Process
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks.
- Initial call with internal recruiter.
- A take-home challenge to prototype a usable solution to a problem statement where UI and design are not important (so they claim).
- Finally, a debrief, code review, and discussion about the submitted solution for the take-home challenge.
This is the first time I have felt absolutely deceived and misled by a company's stated requirements for an interview. They claim UX and design are not important, the position is for a Backend Engineer, most of the interview is spent on technical questions and discussion around the technical part of my solution, and yet I got rejected on account of not having taken into account the best UX for the users. First of all, I checked one of the interviewers' GitHub repos and his solution to the same problem was technically equivalent to my own, but the UI and UX was much worse. I find this unbelievable.
Then the position is for a BE engineer. They clearly state in their instructions that "UI / design is not important" and the must-haves are a "backend application which responds to queries" and a "web interface (can be VERY simple)". Bonus points if the app is hosted on fly.io (which mine was, had test coverage, and CI/CD with GitHub Actions). I have been a product engineer all my career, and although this position is for a BE engineer (which is my specialty), I have always been involved in product discussions.
The interview was misleading, the rejection reasons ridiculous, and they didn't clearly state what they were looking for, nor did they ask relevant questions to be able to ascertain I wouldn't be a good fit for a BE product engineer. I have interviewed with companies that are much larger and well established than Pennylane and have never been deceived before. Pennylane should take a hint from these companies and make it very clear exactly what they are looking for and what the candidates should present, instead of wasting everyone's time (they have lots of reviews complaining about the same thing). Rejection is part of any recruitment process, but misleading candidates is a huge red flag. I would stay away from this company if I were you.
Questions
Create an application that helps users find the most relevant recipes that they can prepare with the ingredients that they have at home. Deliver an application prototype to answer the above problem statement. By prototype, we mean something usable, yet as simple as possible. UI and design are not important, and we do not expect features that are outside the basic scope of the problem. We expect to use this prototype as a starting point to discuss current implementation details, as well as ideas for improvement.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 9 interview experiences for the Pennylane Backend Engineer role.
Success Rate
Pennylane's interview process for their Backend Engineer roles is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having good feelings for Pennylane's Backend Engineer interview process.
Pennylane Work Experiences
- 1.0Good days off, but terrible management and stressSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeOctober 4, 2026Pros: Proper amount of days off Good people on the team trying to help with PM on the top.Cons: haven’t seen such a terrible way of managing people and teams in my entire career — from senior leadership down to the Engineering Manager level. During my time there: I saw people constantly getting sick due to stress. Employees were indirectly expected to work overtime and were compared to those who did. There was constant turnover and frequent changes of Product Managers and Engineering Managers, which created instability and a lack of clear direction. The management culture created a lot of unnecessary pressure and unhealthy competition. Ah, I almost forgot! Micromanagement — the cherry on top. It was funny to see that the EM kept chasing people and nitpicking instead of figuring out how to improve features and helping with technical decisions. If you are experienced and have a family, I would not recommend joining.
- 2.0Weird experienceSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeePortugalJune 13, 2025Pros: The team seems focused in delivering good software. There's a lot of tools and support available to produce good software. The developer experience was great. Met a lot of good people, very smart. The interview process was excellent! Empathetic people all the way. The business is very interesting and it seems to have a bright future.Cons: First, after going through the on-boarding weeks and handling a few small features, I am told by my manager that I should be fixing bugs and providing support (firefighting). This pretty much occupied the time that I spent in this company during the trial period (3 months). I did as I was told. Handled plenty of tickets raised by the support team and learned along the way. Then I am told that my trial period is going to be extended. I get told by my manager that technically there are no doubts about my competency, but they still want to see me in a project working with other team members to see how it would go. Then I need to sign a document so that the trial period is extended. This was very weird, it was not my fault, but I agreed to sign the document nevertheless. Meanwhile, I am bullied by two team members and before talking to my manager I expressed my concerns to them politely and constructively. This is not well seen by my manager and is used as an excuse later on to end my trial. I am also told by my manager that during my firefighting weeks that I could pick other things to context switch a little so that I don't end up tired of providing support and fixing bugs. I always remained firefighting though. Then the firefighting period ends, I am picking other tasks, but then more than 10 support tickets pop up in our board. Next week, I get blamed that I should have responded to them and I get terminated the week after. Another thing used as a reason to terminate me: during the week that I didn't respond to the support tickets, I missed a few meetings (could only have been 2 max, the standups were always optional). This was true, and I could have done better. Still, I was a victim of thyroid cancer 5 years ago, which makes it occasionally really hard to wake up early without feeling tired which contributed to this. I didn't want to expose my condition, and I felt forced to do so. I got crucified very quickly. I've never shown any malice, and in my humble opinion, this is the pure definition of injustice. I felt constantly afraid of being genuine.
- 4.0Software engineerSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeParisDecember 8, 2023Pros: Great culture tech International employees Great product cultureCons: minor product implication for softwar eengineers poor work/life balance
