Upstart

Software Engineer Interview Experience - United States

February 5, 2025

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Call with recruiter who is very friendly.

Second call with the hiring manager which is 1 hour split in half to talk your projects and do a coding question. Went way over time but we got along great.

Third call was another hour long interview for 2 coding questions. 1 was a LeetCode medium and the other was probably a LeetCode hard. Definitely not enough time to solve both and the interviewer was acting like the hour was enough time for both questions and a 10 min Q&A. The second question was unclear and the interviewer was not even aware of the scope he was asking.

Questions

Max array LC coding question

Calculate a quote for a babysitter with different pays for different hours

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 20 interview experiences for the Upstart Software Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

10%

Pass Rate

Upstart's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive50%

Neutral25%

Negative25%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Upstart's Software Engineer interview process in United States.

Upstart Work Experiences

Pay is great but beware - chaotic, political, and cutthroat environment

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Compensation is the only reason I do not give them one star. - Remote work. - Pretty diverse.

Cons: - Incredible amount of politics, process, and red tape for an engineering org on the smaller side - Chaos. There were three re-orgs between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Actual madness. - High turnover is embraced. They will gladly let go of long time high performers with years of tribal knowledge and hire someone new with more experience. You eventually end up with a team where everyone has hardly any domain knowledge. - Fear driven environment. You will hear performance mentioned every week in company comms and how they want everyone to be X% more productive with AI. - Speaking of AI usage, they take it to the next level. Slack messages, Jira tickets, code, design documents. All made with AI. It will be the most overly verbose word slop you can think of and you'll get a pat on the back for being so thorough. My manager seriously told me how she just copied a technical design doc into ChatGPT and read that. Wild. - Cutthroat. With the new focus on productivity gains and measuring performance with PR volume, LOC, and token usage, people hardly review PRs anymore because it gets them nothing. Be prepared to spend lots of time begging your team and other teams for reviews and then waiting. Unless you are good at playing politics and have the time / energy for it, I would avoid this place at all costs. If you are just looking for something short term that pays well and encourages you to use AI for any and everything, this place works well, just don't expect to stick around for long as you're considered a veteran at 2 years with all the turnover they have. I'm glad I left for something else when I did because I see on LinkedIn they've had more layoffs since.

Pay is great but beware - chaotic, political, and cutthroat environment

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Compensation is the only reason I do not give them one star. - Remote work. - Pretty diverse.

Cons: - Incredible amount of politics, process, and red tape for an engineering org on the smaller side - Chaos. There were three re-orgs between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Actual madness. - High turnover is embraced. They will gladly let go of long time high performers with years of tribal knowledge and hire someone new with more experience. You eventually end up with a team where everyone has hardly any domain knowledge. - Fear driven environment. You will hear performance mentioned every week in company comms and how they want everyone to be X% more productive with AI. - Speaking of AI usage, they take it to the next level. Slack messages, Jira tickets, code, design documents. All made with AI. It will be the most overly verbose word slop you can think of and you'll get a pat on the back for being so thorough. My manager seriously told me how she just copied a technical design doc into ChatGPT and read that. Wild. - Cutthroat. With the new focus on productivity gains and measuring performance with PR volume, LOC, and token usage, people hardly review PRs anymore because it gets them nothing. Be prepared to spend lots of time begging your team and other teams for reviews and then waiting. Unless you are good at playing politics and have the time / energy for it, I would avoid this place at all costs. If you are just looking for something short term that pays well and encourages you to use AI for any and everything, this place works well, just don't expect to stick around for long as you're considered a veteran at 2 years with all the turnover they have. I'm glad I left for something else when I did because I see on LinkedIn they've had more layoffs since.

Fantastic team

Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York

Pros: People on the team were fantastic, as for the company nothing we can do with the rates going up.

Cons: The loan company in this market is rough.

Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York

Pros: People on the team were fantastic, as for the company nothing we can do with the rates going up.

Cons: The loan company in this market is rough.

A relaxed and supportive culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 4, 2023

Pros: The company’s culture is very relaxed, encouraging good work-life balance and emphasizing vacation time off.

Cons: Remote work is heavily promoted. I’m sure this is great for a lot of employees, but for me it means I don’t leave my house during the work weeks.

A relaxed and supportive culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 4, 2023

Pros: The company’s culture is very relaxed, encouraging good work-life balance and emphasizing vacation time off.

Cons: Remote work is heavily promoted. I’m sure this is great for a lot of employees, but for me it means I don’t leave my house during the work weeks.

Pay is great but beware - chaotic, political, and cutthroat environment

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Compensation is the only reason I do not give them one star. - Remote work. - Pretty diverse.

Cons: - Incredible amount of politics, process, and red tape for an engineering org on the smaller side - Chaos. There were three re-orgs between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Actual madness. - High turnover is embraced. They will gladly let go of long time high performers with years of tribal knowledge and hire someone new with more experience. You eventually end up with a team where everyone has hardly any domain knowledge. - Fear driven environment. You will hear performance mentioned every week in company comms and how they want everyone to be X% more productive with AI. - Speaking of AI usage, they take it to the next level. Slack messages, Jira tickets, code, design documents. All made with AI. It will be the most overly verbose word slop you can think of and you'll get a pat on the back for being so thorough. My manager seriously told me how she just copied a technical design doc into ChatGPT and read that. Wild. - Cutthroat. With the new focus on productivity gains and measuring performance with PR volume, LOC, and token usage, people hardly review PRs anymore because it gets them nothing. Be prepared to spend lots of time begging your team and other teams for reviews and then waiting. Unless you are good at playing politics and have the time / energy for it, I would avoid this place at all costs. If you are just looking for something short term that pays well and encourages you to use AI for any and everything, this place works well, just don't expect to stick around for long as you're considered a veteran at 2 years with all the turnover they have. I'm glad I left for something else when I did because I see on LinkedIn they've had more layoffs since.

2.0
Pay is great but beware - chaotic, political, and cutthroat environment
Software Engineer • Former Employee
June 10, 2026
Pros: - Compensation is the only reason I do not give them one star. - Remote work. - Pretty diverse.
Cons: - Incredible amount of politics, process, and red tape for an engineering org on the smaller side - Chaos. There were three re-orgs between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Actual madness. - High turnover is embraced. They will gladly let go of long time high performers with years of tribal knowledge and hire someone new with more experience. You eventually end up with a team where everyone has hardly any domain knowledge. - Fear driven environment. You will hear performance mentioned every week in company comms and how they want everyone to be X% more productive with AI. - Speaking of AI usage, they take it to the next level. Slack messages, Jira tickets, code, design documents. All made with AI. It will be the most overly verbose word slop you can think of and you'll get a pat on the back for being so thorough. My manager seriously told me how she just copied a technical design doc into ChatGPT and read that. Wild. - Cutthroat. With the new focus on productivity gains and measuring performance with PR volume, LOC, and token usage, people hardly review PRs anymore because it gets them nothing. Be prepared to spend lots of time begging your team and other teams for reviews and then waiting. Unless you are good at playing politics and have the time / energy for it, I would avoid this place at all costs. If you are just looking for something short term that pays well and encourages you to use AI for any and everything, this place works well, just don't expect to stick around for long as you're considered a veteran at 2 years with all the turnover they have. I'm glad I left for something else when I did because I see on LinkedIn they've had more layoffs since.

Fantastic team

Software Engineer • Former Employee

New York, New York

Pros: People on the team were fantastic, as for the company nothing we can do with the rates going up.

Cons: The loan company in this market is rough.

4.0
Fantastic team
Software Engineer • Former Employee
New York, New York
April 11, 2024
Pros: People on the team were fantastic, as for the company nothing we can do with the rates going up.
Cons: The loan company in this market is rough.

A relaxed and supportive culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 4, 2023

Pros: The company’s culture is very relaxed, encouraging good work-life balance and emphasizing vacation time off.

Cons: Remote work is heavily promoted. I’m sure this is great for a lot of employees, but for me it means I don’t leave my house during the work weeks.

5.0
A relaxed and supportive culture
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Columbus, Ohio
February 4, 2023
Pros: The company’s culture is very relaxed, encouraging good work-life balance and emphasizing vacation time off.
Cons: Remote work is heavily promoted. I’m sure this is great for a lot of employees, but for me it means I don’t leave my house during the work weeks.

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