developer.** ### Please Answer These Questions When Applying 1. Have you previously worked on a trivia game, quiz application, or question-bank system? Please explain. 2. Have you worked with Firebase and Cloud Firestore in production? 3. How would you prevent a user from receiving questions they have already played? 4. How would you prevent duplicate questions inside the same game/session? 5. How would you handle a question being edited while a user is currently playing that question? 6. How would you deploy updates or change game logic without interrupting users who are currently playing? 7. How would you safely add, edit, disable, or remove questions while active games are running? 8. Have you implemented versioning, safe migrations, rollback systems, or zero-downtime deployments before? 9. Have you worked on applications with many simultaneous users? 10. Please provide examples of similar projects you have worked on. **Please only apply if you have relevant experience and are confident working on a live production game with active users.**