By far my favorite interview process I've ever had as a software engineer. Stripe's interview is focused on exploring the skills you use daily as a software engineer and is less concerned about DS/Algo stuff. Below, I'll go over the entire process that I went through last month.

For context, I'm a Senior Software Engineer with 6 years of experience across multiple disciplines such as desktop applications, embedded devices, and web programming. I would consider myself a good engineer, but I'm not very experienced at DS/Algo stuff.

Due to the ease of the language/libraries, I used Python 3 for the interview language (you can use whatever language you want). You should make sure that you have your own programming environment set up for coding/debugging prior to the programming interviews.

1. Recruiter Call: A simple call to go over your resume, experience, and the next steps moving forward.

2. Programming Interview (45 mins): An easy programming question with multiple parts. The focus wasn't on DS/algorithms or the performance of the code, but on readability, functionality, and discussing your solution out loud with the interviewer. I would consider mentioning your thoughts on performance around the problem, but considering your time allocation, focus more on explaining your solution and that you understand the problem/your code. The last 15 minutes were Q/A with the interviewer.

3. Virtual On-Site Interview (1-2 days): Divided into 5 separate rounds, each round being an hour with 50 minutes of actual interview and 10 minutes at the end for Q/A with the interviewer.

   • Programming Interview: Similar to the second part, but a little bit harder. Again, not focused on DS/Algo, but focused on writing clean code and explaining your understanding of the problem/solution.
   • System Design Interview: Focused around a Stripe-like service, where you and the interviewer design a system. I prepped using the website "tryexponent," where they have many hour-long videos discussing how to design common major web applications. The question Stripe asks is less intense than something like "Design YouTube/TikTok/Instagram," but prepping for larger "system design" problems is a better exercise in the long run.
   • Integration Interview: A programming problem focused on using a Stripe API and writing code around the fetching and parsing of responses. The whole interview has multiple parts, each building on top of the previous one, and you solve as many parts as you can within the allotted time (not graded on how many parts you complete).
   • Bug Hunt: A programming problem focused on hunting down a real reported bug in an open-source software GitHub repo (Stripe has branched the repo). The focus is on solving one, two, or three different bugs (depending on time in the interview) within the codebase. The focus is on how you navigate a large, unknown codebase and work through hunting down a bug.
   • Goals/Experience Interview: An interview with an engineering manager around your experience and your career goals.

Overall, an incredible interview process. At no time did I feel unprepared, as the recruiter spends a lot of time setting expectations and providing documents on what to prepare for.

My biggest piece of advice for anyone is to just talk non-stop while programming. Explain every thought, decision, and assumption you are making, and allow the interviewer to see how your brain works as you solve the problems.

Additionally, use your interviewer to bounce questions/advice off of; it's a working interview to see if they'd enjoy working with you as a co-worker.

Best of luck to anyone and everyone!

I signed an NDA, but questions are out there if you Google them.