Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
I applied online and had a brief talk with a recruiter. I received the "you will solve challenging problems with great coworkers and change the world" pitch. Subsequently, I was given a coding challenge, which I completed.
One part of the challenge required me to answer a few questions as a "support engineer." Therefore, I asked the recruiter if I was being considered for the software engineer position I had specifically applied for, or for the support engineer position.
She informed me that the role was for a support engineer and stated they would be moving forward with other candidates.
It is bad practice, extremely rude, and completely unacceptable to string candidates along to try and fill less desirable roles. I only discovered this after finishing the coding challenge and inquiring about the specific position. Upon being told it was for the support engineer role, I was immediately rejected after asking.
I experienced a bait-and-switch and feel my time was wasted.
Questions
No questions. The recruiter interview told me about how employees "solve challenging problems with great coworkers and change the world."
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 13 interview experiences for the Plaid Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Plaid's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Plaid's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Plaid Work Experiences
- 3.0Cool but not for everyoneSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, CANovember 20, 2025Pros: Nice office, nice food, and good benefits.Cons: Boring projects and work, valuation that is too high, and not going public any time soon.
- 5.0👍Software Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, CAJuly 20, 2020Pros: - Plaid cares a ton about employee happiness and company culture - Competitive comp - Extremely mission and principles driven company - Has a solid core product offering, but is still pushing out into new territory with new products and ideas all the time - 3x yearly company hackathon is amazing - Genuinely the smartest yet most humble engineering team that I have ever worked on.Cons: - Company has doubled in size in the last year, so there has been almost constant re-orging and mitosis of teams and groups, which is a little chaotic. - Doesn't invest enough into open sourcing great things that we have built internally. - Some systems have very high bus factors, and basically we always desperately need more engineers on everything :P
- 5.0Solid business, really friendly teamSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, CAOctober 10, 2017Pros: - The company seems to really care about the sustainability of the company. - Unlike a lot of other Silicon Valley startups, the company is keeping a close eye on revenue growth, costs, and long-term sustainability. - It could be a pro or con depending on who you are, but the founders are extremely internally focused and very involved in the day-to-day. - An experienced but really approachable engineering team. - Engineering problems are really unique and challenging.Cons: - Not very well known, probably due to the founders being mostly internally focused - Fairly quiet and secretive externally - People mispronounce our name all the time
Plaid Interview Questions
