Staff Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
May 1, 2021
Negative ExperienceNo Offer
Process
Technical Screen
Conversation with Hiring Manager
Onsite:
- 2 technical interviews (both coding, with one including system design questions)
- 1 values interview
- 1 get-to-know-you interview with the team at Discord
Questions
I was told this was an open-book interview. I was allowed to look up anything.
The task was to build a command-line chat server over sockets.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Discord Staff Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
0%
Pass Rate
Discord's interview process for their Staff Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive0%
Neutral0%
Negative100%
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Discord's Staff Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Discord Work Experiences
4.0
Good product, growing pains
Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
September 25, 2024
Pros: - Enthusiastic user base.
- Lots of interesting technical challenges.
- Interesting tech to work with (Elixir, Rust, etc.).
Cons: - Lots of product churn.
- Toxic positivity.
- Middle management has high variability in quality.
- Workloads are not fair. Some teams are overstaffed, some understaffed. On-call and interview duties are not fairly distributed.
5.0
Great Leadership, Bureaucratic Hassle
Staff Software Engineer • Former Employee
July 31, 2025
Pros: I enjoyed leadership, and the benefits were great.
Cons: Lots of big company bureaucracy (requirement documents, performance review optimization, etc.).
4.0
Great if it's what you're looking for
Senior Machine Learning Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
August 9, 2025
Pros: Friendly and collaborative culture. Coworkers are genuinely great people. No toxicity!
Very nice WLB.
Leadership cares about maintaining the unique personality of the company while being inclusive as it grows.
Most inviting of employee feedback (read: tolerant) that I've seen at a medium-large company.
Cons: - Work got a little stagnant for me.
- General growing pains. Technical work shifted to managing legal and policy risk.
- 4.0Good product, growing painsStaff Software Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesSeptember 25, 2024Pros: - Enthusiastic user base. - Lots of interesting technical challenges. - Interesting tech to work with (Elixir, Rust, etc.).Cons: - Lots of product churn. - Toxic positivity. - Middle management has high variability in quality. - Workloads are not fair. Some teams are overstaffed, some understaffed. On-call and interview duties are not fairly distributed.
- 5.0Great Leadership, Bureaucratic HassleStaff Software Engineer • Former EmployeeJuly 31, 2025Pros: I enjoyed leadership, and the benefits were great.Cons: Lots of big company bureaucracy (requirement documents, performance review optimization, etc.).
- 4.0Great if it's what you're looking forSenior Machine Learning Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesAugust 9, 2025Pros: Friendly and collaborative culture. Coworkers are genuinely great people. No toxicity! Very nice WLB. Leadership cares about maintaining the unique personality of the company while being inclusive as it grows. Most inviting of employee feedback (read: tolerant) that I've seen at a medium-large company.Cons: - Work got a little stagnant for me. - General growing pains. Technical work shifted to managing legal and policy risk.
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