Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
I applied online, and the recruiter contacted me a little afterward for a quick phone screen.
I then had the technical phone screen the following week, which was surprisingly pretty manageable – a really basic question. The interviewer was actually very friendly during the process, and it felt more collaborative compared to some other companies I've interviewed for. It seems like for this phase, they want to know that you can actually code normally.
I moved quickly to the onsite: three more coding interviews, all very friendly. They helped unblock me and pointed out some of my mistakes as I was typing, which I really appreciate. I definitely would not have gotten through the problems if they had just watched me, like other companies do. They want to see how you can work through a problem, not if you can pass or fail the challenge.
Something to note is that all interviewers come with problems that they've come up with on their own, not from a pool of pre-approved questions, so it's pretty impossible to prepare for specific questions.
Next was lunch with an engineering manager (delicious), and then architecture with a pair of interviewers. Don't be deterred by interviewing with a pair of engineers; it's actually better, in my opinion, because it lessens bias from one single individual and helps you with balanced feedback, if, for example, the solo interviewer was having a bad day. Together, we designed a calendar API.
I then interviewed with another pair of engineers about my previous projects. It was just a casual chat about what you've worked on, with no whiteboarding whatsoever. It was pretty relaxed. They just want to get a sense of your general experience; it didn't go into too much depth.
Overall, a much more positive experience than other companies I've interviewed at. Much more personable in general. The interviewers generally want to help you and see you succeed, instead of just watching you with their arms folded.
Questions
Fizz Buzz variation: find a duplicate integer from an array.
Reverse a string. Array manipulation.
Design a calendar API.
Simple OOP exercise with basic functionality. For example, if Dog and Cat inherited from Animal, what would that look like?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 59 interview experiences for the Block Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Block's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Block's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Block Work Experiences
- 4.0Great place to work with amazing co-workersSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 14, 2014Pros: Square is a technology company that sells a "real" product. Our many merchants depend on us to help them run and grow their businesses. When our merchants grow, we also grow with them. The incentives are perfectly aligned for us to help them do well. We don't need to sell ads based on their information, and we're not selling acorn points or whatever. I work with incredibly talented people who have a wide range of experiences. We have a lot of fun at work, but we get our work done. Since Square has such a broad spectrum of engineering work, from hardware, to firmware, to back-end services, to security, to infrastructure, to front-end (think Ember/JS/CS), to mobile (Android and iOS), there are so many opportunities to learn and to try new things.Cons: It's taken us a while to get our product vision/roadmap in place, but I think we're now in a good place. We're not as extravagant with our perks as other, more cash-rich tech companies, and the (free) dinner can be a bit hit or miss. The company has almost doubled while I was here, but that's simply necessary for us to grow our business.
- 5.0Great company, meaningful missionSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesMay 15, 2019Pros: - Fantastic leadership team. - Company purpose of "Economic Empowerment" is deeply baked into decision-making. - Extremely talented and kind coworkers. - Constant influx of effusively positive feedback from merchants is great for morale on tough days.Cons: - Engineering productivity sometimes hampered by dependencies on other teams' roadmaps. - Mobile CI very short on build machines, a major productivity bottleneck.
- 4.0Good but overratedSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJanuary 14, 2017Pros: As a developer specifically, [they have a] great engineering culture. They actually care about things like testing their code, which many startups only give lip service to. Still has a startup-like atmosphere for a pretty old company. Some nice fringe benefits: health/dental/vision 100% covered, lots of cheap-to-free food.Cons: Low salaries for a public company. Equity compensation for me was equal to about 1 year's salary but vesting over 4 years. Even including the 25% premium, it’s still low for the SF Bay Area. Required engineers to be on-call, at least on my team, but did not properly compensate. I have never worked anywhere that required engineers to be on-call unless it was shortly after a launch. Maybe they would be expected to fix their code if it failed catastrophically, but not like this. Has only half a CEO. In an extremely low-margin, competitive business with no solid plan for turning a profit. It’s the worst-kept secret of both Square and Twitter. Everyone seems to know it except him and the respective boards. Jack needs to try with one, or he will fail with both in my opinion.
Block Interview Questions
