Block

Software Engineering Interview Experience

September 19, 2012

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Please send an email with the link and ask me to complete an online coding interview with two questions in one hour.

Find the dominator of an array with 1,000,000 elements and complete within O(n) complexity.
Find the element P in an array where all elements before P are less than or equal to P, and all elements after P are larger than or equal to P.

Questions

Find the dominator of an array with 1,000,000 elements and complete within O(n) complexity.
Find the element P in an array such that all elements before P are less than or equal to P, and all elements after P are greater than or equal to P.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 27 interview experiences for the Block Software Engineering role.

Success Rate

26%

Pass Rate

Block's interview process for their Software Engineering roles is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive67%

Neutral30%

Negative4%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Block's Software Engineering interview process.

Block Work Experiences

Visible software but concerns about layoffs and focus on AI

Software Engineer L6 • Former Employee

August 31, 2026

Pros: It is fun to see the software you work on in the wild in restaurants and shops.

Cons: Repeated layoffs seem very focused on AI and pay day loans.

Visible software but concerns about layoffs and focus on AI

Software Engineer L6 • Former Employee

August 31, 2026

Pros: It is fun to see the software you work on in the wild in restaurants and shops.

Cons: Repeated layoffs seem very focused on AI and pay day loans.

Empowered Teams, Long Hours Needed

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Work-life balance is great - I've never been asked to work more than 40 hours in a week. The workplace culture (within Cash App, at least) is very bottoms-up, which means that teams are empowered to form their roadmap and re-prioritize as necessary. The company's mission of Economic Empowerment is a positive driving force.

Cons: Compensation isn't the best in the industry, but the great WLB makes up for this in my opinion. Bottoms-up culture can be a double-edged sword, since any initiative requiring multiple teams will require a slow process of getting buy-in from each team involved. The company's narrative can be unconvincing at times, e.g. our mission is Economic Empowerment so we're going to push customers to "invest" in Bitcoin.

Empowered Teams, Long Hours Needed

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Work-life balance is great - I've never been asked to work more than 40 hours in a week. The workplace culture (within Cash App, at least) is very bottoms-up, which means that teams are empowered to form their roadmap and re-prioritize as necessary. The company's mission of Economic Empowerment is a positive driving force.

Cons: Compensation isn't the best in the industry, but the great WLB makes up for this in my opinion. Bottoms-up culture can be a double-edged sword, since any initiative requiring multiple teams will require a slow process of getting buy-in from each team involved. The company's narrative can be unconvincing at times, e.g. our mission is Economic Empowerment so we're going to push customers to "invest" in Bitcoin.

Good company to work at

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Smart and nice colleagues, interesting work, company mission.

Cons: Too much favoritism, politics, and inexperienced leadership.

Good company to work at

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Smart and nice colleagues, interesting work, company mission.

Cons: Too much favoritism, politics, and inexperienced leadership.

Visible software but concerns about layoffs and focus on AI

Software Engineer L6 • Former Employee

August 31, 2026

Pros: It is fun to see the software you work on in the wild in restaurants and shops.

Cons: Repeated layoffs seem very focused on AI and pay day loans.

2.0
Visible software but concerns about layoffs and focus on AI
Software Engineer L6 • Former Employee
New York, NY
August 31, 2026
Pros: It is fun to see the software you work on in the wild in restaurants and shops.
Cons: Repeated layoffs seem very focused on AI and pay day loans.

Empowered Teams, Long Hours Needed

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Work-life balance is great - I've never been asked to work more than 40 hours in a week. The workplace culture (within Cash App, at least) is very bottoms-up, which means that teams are empowered to form their roadmap and re-prioritize as necessary. The company's mission of Economic Empowerment is a positive driving force.

Cons: Compensation isn't the best in the industry, but the great WLB makes up for this in my opinion. Bottoms-up culture can be a double-edged sword, since any initiative requiring multiple teams will require a slow process of getting buy-in from each team involved. The company's narrative can be unconvincing at times, e.g. our mission is Economic Empowerment so we're going to push customers to "invest" in Bitcoin.

4.0
Empowered Teams, Long Hours Needed
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
June 4, 2022
Pros: Work-life balance is great - I've never been asked to work more than 40 hours in a week. The workplace culture (within Cash App, at least) is very bottoms-up, which means that teams are empowered to form their roadmap and re-prioritize as necessary. The company's mission of Economic Empowerment is a positive driving force.
Cons: Compensation isn't the best in the industry, but the great WLB makes up for this in my opinion. Bottoms-up culture can be a double-edged sword, since any initiative requiring multiple teams will require a slow process of getting buy-in from each team involved. The company's narrative can be unconvincing at times, e.g. our mission is Economic Empowerment so we're going to push customers to "invest" in Bitcoin.

Good company to work at

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Smart and nice colleagues, interesting work, company mission.

Cons: Too much favoritism, politics, and inexperienced leadership.

3.0
Good company to work at
Software Engineer • Former Employee
March 13, 2024
Pros: Smart and nice colleagues, interesting work, company mission.
Cons: Too much favoritism, politics, and inexperienced leadership.

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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