Coupang

Staff Software Engineer Interview Experience - South Korea

July 5, 2024

Negative ExperienceGot Offer

Process

The recruiter contacted me. Although she was very friendly, I couldn't see clear standards for the interview process. It consisted of:

Two design interviews
One live coding interview
One culture fit interview

I answered all the questions, and the interviewers liked the results. Both reached out.

Questions

q1. Design Twitter

q2. Design inventory

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Coupang Staff Software Engineer role in South Korea.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Coupang's interview process for their Staff Software Engineer roles in South Korea is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Coupang's Staff Software Engineer interview process in South Korea.

Coupang Work Experiences

Toxic Culture, Zero Voice

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

October 2, 2025

Pros: Nothing other than getting a monthly salary and cash component is more here compared to other companies.

Cons: I have been working in the India Development Center as a Staff Software Engineer. This place is a toxic work environment with no work-life balance. Leaders regularly push employees to work over weekends, and retaliation is a common practice. Employees have no voice at all, and everything is driven fully top-down. This company cannot be compared with any true product company. Most people leave the organization in less than a year. The India team has no say in the kind of work it gets assigned and is treated as an execution arm without ownership.

Toxic Culture, Zero Voice

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

October 2, 2025

Pros: Nothing other than getting a monthly salary and cash component is more here compared to other companies.

Cons: I have been working in the India Development Center as a Staff Software Engineer. This place is a toxic work environment with no work-life balance. Leaders regularly push employees to work over weekends, and retaliation is a common practice. Employees have no voice at all, and everything is driven fully top-down. This company cannot be compared with any true product company. Most people leave the organization in less than a year. The India team has no say in the kind of work it gets assigned and is treated as an execution arm without ownership.

One of the Worst Companies to Work

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Pros: Good salary and nothing else.

Cons: Bad work - Mostly parity work. Worse culture - 12-hour workdays are the norm here. Worst management - The management has no idea how development works. They track everything on Excel sheets. They measure the work done by checking the size of the PR (pull request). They hire the worst managers who would not leave any stone unturned to make your life hell.

One of the Worst Companies to Work

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Pros: Good salary and nothing else.

Cons: Bad work - Mostly parity work. Worse culture - 12-hour workdays are the norm here. Worst management - The management has no idea how development works. They track everything on Excel sheets. They measure the work done by checking the size of the PR (pull request). They hire the worst managers who would not leave any stone unturned to make your life hell.

Learning With Hurried Chaos

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: - Fast-paced and great people to learn from.

Cons: - Lots of initiatives are halted due to inadequate thinking in the first place. - Everything is urgent.

Learning With Hurried Chaos

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: - Fast-paced and great people to learn from.

Cons: - Lots of initiatives are halted due to inadequate thinking in the first place. - Everything is urgent.

Toxic Culture, Zero Voice

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

October 2, 2025

Pros: Nothing other than getting a monthly salary and cash component is more here compared to other companies.

Cons: I have been working in the India Development Center as a Staff Software Engineer. This place is a toxic work environment with no work-life balance. Leaders regularly push employees to work over weekends, and retaliation is a common practice. Employees have no voice at all, and everything is driven fully top-down. This company cannot be compared with any true product company. Most people leave the organization in less than a year. The India team has no say in the kind of work it gets assigned and is treated as an execution arm without ownership.

1.0
Toxic Culture, Zero Voice
Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
October 2, 2025
Pros: Nothing other than getting a monthly salary and cash component is more here compared to other companies.
Cons: I have been working in the India Development Center as a Staff Software Engineer. This place is a toxic work environment with no work-life balance. Leaders regularly push employees to work over weekends, and retaliation is a common practice. Employees have no voice at all, and everything is driven fully top-down. This company cannot be compared with any true product company. Most people leave the organization in less than a year. The India team has no say in the kind of work it gets assigned and is treated as an execution arm without ownership.

One of the Worst Companies to Work

Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Pros: Good salary and nothing else.

Cons: Bad work - Mostly parity work. Worse culture - 12-hour workdays are the norm here. Worst management - The management has no idea how development works. They track everything on Excel sheets. They measure the work done by checking the size of the PR (pull request). They hire the worst managers who would not leave any stone unturned to make your life hell.

1.0
One of the Worst Companies to Work
Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
July 22, 2025
Pros: Good salary and nothing else.
Cons: Bad work - Mostly parity work. Worse culture - 12-hour workdays are the norm here. Worst management - The management has no idea how development works. They track everything on Excel sheets. They measure the work done by checking the size of the PR (pull request). They hire the worst managers who would not leave any stone unturned to make your life hell.

Learning With Hurried Chaos

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: - Fast-paced and great people to learn from.

Cons: - Lots of initiatives are halted due to inadequate thinking in the first place. - Everything is urgent.

3.0
Learning With Hurried Chaos
Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee
Seattle, Washington, United States
July 17, 2025
Pros: - Fast-paced and great people to learn from.
Cons: - Lots of initiatives are halted due to inadequate thinking in the first place. - Everything is urgent.

Coupang Interview Questions

Largest Rectangle in Histogram

Find the largest rectangular area that can fit within a histogram defined by an array of bar heights. You are given an array representing the height of bars, where each bar has a width of 1.

LRU Cache

Design a data structure that acts as a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache. Implement methods to get and put key-value pairs, evicting the least recently used entry when the cache is full.

Linked ListsDynamic Programming

Decode String

The problem involves decoding a string that follows a specific encoding rule: k[encoded_string], where the encoded_string inside the square brackets is repeated exactly k times. Your task is to decode the string and return the decoded string.

StringsStacksRecursion

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