Software Engineer (Internship) Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
I had an interview through Karat for one hour.
I did not do well enough to proceed to the next stage. P interest gave me a mentor who coached me a few times for the next interview with a Pinterest Engineer.
It was not a very hard question. The recruiting team had excellent customer service, and they inspired me to want to go work at Pinterest when I am ready.
Questions
Manipulation of ArrayLists and dictionaries to mimic classes and to use multiple data structures.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 7 interview experiences for the Pinterest Software Engineer (Internship) role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Pinterest's interview process for their Software Engineer (Internship) roles in San Francisco, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Pinterest's Software Engineer (Internship) interview process in San Francisco, California.
Pinterest Work Experiences
- 4.0An awesome place to workSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesMay 1, 2021Pros: Good benefits at this place. It's a good company to work for.Cons: No cons at this place. Work-life balance is not that great.
- 2.0Opinions of Pinterest from a former PinployeeSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJuly 27, 2015Pros: Amazing talent, fast pace, awesome CEO, great potential in the market, cool technology stack, fun environment. Employees are well cared for.Cons: Bad upper management (but not the CEO, he's awesome), chronic disorganization, internal politics are completely opaque, and the very young workforce lacks some degree of insight.
- 4.0Inspiring Internship Experience with Real ImpactSoftware Engineer - Intern • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesOctober 22, 2025Pros: Incredible company culture focused on creativity and kindness. My team trusted me with impactful projects that reached millions of users, and mentorship was outstanding. I got to contribute to both UI and backend work while learning best practices from experienced engineers. The environment truly encourages learning, collaboration, and innovation.Cons: Onboarding for some internal tools can be confusing at first. Because Pinterest uses a large monorepo and custom frameworks, it takes time to ramp up. Additionally, since it’s a hybrid environment, you might miss some in-person bonding if you’re not based near HQ.
Pinterest Interview Questions
