Before a single screener talks to you, your application has already made a first impression — and if that impression is a GitHub full of tutorial-follow-along repos or a portfolio site that hasn’t been touched since 2022, you’ve already lost ground you haven’t earned back yet.
Here’s what actually needs to be in front of Toptal before you hit submit, broken out by the category you’re applying under, because “show your best work” is exactly the kind of advice that gets nobody anywhere.
Developers: Depth Over Breadth, Every Time
The instinct most developers have is to link every repo they’ve ever touched, as if quantity signals experience. It doesn’t; it signals you haven’t figured out which of your projects actually demonstrates something worth evaluating. What Toptal’s screeners are actually looking for in your code samples:
- Projects you built end-to-end, not tutorials you followed. A screener can tell the difference within about thirty seconds of reading commit history and code structure. If your repo’s commit messages read like “Step 4: add routing” copied from a course, that’s worse than showing nothing.
- Evidence of real decisions, not just working code. A README that explains why you chose a particular architecture over an alternative does more for you than another project with zero documentation because it’s the same signal the technical screening round is checking for later—just in written form, ahead of time.
- At least one project with genuine complexity — something with state management, an API integration, error handling that goes beyond the happy path. Three simple CRUD apps don’t add up to one complex one; they just prove you can repeat the same skill level three times.
Read Also: The Toptal Application Process: All 5 Stages Explained
Designers: Case Studies, Not Just Pretty Screenshots
This is where I’ll say the unpopular thing directly: a Dribbble shot with zero context is decoration, not a portfolio piece. Toptal’s evaluators aren’t grading whether your interface looks nice — plenty of AI tools can make something look nice now.
They’re grading whether you can articulate a design decision under scrutiny, which means every piece you submit needs the following:
- The actual problem you were solving, stated plainly, before you show the solution
- What you tried that didn’t work, briefly—this single detail separates a real case study from a highlight reel, because it proves you iterated rather than landed on the final design by luck
- A measurable or qualitative outcome, even an informal one—”reduced signup drop-off” or “client reported faster onboarding”—beats silence on results every time
Two or three genuinely strong case studies beat ten polished mockups with no narrative behind them.
Finance Experts and Project Managers: Work History Over Portfolio Pieces
This category doesn’t submit a “portfolio” in the traditional sense, and that trips people up—they either force-fit a design-style presentation onto financial work or, worse, submit almost nothing distinctive at all. What actually matters here:
- Specific, quantified outcomes from past engagements—”reduced monthly close time from 12 days to 6″ carries far more weight than “improved financial reporting processes,” which is the kind of vague résumé language that reads as filler to an evaluator
- Evidence of scope and stakes—the size of the budgets, teams, or deals you managed, since Toptal clients in this category are often trusting you with real financial decisions, not just process cleanup
- Certifications and credentials listed with context, not just acronyms—explain briefly what a credential actually required, since not every screener will know the weight of every certification by name alone
Read Also: How Much Do Toptal Freelancers Earn?
The Mistake That Cuts Across Every Category
Here’s the pattern I’ve watched sink strong candidates in every single category: submitting volume instead of curation. Nobody at Toptal is impressed by twenty mediocre examples—they’re evaluating your judgment about what’s actually worth showing, and a bloated application with no clear “best three” signals you either don’t know your own strongest work or haven’t bothered to figure it out.
Curating ruthlessly is itself a demonstration of the exact judgment they’re screening for.
What Doesn’t Belong in Your Application
A few things worth cutting, regardless of category: outdated work you’ve since surpassed (it drags your average down; it doesn’t add context), anything you can’t speak to in detail if asked a follow-up question, and generic template-driven work that could belong to anyone.
If you can’t explain a specific choice in a piece off the top of your head, that piece is a liability sitting in your application, not an asset.
Read Also: Toptal Interview Questions By Stage: What’s Actually Asked at Each Round
Building Your Portfolio While You Wait
If you’re realizing your current portfolio has real gaps, that’s not a dead end — it’s a project with a deadline now. Building out one or two genuinely strong pieces before you apply is worth more than applying immediately with something thin, and it’s also a good excuse to pick up real client work in the meantime to generate fresh material.
Plenty of people use Fiverr specifically for this — real paid projects that double as portfolio pieces while you prep your Toptal application. The Fiverr MasterClass is a solid, structured way to build that up.
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Toptal’s portfolio requirements aren’t really about polish—they’re about judgment. Two or three pieces you can defend in detail, with real decisions and real outcomes attached, will always outperform a wall of decent-but-forgettable work.
Curate like someone’s actually going to ask you follow-up questions about every single piece you submit, because eventually, someone will.
