Instacart

Software Engineer 1 Interview Experience - Toronto, Canada

April 1, 2024

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

After the OA, there are four rounds conducted on back-to-back days. A decision is made afterward by the hiring committee after consulting with the interviewer panel. This process moved quickly, which was beneficial for receiving prompt feedback.

The interview structure includes:

Two coding interviews
One guided system design interview
One behavioral interview

Questions

They ask about previous projects and challenges you faced during the behavioral interview.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Instacart Software Engineer 1 role in Toronto, Ontario.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Instacart's interview process for their Software Engineer 1 roles in Toronto, Ontario is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive100%

Neutral0%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Instacart's Software Engineer 1 interview process in Toronto, Ontario.

Instacart Work Experiences

Talented Team, Scattered Direction

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 29, 2022

Pros: Worked with some extremely talented engineers in their Toronto office. Learned a ton.

Cons: Leadership direction felt a bit scattered, although this was during COVID, when we had to adjust to some crazy market conditions.

Talented Team, Scattered Direction

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 29, 2022

Pros: Worked with some extremely talented engineers in their Toronto office. Learned a ton.

Cons: Leadership direction felt a bit scattered, although this was during COVID, when we had to adjust to some crazy market conditions.

Great Culture, High Workload

Solutions Architect • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

November 17, 2025

Pros: Helpful colleagues. Good benefits. Easy culture.

Cons: Workload can be quite high.

Great Culture, High Workload

Solutions Architect • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

November 17, 2025

Pros: Helpful colleagues. Good benefits. Easy culture.

Cons: Workload can be quite high.

Great if they were an IPO

QA Developer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

January 23, 2023

Pros: Good total compensation. Sadly, they're just not public, so the shares don't mean much. Friendly coworkers and good senior leadership when I was around. Not sure if it changed since 2022.

Cons: Leadership has been promising they'll IPO for 3-4 years now. It's the main reason I left for a public company. I started to feel like I've been losing half my income the entire time there.

Great if they were an IPO

QA Developer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

January 23, 2023

Pros: Good total compensation. Sadly, they're just not public, so the shares don't mean much. Friendly coworkers and good senior leadership when I was around. Not sure if it changed since 2022.

Cons: Leadership has been promising they'll IPO for 3-4 years now. It's the main reason I left for a public company. I started to feel like I've been losing half my income the entire time there.

Talented Team, Scattered Direction

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 29, 2022

Pros: Worked with some extremely talented engineers in their Toronto office. Learned a ton.

Cons: Leadership direction felt a bit scattered, although this was during COVID, when we had to adjust to some crazy market conditions.

5.0
Talented Team, Scattered Direction
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
December 29, 2022
Pros: Worked with some extremely talented engineers in their Toronto office. Learned a ton.
Cons: Leadership direction felt a bit scattered, although this was during COVID, when we had to adjust to some crazy market conditions.

Great Culture, High Workload

Solutions Architect • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

November 17, 2025

Pros: Helpful colleagues. Good benefits. Easy culture.

Cons: Workload can be quite high.

5.0
Great Culture, High Workload
Solutions Architect • Current Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
November 17, 2025
Pros: Helpful colleagues. Good benefits. Easy culture.
Cons: Workload can be quite high.

Great if they were an IPO

QA Developer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

January 23, 2023

Pros: Good total compensation. Sadly, they're just not public, so the shares don't mean much. Friendly coworkers and good senior leadership when I was around. Not sure if it changed since 2022.

Cons: Leadership has been promising they'll IPO for 3-4 years now. It's the main reason I left for a public company. I started to feel like I've been losing half my income the entire time there.

4.0
Great if they were an IPO
QA Developer • Former Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 23, 2023
Pros: Good total compensation. Sadly, they're just not public, so the shares don't mean much. Friendly coworkers and good senior leadership when I was around. Not sure if it changed since 2022.
Cons: Leadership has been promising they'll IPO for 3-4 years now. It's the main reason I left for a public company. I started to feel like I've been losing half my income the entire time there.

Instacart Interview Questions

Average Waiting Time

You're given a list of customer arrival and service times. Calculate the average waiting time for all customers, assuming they are served in the order they arrive.

Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array

Given a sorted array, find the first and last position of a given target value. If the target is not found, return [-1, -1].

ArraysBinary Search

Check if Every Row and Column Contains All Numbers

Determine if every row and every column in a given square matrix contains all the numbers from 1 to n, where n is the size of the matrix. Effectively, check if it's a valid Sudoku (without subgrids).

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