Upstart

Sr. Software Engineer Interview Experience - United States

April 1, 2026

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

What a weird interview, or recruiter call.

Recruiter joined the call and got my name wrong, so knew immediately this was going to go sideways. They told me absolutely nothing about the company what they do, what they’re looking for.

Then got basic questions about my career. The recruiter couldn’t really grasp that one man teams really do exist at disorganized companies, so I think they had trouble understanding what full stack actually means outside of Upstart. They kept rewording questions trying get me to explain what my teammates do, when in reality I explained that I don’t have any.

Then was told of the next interview steps. A take home coding challenge, then a virtual onsite with atleast 3 more interviews and a live coding challenge. Then interviews (more than one) with team members. How many interviews are we doing here? Then they will ask for references, and doubled down on how they take those seriously. Lol, okay?

I was honestly out on Upstart after hearing the interview steps. Wasn’t surprised to get rejected 24hrs later.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Upstart Sr. Software Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

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

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

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

Upstart Work Experiences

Challenging, Fulfilling Work with an Amazing Team

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Carlos, California

Pros: I joined Upstart looking for a challenging startup environment with a healthy work/life balance and greater responsibility than I had at my previous company—a tall order for sure, but Upstart has come through in every way. The founding team and executive staff are incredible (CTO in particular gets a special shout out from me), benefits and compensation are great, and the work is in service of a product that helps normal people in a not-insignificant way. The environment is one where everyone is working as hard as they can to make good things happen—it's incredibly motivating. The company is small enough at this point that I can attest that literally nobody is a jerk, and everyone feels like a vital part of the success.

Cons: Office is a little far away from stuff (although there's a great cafe with a wide variety in the neighboring building).

Challenging, Fulfilling Work with an Amazing Team

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Carlos, California

Pros: I joined Upstart looking for a challenging startup environment with a healthy work/life balance and greater responsibility than I had at my previous company—a tall order for sure, but Upstart has come through in every way. The founding team and executive staff are incredible (CTO in particular gets a special shout out from me), benefits and compensation are great, and the work is in service of a product that helps normal people in a not-insignificant way. The environment is one where everyone is working as hard as they can to make good things happen—it's incredibly motivating. The company is small enough at this point that I can attest that literally nobody is a jerk, and everyone feels like a vital part of the success.

Cons: Office is a little far away from stuff (although there's a great cafe with a wide variety in the neighboring building).

Poorly managed engineering

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: The pay was good. The perks were good.

Cons: It was a bad engineering culture. It was more so about the process and productivity versus the actual people and personalities. However, there was a definite sense of who they value and who they don't. There was very poor management. My perspective was limited to Senior Managers and Directors. It seems almost as if many never held positions of that level. There was secret room planning and technical strategy that hardly ever made it down to the individual contributors. The IC input was more of a checkbox. They were very narrow focused when implementing new tooling and technologies. Maybe half the use cases were ever even taken into consideration. It was extremely hard to be productive in Upstart Engineering specifically the Platform division. Teams simply could not own end to end and function autonomously due to Silos and nested Silos within the organization structure.

Poorly managed engineering

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: The pay was good. The perks were good.

Cons: It was a bad engineering culture. It was more so about the process and productivity versus the actual people and personalities. However, there was a definite sense of who they value and who they don't. There was very poor management. My perspective was limited to Senior Managers and Directors. It seems almost as if many never held positions of that level. There was secret room planning and technical strategy that hardly ever made it down to the individual contributors. The IC input was more of a checkbox. They were very narrow focused when implementing new tooling and technologies. Maybe half the use cases were ever even taken into consideration. It was extremely hard to be productive in Upstart Engineering specifically the Platform division. Teams simply could not own end to end and function autonomously due to Silos and nested Silos within the organization structure.

Visionless Company and Org

Senior Quality Engineer • Current Employee

San Mateo, California

Pros: 1. The average pay. 2. Good WLB.

Cons: 1. Constant reprioritization 2. Non technical PMs and EMs 3. Engg reporting into CTO who does not have a tech background and comes from product 4. Upper management is not transparent

Visionless Company and Org

Senior Quality Engineer • Current Employee

San Mateo, California

Pros: 1. The average pay. 2. Good WLB.

Cons: 1. Constant reprioritization 2. Non technical PMs and EMs 3. Engg reporting into CTO who does not have a tech background and comes from product 4. Upper management is not transparent

Challenging, Fulfilling Work with an Amazing Team

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Carlos, California

Pros: I joined Upstart looking for a challenging startup environment with a healthy work/life balance and greater responsibility than I had at my previous company—a tall order for sure, but Upstart has come through in every way. The founding team and executive staff are incredible (CTO in particular gets a special shout out from me), benefits and compensation are great, and the work is in service of a product that helps normal people in a not-insignificant way. The environment is one where everyone is working as hard as they can to make good things happen—it's incredibly motivating. The company is small enough at this point that I can attest that literally nobody is a jerk, and everyone feels like a vital part of the success.

Cons: Office is a little far away from stuff (although there's a great cafe with a wide variety in the neighboring building).

5.0
Challenging, Fulfilling Work with an Amazing Team
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Carlos, California
April 14, 2016
Pros: I joined Upstart looking for a challenging startup environment with a healthy work/life balance and greater responsibility than I had at my previous company—a tall order for sure, but Upstart has come through in every way. The founding team and executive staff are incredible (CTO in particular gets a special shout out from me), benefits and compensation are great, and the work is in service of a product that helps normal people in a not-insignificant way. The environment is one where everyone is working as hard as they can to make good things happen—it's incredibly motivating. The company is small enough at this point that I can attest that literally nobody is a jerk, and everyone feels like a vital part of the success.
Cons: Office is a little far away from stuff (although there's a great cafe with a wide variety in the neighboring building).

Poorly managed engineering

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: The pay was good. The perks were good.

Cons: It was a bad engineering culture. It was more so about the process and productivity versus the actual people and personalities. However, there was a definite sense of who they value and who they don't. There was very poor management. My perspective was limited to Senior Managers and Directors. It seems almost as if many never held positions of that level. There was secret room planning and technical strategy that hardly ever made it down to the individual contributors. The IC input was more of a checkbox. They were very narrow focused when implementing new tooling and technologies. Maybe half the use cases were ever even taken into consideration. It was extremely hard to be productive in Upstart Engineering specifically the Platform division. Teams simply could not own end to end and function autonomously due to Silos and nested Silos within the organization structure.

2.0
Poorly managed engineering
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
May 10, 2024
Pros: The pay was good. The perks were good.
Cons: It was a bad engineering culture. It was more so about the process and productivity versus the actual people and personalities. However, there was a definite sense of who they value and who they don't. There was very poor management. My perspective was limited to Senior Managers and Directors. It seems almost as if many never held positions of that level. There was secret room planning and technical strategy that hardly ever made it down to the individual contributors. The IC input was more of a checkbox. They were very narrow focused when implementing new tooling and technologies. Maybe half the use cases were ever even taken into consideration. It was extremely hard to be productive in Upstart Engineering specifically the Platform division. Teams simply could not own end to end and function autonomously due to Silos and nested Silos within the organization structure.

Visionless Company and Org

Senior Quality Engineer • Current Employee

San Mateo, California

Pros: 1. The average pay. 2. Good WLB.

Cons: 1. Constant reprioritization 2. Non technical PMs and EMs 3. Engg reporting into CTO who does not have a tech background and comes from product 4. Upper management is not transparent

2.0
Visionless Company and Org
Senior Quality Engineer • Current Employee
San Mateo, California
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Pros: 1. The average pay. 2. Good WLB.
Cons: 1. Constant reprioritization 2. Non technical PMs and EMs 3. Engg reporting into CTO who does not have a tech background and comes from product 4. Upper management is not transparent

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