Software Developer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
It started with a coffee for a personality fit.
Afterwards, I was invited in for two very long technical sessions. One was a practical skills test where I worked with one of the developers on a real-world problem.
This was very nice because it was collaborative. It gave me a good sense of what working with that guy would be like, and vice versa. We both learned during the process and it was fun.
The second part was an architecture review, thinking about bigger-picture thinking the company was working on, with the CTO. I enjoyed this because we got to think about scaling the product and some of the real issues we were dealing with.
Afterwards, there was a full day work session where I paired with another developer and went to lunch with the team. This gave me a good sense of company culture, and I made friends that I still have at the company today.
A bit long, but I felt like they really sold me on working here.
Questions
How to build a RESTful API
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Checkr Software Developer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Checkr's interview process for their Software Developer roles in San Francisco, California is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Checkr's Software Developer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Checkr Work Experiences
- 2.0Glory Days Are OverSoftware Developer • Former EmployeeDecember 6, 2017Pros: Killer eng/product team. Grew super duper fast early on, with a lot of great people, especially within the eng team. Ownership of the on-demand market. The CTO is an awesome guy, and they have built a good leadership team.Cons: Commodity: The background check is a commodity, and market leaders are now copying the Checkr API and beginning to take customers. I don't see Checkr winning deals outside of on-demand because they outsource processes like the county search, where market leaders are making strides to do this in-house. Their approach of getting out of the "on-demand" space is simply not working. They rely on one customer that makes up about 70% of their revenue, and that gap isn't getting any smaller. Customer Success/Sales: It seems like politics drove out some good folks in this department. They won deals years ago because no competitor had an API. Now that others are coming to market with the same thing, they are starting to lose business. Additionally, the sales leadership is very misguided. There has been a ton of turnover for a product that seemingly sells itself. From what I've heard, the sales leader is more or less a bully. Exit Options: No Consumer Reporting Agency has ever gone public. Their revenue is very unhealthy (think 90% of revenue from 3 customers). They are too big / raised too much to sell, and no one wants to buy a CRA outside of a P/E firm (according to history).
- 2.0SWE @ CheckrSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 7, 2025Pros: - Market compensation - Interesting technical problems - Good benefitsCons: - CEO - Constant changes in leadership - Apathy
- 5.0A place to grow, learn, and make a real impactEngineering Manager • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesSeptember 26, 2025Pros: - Mission-driven work with tangible impact on customers and candidates - Smart, kind teammates and supportive cross-functional partners - Strong emphasis on quality, compliance, and doing the right thing - Autonomy and ownership to ship, measure, and iterate - Lots of learning opportunities and knowledge-sharingCons: - Fast-paced environment means priorities can shift. - Some processes are still maturing as the company scales. - Domain complexity (compliance, data) has a steep learning curve early on.
