Process
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks.
I applied for a job I thought I had skills for (in devEx), but after talking to the recruiter he didn't think this would be a good fit for me and suggested another position in Routing org. I didn't think I'd have the right skills for it, but figured I can still give it a try. It sounded like an interesting problem to solve.
The recruiter was one of the best ones I have worked with so far. He was very detail oriented, provided excellent personalized prep and feedback. Even after a rejection dedicated time to talk through feedback in person. While I didn't progress to the next stage I really enjoyed going through that process and wish more recruiters were like that.
Questions
Design a system for an app to turn on/off a remote smart bulb. As you prep for this, make sure you really understand the tech to use in depth. You can't just know the basics for this since the interviewer will dig deep and will ding only surface knowledge.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 5 interview experiences for the Samsara Staff Software Engineer role.
Success Rate
0%
Pass Rate
Samsara's interview process for their Staff Software Engineer roles is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive60%
Neutral20%
Negative20%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Samsara's Staff Software Engineer interview process.
Samsara Work Experiences
5.0
Good work culture and people
Software Engineering Intern • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
February 23, 2025
Pros: Good WLB
Intelligent People
Responsible development
Cons: WLB might be team dependent.
Slower pace.
3.0
Speed over Quality, Product over Developer experience
Software Engineer II • Current Employee
September 23, 2025
Pros: - Easy to work on a lot of greenfield initiatives.
- Dev culture is supportive & people are generally very friendly.
- Equity program.
Cons: - Operational guidelines change seemingly randomly. One year, the rubric for performance reviews was updated two weeks before the actual review cycle started.
- The company also recently decided to focus on "Eliminating Bureaucracy" as an operating principle, but is not consistent about enforcing this as a standard. So, there is lots of red tape for devs and less for leadership.
- Praise and promotions are focused more on leadership and product-facing employees rather than developers. There are teams where no devs have been promoted in years, despite high delivery and impact.
- It's a very long process to hire engineers. VPs apparently need to sign off on hiring decisions and can veto a candidate even if they have been approved by the hiring committee and engineering team.
- Testing is sacrificed in favor of speed, so teams spend a lot of extra time fixing bugs and handling incidents rather than building features.
- All legacy systems have been offshored. So, if you're in the US working on a project that relies on an existing feature that's now managed in Poland, you will have to work odd hours or deal with a time gap between all communications.
- The company does not offer "unlimited PTO". It's really four weeks, and it has become more heavily scrutinized over the years. Many other benefits have been reduced as well, such as caregiver and medical leave, and some initiatives like Sabbatical fully revoked.
- This company is definitely operating like a startup even though it's 10 years old. Con for me, but maybe it's a pro for others.
- Surveys are sent out to developers to gauge happiness, but the results are not discussed with the developers themselves. Feels like nothing comes out of speaking up.
5.0
Best company I ever worked for
Software Engineer • Former Employee
July 12, 2022
Pros: - Great tech stack
- Really smart colleagues
- Great work-life balance
- Interesting tech problem
- Huge market opportunity
- Stock could climb up a lot in the next 4 years
Cons: - Recent engineering hiring is not great; keep up the talent bar.
- The pace of innovation has decreased.
- 5.0Good work culture and peopleSoftware Engineering Intern • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesFebruary 23, 2025Pros: Good WLB Intelligent People Responsible developmentCons: WLB might be team dependent. Slower pace.
- 3.0Speed over Quality, Product over Developer experienceSoftware Engineer II • Current EmployeeSeptember 23, 2025Pros: - Easy to work on a lot of greenfield initiatives. - Dev culture is supportive & people are generally very friendly. - Equity program.Cons: - Operational guidelines change seemingly randomly. One year, the rubric for performance reviews was updated two weeks before the actual review cycle started. - The company also recently decided to focus on "Eliminating Bureaucracy" as an operating principle, but is not consistent about enforcing this as a standard. So, there is lots of red tape for devs and less for leadership. - Praise and promotions are focused more on leadership and product-facing employees rather than developers. There are teams where no devs have been promoted in years, despite high delivery and impact. - It's a very long process to hire engineers. VPs apparently need to sign off on hiring decisions and can veto a candidate even if they have been approved by the hiring committee and engineering team. - Testing is sacrificed in favor of speed, so teams spend a lot of extra time fixing bugs and handling incidents rather than building features. - All legacy systems have been offshored. So, if you're in the US working on a project that relies on an existing feature that's now managed in Poland, you will have to work odd hours or deal with a time gap between all communications. - The company does not offer "unlimited PTO". It's really four weeks, and it has become more heavily scrutinized over the years. Many other benefits have been reduced as well, such as caregiver and medical leave, and some initiatives like Sabbatical fully revoked. - This company is definitely operating like a startup even though it's 10 years old. Con for me, but maybe it's a pro for others. - Surveys are sent out to developers to gauge happiness, but the results are not discussed with the developers themselves. Feels like nothing comes out of speaking up.
- 5.0Best company I ever worked forSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeJuly 12, 2022Pros: - Great tech stack - Really smart colleagues - Great work-life balance - Interesting tech problem - Huge market opportunity - Stock could climb up a lot in the next 4 yearsCons: - Recent engineering hiring is not great; keep up the talent bar. - The pace of innovation has decreased.
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