Senior Data Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
The interview process involves an HR interview, an SQL challenge, a data model and scripting challenge, a phone call with the hiring manager, and an onsite interview.
I completed the SQL challenge, followed by the data model and scripting challenge. After submitting the scripting challenge, there was no proper communication from HR, not even an acknowledgement of receipt. I dedicated two days to the scripting and data model challenge, only to receive an automated rejection from an HR tool. HR did not extend the courtesy of informing me of the results in person or even via email. Following the automated email, I reached out to HR for feedback on the data model and scripting challenge, but I have not received any feedback to date. I felt my time was wasted on the challenge. I wish I had read earlier Glassdoor reviews about the interview process.
Additionally, there was some information provided for the data model. I used this information to design the data warehouse. It was unclear whether candidates were expected to contact the hiring manager for further questions to develop the data model or simply use the provided information.
Questions
SQL question based on the MovieLens database on how to identify whether a movie has a well-defined genre.
Given an OLTP system that tracks the sales of items with order processing, returns, and shipping, a data warehouse model needs to be created to answer questions about gross sales, net sales, and gross sales by product.
Scripting challenge: Clean up a text file and format the output in a certain way.
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Instacart Senior Data Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Instacart's interview process for their Senior Data Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Instacart's Senior Data Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Instacart Work Experiences
- 1.0Data-driven company, drives people into the groundSenior Data Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 4, 2018Pros: Free food at a high priceCons: The company is data-driven, which translates to them not really caring about people. I worked at Instacart as a senior data engineer and observed the following: * Managers manage people by fear, constant pestering, and micromanaging. I had never seen a company where people are afraid of managers to the extent that they can't even joke around them until I came to Instacart. * Managers hold supreme power, and the company works in very shady ways, like firing employees before they reach their one-year anniversary so that people never get the options they were promised. * Upper management makes a big show of engineers going above and beyond each week rather than figuring out why people *have* to go above and beyond each week. The culture is broken. * There is no training or proper leadership. When things fail, "RCAs" are created under the guise of documenting failures, but they are nothing more than finger-pointing and finding someone to blame. * For major failures, the first thing managers ask their teams to do is figure out how much of the blame lies on their team. Once that is found, they proceed to find ways of not taking any blame. * The on-call rotation was the worst. I spent 20 straight hours awake, monitoring constantly breaking processes for multiple teams, and was told that I was not meeting the Rubric standard for a senior engineer in month two of employment. I told them that the Rubric standard wouldn't be met after being asked to work for more than 15 hours. * People are clinging to old, failed processes since the people who built these processes got too high up in the company, so their work is not questioned. * Engineers are stressed beyond belief and are waiting to leave the company on their one-year anniversary if they can make it there at all. * Long-term engineers show signs of mental breakdown from stress. * I didn’t see one day where people were relaxed and smiling. In conclusion, this company is not worth working for. This company is a stop-gap solution for retailers until they can ramp up their own delivery processes to compete with Whole Foods, just like Safeway and Target did.
- 3.0Growing, pays well, but engineering has problemsSoftware Engineer-II • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesNovember 27, 2025Pros: - Good pay and good benefitsCons: - Low developer happiness - Old tech and slow tools - High and unreasonable expectations - Everything is p0
- 4.0Fast-paced Learning With Smart PeopleSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 22, 2025Pros: Learning, smart coworkers, fast pace.Cons: Experience varies depending on the team.
Instacart Interview Questions
