Site Reliability Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
Phone screen with a live coding question followed by an on-site interview.
Thumbtack has one of the nicest offices I've ever visited. The on-site interview questions were not difficult. The coding question was easy and fair, though I could not finish it in the time given. I may have talked too much before the question was given, depriving me of valuable coding time.
There was a troubleshooting session involving a very unlikely scenario. I thought it was absurd, but as the interviewee, I played along. The interviewer probably had the intention of measuring your system knowledge. In my personal opinion, the question did a bad job of that and just measured your knowledge of system trivia. The other interview sessions were fair.
Questions
NDA
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Thumbtack Site Reliability Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Thumbtack's interview process for their Site Reliability 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 Thumbtack's Site Reliability Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Thumbtack Work Experiences
- 2.0Failed Leadership and Lack of Oversight or ControlSite Reliability Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, CAAugust 18, 2020Pros: Thumbtack faces interesting challenges as a marketplace with the goal of providing immediate feedback to users. The company is at a scale where there are serious problems to tackle on the product, BI, and technical sides of the company.Cons: Leadership is poor and has a high turnover rate. Management does not care for their reports and ICs are left to fend for themselves. Decisions are made based on who speaks the loudest, defaulting to whoever has the highest level. ICs have little input in what they work on and sometimes boil down to little more than highly-paid contractors instead of software engineers. This leads to an overall culture where engineering holds the product hostage and blocks (purposefully or otherwise) the implementation of new features.
- 5.0An amazing placeSite Reliability Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, CADecember 9, 2015Pros: Everyone's really committed to excellence. The people are incredibly friendly, intelligent, and reasonable. Management structure is very flat and highly transparent. The company's mission, to make it easier for small businesses to connect to prospective customers, is very motivating. The food is phenomenal! The working environment is quirky and fun. IT staff is excellent and responsive. I haven't had a negative experience with a single employee. I enjoy coming to work! Terrific benefits and a flexible hours, unlimited PTO policy ensures people stay healthy and rested. I think this company has a tremendous future ahead of it, and I'm happy to be a part of it.Cons: I live in mid-Peninsula and the commute is a bit longer for me, but I can use the exercise. It's a nice half-hour walk from Caltrain, and only four blocks to BART.
- 5.0Excellent place to grow alongside kind peopleSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeLos Angeles, CAOctober 10, 2025Pros: - great people - fully remote - decent wlbCons: - no clear cut path to liquidity
Thumbtack Interview Questions
