Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
November 1, 2018
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
Super positive and efficient!
I applied online through a university job portal and they contacted me about a month after I applied to schedule a technical phone interview. After the phone interview, they scheduled an onsite quickly because of my competing deadlines and hopped on a quick phone call with the recruiter.
Onsite was about 4-5 hours long, with two technical coding interviews, one systems design question, and one question about a technical project I worked on in depth. There was also a lunch interview (but I don't think I was judged on it).
I was given a chance to see their product and ask as many questions as I wanted. Interviewers all seemed very smart and passionate about the product and the overall mission! It definitely had a strong startup vibe when I interviewed, but it also seems like the company is growing extremely quickly and might change significantly in the next few months/years.
Questions
Standard Medium/Easy Leetcode
Describe a technical project you worked on in depth.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 28 interview experiences for the Flexport Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
25%
Pass Rate
Flexport's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive64%
Neutral7%
Negative29%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Flexport's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Flexport Work Experiences
3.0
Innovation Despite Hectic Change
Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
November 20, 2023
Pros: Very open to changes coming in and innovation.
Cons: Hectic work environment. Constantly changing and insecure.
5.0
Great Place to be an Engineer
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
June 30, 2017
Pros: Great People:
I have never worked with a smarter or more friendly group of people. It leads to a great working environment where I feel comfortable leaving before 6 every day and WFH as needed.
Great Product/Vision:
It's one thing to have a successful company, but another to have a successful company that is also doing meaningful work. I'm happy the work we do has tangible benefits for people.
Interesting Work:
We are modeling the world of global trade in software; a very hard and rewarding problem.
Cons: Dog Friendly: Most people like dogs, and the ones we have are well-trained, but I personally find them loud and obnoxious.
Possibly Too Fast Growth: Flexport has grown from 100 to 400 employees in the past 12 months, and I worry that growing too fast will lead to culture problems. We shall see.
5.0
Growth, Autonomy, Some Tech Lag
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
October 25, 2017
Pros: - Great work-life balance. There's plenty of work to do, but I've never felt the urgency of releasing anything because deadlines are understood across all parties and are reasonable.
- Plenty of growth opportunities by taking leadership opportunities, learning how to solve problems that you haven't faced before, or learning more about freight-forwarding.
- A lot of autonomy. There are many places in our product/platform that don't have concrete ownership, so there are opportunities to drive high-impact efforts if you are motivated to do so.
- Many interesting technical problems all over the stack in the foreseeable future, both in the infrastructure of the platform and on the features we build.
- I enjoy spending time with my co-workers.
- Leadership is very mindful in regards to the pace of growth of the company, ensuring we don't outgrow ourselves, preventing quality of service loss, and protecting our work-life balance.
Cons: All the downsides I've seen come from growing pains of a company that has seen continuous, tremendous people/financial growth.
* Tech hasn't grown as quickly as product, so we're kind of lagging there. We haven't fine-tuned our environment to be as efficient as possible. There are a lot of efforts in improving dev productivity and stability of our product, but there's a whole lot more that needs to be done in that regard.
* Young mid-level leadership. Though we have a more seasoned C-level leadership team, mid-management experience might soon be overshadowed by the size of the team. Technical leadership faced a similar problem and seems to now be taking more corrective action. As a result, we leaned on quantity over quality of tech work, but we should definitely think about doubling down on the foundations that we're building this product on at this stage of growth.
- 3.0Innovation Despite Hectic ChangeSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesNovember 20, 2023Pros: Very open to changes coming in and innovation.Cons: Hectic work environment. Constantly changing and insecure.
- 5.0Great Place to be an EngineerSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJune 30, 2017Pros: Great People: I have never worked with a smarter or more friendly group of people. It leads to a great working environment where I feel comfortable leaving before 6 every day and WFH as needed. Great Product/Vision: It's one thing to have a successful company, but another to have a successful company that is also doing meaningful work. I'm happy the work we do has tangible benefits for people. Interesting Work: We are modeling the world of global trade in software; a very hard and rewarding problem.Cons: Dog Friendly: Most people like dogs, and the ones we have are well-trained, but I personally find them loud and obnoxious. Possibly Too Fast Growth: Flexport has grown from 100 to 400 employees in the past 12 months, and I worry that growing too fast will lead to culture problems. We shall see.
- 5.0Growth, Autonomy, Some Tech LagSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 25, 2017Pros: - Great work-life balance. There's plenty of work to do, but I've never felt the urgency of releasing anything because deadlines are understood across all parties and are reasonable. - Plenty of growth opportunities by taking leadership opportunities, learning how to solve problems that you haven't faced before, or learning more about freight-forwarding. - A lot of autonomy. There are many places in our product/platform that don't have concrete ownership, so there are opportunities to drive high-impact efforts if you are motivated to do so. - Many interesting technical problems all over the stack in the foreseeable future, both in the infrastructure of the platform and on the features we build. - I enjoy spending time with my co-workers. - Leadership is very mindful in regards to the pace of growth of the company, ensuring we don't outgrow ourselves, preventing quality of service loss, and protecting our work-life balance.Cons: All the downsides I've seen come from growing pains of a company that has seen continuous, tremendous people/financial growth. * Tech hasn't grown as quickly as product, so we're kind of lagging there. We haven't fine-tuned our environment to be as efficient as possible. There are a lot of efforts in improving dev productivity and stability of our product, but there's a whole lot more that needs to be done in that regard. * Young mid-level leadership. Though we have a more seasoned C-level leadership team, mid-management experience might soon be overshadowed by the size of the team. Technical leadership faced a similar problem and seems to now be taking more corrective action. As a result, we leaned on quantity over quality of tech work, but we should definitely think about doubling down on the foundations that we're building this product on at this stage of growth.
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