Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
April 1, 2018
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
The onsite involved a tour of the product, three technical interviews, lunch, and a culture fit interview with one of the cofounders.
Before I came onsite, they sent me a document with some background on the company, what to expect and prepare for, and links to interesting articles in the bio space (I wish all companies did this!).
All of the technical questions were related to the actual Benchling product, which was fun!
The interviewers were polite and helpful, and made the questions feel collaborative instead of combative.
The team was friendly and gave good and honest answers about why they liked being at Benchling and what the challenges are.
Overall, a great experience.
Questions
An architectural design question, an algorithms question, and a longer coding question.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 13 interview experiences for the Benchling Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
15%
Pass Rate
Benchling's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive85%
Neutral15%
Negative0%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Benchling's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Benchling Work Experiences
4.0
Exciting times for product and engineering, with growing pains and opportunities elsewhere
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
March 20, 2023
Pros: The caliber of the people here is outstanding -- truly some of the kindest, funniest, most curious, and smartest people I've ever worked with. And this is across all functions: engineering, product, customer-facing, marketing, sales, etc.
More specifically, this is an exciting time to be part of Benchling's product and engineering teams. We've recently picked up executives from the top tech platform and biotech firms, who really understand the value of building for long-term success. There are lots of great scaling challenges, and we have been given the budget to really invest in the right solution. Add to that some stellar teammates (see above), and it makes for a fun place to hammer out some 1s and 0s.
Cons: As you can see from other reviews around this time (and hopefully this will be seen as a historical artifact), departments outside of product and engineering are in a transition stage. New management and rough market conditions make for some stressful times.
High pressure, office politics, etc. This sucks.
5.0
Great interview – great company
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
April 8, 2021
Pros: Colleagues and fun science news
Cons: Temporarily remote and growing pains
5.0
High-Potential, Collaborative, Modern, Mission-Driven Software Company
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
April 14, 2021
Pros: - Modern tech stack and openness to trying new technologies
- High degree of ownership over projects
- Culture of collaboration, with limited to no company politics
- Fast-growing company with potential to disrupt the industry
- Mission-driven
- People hold themselves to a high standard, but there is a culture of not pointing fingers or blaming.
Cons: - Growing pains (hiring velocity, resource allocation, scaling processes to fit company needs)
- At times difficult to break into industry against in-house/piecemeal competitors
- 4.0Exciting times for product and engineering, with growing pains and opportunities elsewhereSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesMarch 20, 2023Pros: The caliber of the people here is outstanding -- truly some of the kindest, funniest, most curious, and smartest people I've ever worked with. And this is across all functions: engineering, product, customer-facing, marketing, sales, etc. More specifically, this is an exciting time to be part of Benchling's product and engineering teams. We've recently picked up executives from the top tech platform and biotech firms, who really understand the value of building for long-term success. There are lots of great scaling challenges, and we have been given the budget to really invest in the right solution. Add to that some stellar teammates (see above), and it makes for a fun place to hammer out some 1s and 0s.Cons: As you can see from other reviews around this time (and hopefully this will be seen as a historical artifact), departments outside of product and engineering are in a transition stage. New management and rough market conditions make for some stressful times. High pressure, office politics, etc. This sucks.
- 5.0Great interview – great companySoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesApril 8, 2021Pros: Colleagues and fun science newsCons: Temporarily remote and growing pains
- 5.0High-Potential, Collaborative, Modern, Mission-Driven Software CompanySoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesApril 14, 2021Pros: - Modern tech stack and openness to trying new technologies - High degree of ownership over projects - Culture of collaboration, with limited to no company politics - Fast-growing company with potential to disrupt the industry - Mission-driven - People hold themselves to a high standard, but there is a culture of not pointing fingers or blaming.Cons: - Growing pains (hiring velocity, resource allocation, scaling processes to fit company needs) - At times difficult to break into industry against in-house/piecemeal competitors
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