Software Engineer I Interview Experience - Chicago, Illinois
Process
I was contacted by a recruiter in January 2025 and scheduled a first-round live-coding interview with a tech lead. She was very helpful and supportive, and it was probably the least stressful live-coding I've ever done. The interview involved coding functions for distributed architecture.
I was very quickly scheduled for a second and third interview. One was a behavioral interview with the person who would be my manager, and the other a final live-coding interview with another engineer. The behavioral interview covered my experience with different technologies specific to the job and detailed coverage of one of my recent work projects. The final live-coding interview was also very relaxed and covered coding with data structures, specifically a linked list.
I was told the job was mine if the position was approved by the company's new owners, Wonder. After that, I read that Wonder fired 25% of Grubhub's staff, and I haven't heard back since. The people I had the opportunity to talk to were magnificent, though.
Questions
In the context of distributed architecture, how could you incorporate a NoSQL structure to add to this system?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 4 interview experiences for the Grubhub Software Engineer I role in Chicago, Illinois.
Success Rate
Grubhub's interview process for their Software Engineer I roles in Chicago, Illinois is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Grubhub's Software Engineer I interview process in Chicago, Illinois.
Grubhub Work Experiences
- 5.0Great Tech Company for New GradsSoftware Engineer I • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesAugust 25, 2022Pros: Very good work-life balance, and the people make you feel comfortable and able to be yourself. It doesn't feel like a high-pressure environment, but everyone works hard because we enjoy it and enjoy building technology that provides value to our customers. Onboarding as a new grad has also been really good.Cons: None that I can think of!
- 3.0Dumpster fire, but there is opportunitySoftware Engineer II • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesSeptember 24, 2025Pros: There are many bright people who work for the company.Cons: Many of the bright people who work for the company have left or are planning to leave.
- 3.0Recent acquisition has ruined the cultureSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesAugust 19, 2025Pros: • Weekly Grubhub credit is a nice little perk. • Good flexibility with PTO / working hours. • Good level of autonomy.Cons: Major attrition since the acquisition from Wonder. Company culture is changing, moving towards a much faster pace. I already felt like we moved pretty quickly before, but with the recent acquisition, expectations have ramped way up and everybody wants everything delivered now, despite many teams losing people. This has resulted in significantly worse code quality and developer experience, because nobody wants to take code reviews seriously anymore. Everything has become "push now and fix later," but the fix later never seems to come. Benefits have been cut significantly recently.
Grubhub Interview Questions
