Block

Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience

July 10, 2021

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Technical screen: Pair programming.

Onsite interview: Two pair programming interviews, one system design, one past experience, and one leadership interview.

Followed by a hiring manager interview.

Interviewers were all really nice.

Questions

Design a hotel booking system.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 32 interview experiences for the Block Senior Software Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

16%

Pass Rate

Block's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in the United States is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive41%

Neutral22%

Negative38%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Block's Senior Software Engineer interview process in United States.

Block Work Experiences

Good place, actually remote. A bit of Kool-Aid

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: Positive value to the world Smart people to work with Hard problems Actually remote work possible Strong ladder from junior to senior engineer

Cons: A bit of Kool-Aid drinking culture. Constant changes in direction. Defensiveness can happen around SREs. Platform teams and product teams are disconnected.

Good place, actually remote. A bit of Kool-Aid

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: Positive value to the world Smart people to work with Hard problems Actually remote work possible Strong ladder from junior to senior engineer

Cons: A bit of Kool-Aid drinking culture. Constant changes in direction. Defensiveness can happen around SREs. Platform teams and product teams are disconnected.

Not what it used to be

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: It used to be a fantastic place to work for several years.

Cons: 2024 has been a year of mass layoffs, mass restructuring, and a mass exodus of talent, with far too many critical elements changing for anyone to have any semblance of confidence in the future of the company.

Not what it used to be

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: It used to be a fantastic place to work for several years.

Cons: 2024 has been a year of mass layoffs, mass restructuring, and a mass exodus of talent, with far too many critical elements changing for anyone to have any semblance of confidence in the future of the company.

Good comp for remote, that's about it.

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, CA

Pros: Comp. WLB (team dependent). Benefits.

Cons: Stack ranking for performance management is a huge drain on morale. What it used to take to get promoted is the bare minimum to keep your job, and that isn't even enough, it turns out. Leadership constantly pivots priorities. There is no clear product direction whatsoever. There are limited growth opportunities. No one above L6 ever leaves the company because it's a high-paying remote job, so they might as well coast until they're asked to leave.

Good comp for remote, that's about it.

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, CA

Pros: Comp. WLB (team dependent). Benefits.

Cons: Stack ranking for performance management is a huge drain on morale. What it used to take to get promoted is the bare minimum to keep your job, and that isn't even enough, it turns out. Leadership constantly pivots priorities. There is no clear product direction whatsoever. There are limited growth opportunities. No one above L6 ever leaves the company because it's a high-paying remote job, so they might as well coast until they're asked to leave.

Good place, actually remote. A bit of Kool-Aid

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: Positive value to the world Smart people to work with Hard problems Actually remote work possible Strong ladder from junior to senior engineer

Cons: A bit of Kool-Aid drinking culture. Constant changes in direction. Defensiveness can happen around SREs. Platform teams and product teams are disconnected.

4.0
Good place, actually remote. A bit of Kool-Aid
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
New York, New York, United States
March 26, 2025
Pros: Positive value to the world Smart people to work with Hard problems Actually remote work possible Strong ladder from junior to senior engineer
Cons: A bit of Kool-Aid drinking culture. Constant changes in direction. Defensiveness can happen around SREs. Platform teams and product teams are disconnected.

Not what it used to be

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: It used to be a fantastic place to work for several years.

Cons: 2024 has been a year of mass layoffs, mass restructuring, and a mass exodus of talent, with far too many critical elements changing for anyone to have any semblance of confidence in the future of the company.

1.0
Not what it used to be
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
June 21, 2024
Pros: It used to be a fantastic place to work for several years.
Cons: 2024 has been a year of mass layoffs, mass restructuring, and a mass exodus of talent, with far too many critical elements changing for anyone to have any semblance of confidence in the future of the company.

Good comp for remote, that's about it.

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, CA

Pros: Comp. WLB (team dependent). Benefits.

Cons: Stack ranking for performance management is a huge drain on morale. What it used to take to get promoted is the bare minimum to keep your job, and that isn't even enough, it turns out. Leadership constantly pivots priorities. There is no clear product direction whatsoever. There are limited growth opportunities. No one above L6 ever leaves the company because it's a high-paying remote job, so they might as well coast until they're asked to leave.

2.0
Good comp for remote, that's about it.
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, CA
March 12, 2026
Pros: Comp. WLB (team dependent). Benefits.
Cons: Stack ranking for performance management is a huge drain on morale. What it used to take to get promoted is the bare minimum to keep your job, and that isn't even enough, it turns out. Leadership constantly pivots priorities. There is no clear product direction whatsoever. There are limited growth opportunities. No one above L6 ever leaves the company because it's a high-paying remote job, so they might as well coast until they're asked to leave.

Block Interview Questions

Rotating the Box

Simulate a box tilting to the right, causing stones to fall until they hit obstacles or the floor. Re-arrange the characters in a given grid to reflect the resulting state of the box.

ArraysStringsTwo Pointers

Available Captures for Rook

On a chessboard, find how many pawns a rook can capture in one move. The rook can move horizontally or vertically until it hits an obstacle or the edge of the board.

Count Nice Pairs in an Array

You're given an array of numbers. Find how many pairs of numbers in the array satisfy a specific 'nice' property determined by reversing their digits and comparing them.

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