Process
Stripe has some very nice people, which I wasn't able to find in many other places.
My phone interviewer was a senior engineer. They were extremely friendly and kind, even though I had some technical difficulties setting up Hangout at first and later had some issues with my runtime on my laptop.
They brought me onsite a few weeks later for four interviews plus lunch. I liked that for coding questions, you get to work on your own IDE and can Google things like APIs for libraries.
The first interview felt a lot like a normal engineering task rather than a typical problem-solving question, which was neat because I felt it was closer to reality.
The second was debugging an open-source codebase. I didn't do well in that one because I wasn't that familiar with the particular subject matter. Also, I felt like the interviewer wasn't as helpful as they could have been, but I could be biased.
The third interview was the weirdest and actually the easiest of all interviews: a straightforward problem-solving coding question. The interviewer seemed very detached from the beginning and barely said anything during the whole interview. Unfortunately, I misunderstood the problem statement. Even though I communicated my interpretation of it upfront and asked for confirmation to proceed, the interviewer said "sure" and didn't catch it until halfway into the interview. I had to rewrite most of the code because of that. I did finish the coding part and some testing in the time left, but the interviewer didn't seem impressed or happy, just total detachment and a fake, forced politeness.
The fourth was a design question. The question was interesting, and the person was nice, and it went well.
I got a rejection a day later, and the recruiter (who was very nice) was able to give me some feedback after I asked for it, which was nice. In general, the feedback aligned with my suspicions.
Overall, a nice people and positive experience, except for the one interviewer who didn't really do their job.
Questions
Not your typical hard problem-solving.
No need to do extra preparation other than be familiar with the tools you use every day.
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 201 interview experiences for the Stripe Software Engineer role in United States.
Success Rate
Stripe's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having good feelings for Stripe's Software Engineer interview process in United States.
Stripe Work Experiences
- 5.0Helpful Culture, Big Juggling ActSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesMay 20, 2015Pros: I've made some of my best friends here. Everyone is capable and comes from different backgrounds, and there's a culture of people helping each other. I've always found it easy to ask others for help; almost everyone was ready to make time to answer questions or give advice about something at work.Cons: The usual problems with fast-growing startups: there are some organizational growing pains as the company scales. I feel Stripe handles this very conscientiously, though. There are concerted efforts to make sure teams are working well together and reduce the friction that occurs when it's harder to know the entire company. There's slight imposter syndrome here. Because everyone else is so talented and helpful, it's possible to feel that everyone else is way more capable than you. But hires are made very carefully, so a bit of self-confidence will be useful here. There's also a lot going on, and most roles here have to serve as an interface to many different parts of the company, so at times it can feel like there's a lot to juggle.
- 4.0Good Culture, Hectic PrioritiesSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJuly 7, 2023Pros: Good eng culture and management. Could be hectic in other parts of the company.Cons: - Shifting priorities - Lack of cross-functional support
- 4.0Great Company - Growing Pains GaloreSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeApril 10, 2022Pros: A great company that seems to truly care for its employees. They take feedback seriously (at least from engineers, others less so) and put plans into action when there are complaints about friction. Great pay, great benefits.Cons: Significant growing pains trying to migrate tech debt into something that scales better globally. Too much process, bureaucracy, and politics creeping in, although it is inevitable. Work/life balance is kind of low as there is constant pressure to deliver and show your impact.
Stripe Interview Questions
