Instacart

Software Engineer (Fullstack) Interview Experience - San Francisco, California

January 1, 2015

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I had a phone call with HR, followed by a short online tech screen in Ruby.

Next, I was brought in for an onsite interview.

During the onsite:

I met with the CTO and discussed my preferred work environment at a high level.
I was given three hours to complete several features on a sample Rails application.
Afterwards, I met briefly with a member of the engineering team to review my solutions and discuss my background.

A couple of days later, they informed me that they were seeking a candidate with stronger Rails experience.

Questions

Build out several features on a practice Rails app to spec.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Instacart Software Engineer (Fullstack) role in San Francisco, California.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Instacart's interview process for their Software Engineer (Fullstack) roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral100%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Instacart's Software Engineer (Fullstack) interview process in San Francisco, California.

Instacart Work Experiences

Unique and challenging problems to solve

Engineering • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Opportunity to change the entire grocery industry ($1 trillion). Incredibly hard and unique data science problems to solve. How do you build real-time systems that will deliver the best experience for customers, shoppers, retailers, and CPG? Even though the company has already accomplished a lot, we are only at 10% of what we can achieve in the long run; there is still so much opportunity for people to innovate and grow. Responsibility to shape the future of work. Inclusive and supportive workplace. Chance to work with smart and humble people.

Cons: With hyper-growth, it is sometimes hard to navigate the complexity. The company did not focus enough on long-term goals, probably due to the always changing environment (competition, investment market, etc.). We should have hired more in the past.

Unique and challenging problems to solve

Engineering • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Opportunity to change the entire grocery industry ($1 trillion). Incredibly hard and unique data science problems to solve. How do you build real-time systems that will deliver the best experience for customers, shoppers, retailers, and CPG? Even though the company has already accomplished a lot, we are only at 10% of what we can achieve in the long run; there is still so much opportunity for people to innovate and grow. Responsibility to shape the future of work. Inclusive and supportive workplace. Chance to work with smart and humble people.

Cons: With hyper-growth, it is sometimes hard to navigate the complexity. The company did not focus enough on long-term goals, probably due to the always changing environment (competition, investment market, etc.). We should have hired more in the past.

Great place to work for mid-level engineers

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

August 12, 2024

Pros: I started working here an year ago. I really like the startup-like culture, flexible work options, interesting tech, great manager and director. So far, I'm having fun. Pay is also good and above market.

Cons: Nothing so far. Nothing I can think of.

Great place to work for mid-level engineers

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

August 12, 2024

Pros: I started working here an year ago. I really like the startup-like culture, flexible work options, interesting tech, great manager and director. So far, I'm having fun. Pay is also good and above market.

Cons: Nothing so far. Nothing I can think of.

Great place to work

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Fast-paced, tons of learning, great coworkers.

Cons: You have to be your own advocate for WLB. It can be frustrating to be constantly moving from one project to the next.

Great place to work

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Fast-paced, tons of learning, great coworkers.

Cons: You have to be your own advocate for WLB. It can be frustrating to be constantly moving from one project to the next.

Unique and challenging problems to solve

Engineering • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Opportunity to change the entire grocery industry ($1 trillion). Incredibly hard and unique data science problems to solve. How do you build real-time systems that will deliver the best experience for customers, shoppers, retailers, and CPG? Even though the company has already accomplished a lot, we are only at 10% of what we can achieve in the long run; there is still so much opportunity for people to innovate and grow. Responsibility to shape the future of work. Inclusive and supportive workplace. Chance to work with smart and humble people.

Cons: With hyper-growth, it is sometimes hard to navigate the complexity. The company did not focus enough on long-term goals, probably due to the always changing environment (competition, investment market, etc.). We should have hired more in the past.

5.0
Unique and challenging problems to solve
Engineering • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
June 14, 2018
Pros: Opportunity to change the entire grocery industry ($1 trillion). Incredibly hard and unique data science problems to solve. How do you build real-time systems that will deliver the best experience for customers, shoppers, retailers, and CPG? Even though the company has already accomplished a lot, we are only at 10% of what we can achieve in the long run; there is still so much opportunity for people to innovate and grow. Responsibility to shape the future of work. Inclusive and supportive workplace. Chance to work with smart and humble people.
Cons: With hyper-growth, it is sometimes hard to navigate the complexity. The company did not focus enough on long-term goals, probably due to the always changing environment (competition, investment market, etc.). We should have hired more in the past.

Great place to work for mid-level engineers

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

August 12, 2024

Pros: I started working here an year ago. I really like the startup-like culture, flexible work options, interesting tech, great manager and director. So far, I'm having fun. Pay is also good and above market.

Cons: Nothing so far. Nothing I can think of.

5.0
Great place to work for mid-level engineers
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
August 12, 2024
Pros: I started working here an year ago. I really like the startup-like culture, flexible work options, interesting tech, great manager and director. So far, I'm having fun. Pay is also good and above market.
Cons: Nothing so far. Nothing I can think of.

Great place to work

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Fast-paced, tons of learning, great coworkers.

Cons: You have to be your own advocate for WLB. It can be frustrating to be constantly moving from one project to the next.

5.0
Great place to work
Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
April 5, 2022
Pros: Fast-paced, tons of learning, great coworkers.
Cons: You have to be your own advocate for WLB. It can be frustrating to be constantly moving from one project to the next.

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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