Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California
Process
The typical format:
- Recruiter screening
- Technical screening
- Onsite
The onsite itself was for about a half day, with 4-5 rounds and lunch with the potential boss. In one round, the interviewer literally made up the question on the spot. I had to help him compose the question. In two other rounds, the questions were almost exactly identical. I could tell that they did not coordinate with each other at all before asking me these questions. The last round was a system design question, and the interviewer there was nice and polite.
I just had an up and down experience with this process. None of the questions were difficult, but none of the questions seemed to be prepared either. It was almost too easy and open-ended that I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong. I had extra time to spare in each round, but there wasn't much substance in each question to adequately test my knowledge of the subject matter.
No call to explain what happened, just the standard rejection email. Kind of a bummer, and a waste of my time.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 13 interview experiences for the Zendesk Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.
Success Rate
Zendesk's interview process for their Software 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 Zendesk's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.
Zendesk Work Experiences
- 4.0Great company if they can continue the momentum and culture and update on timeSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJune 11, 2019Pros: The company has a great culture, and they take care of their employees very well. They are expanding a lot faster, but this is putting stability at risk sometimes. Overall, the company is a good place to work. Some of the teams' work might be boring.Cons: Salaries and benefits are not up to the market rate, but stock doing great is the best thing. Hiring too many middle managers is making things complicated and giving a feel of a large organization rather than a startup or mid-size company.
- 5.0Love this placeSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesFebruary 4, 2013Pros: Great people and managers. The employees really seem to love the company and the product, and believe in its focus. The customers love the product too. Just search for Zendesk on Twitter and see what I mean. How many companies get constant props for their customer service? If you know of any other than Zendesk, then they're probably a customer of Zendesk.Cons: The codebase, both for infrastructure and product, can use quite a bit of work. But it's a result of having to scale so quickly, and it seems to be their main focus now.
- 3.0Needs very strong leadership as the company grows largerSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesSeptember 5, 2016Pros: Opportunities to work on interesting projects. The company has a very good culture, especially in the tech industry. Majority of the organization provides a very well work-life balance. The company has a solid product.Cons: The introduction of mid-level managers is usually a sign of uncertainty in direction. It needs very strong leadership as the company is entering the enterprise world. The company has turned into a sales-driven company instead of an engineering-first company, which is normal to see in the enterprise world. Unfortunately, this is a tough and uncomfortable situation, especially in the engineering organization. The office is unfortunately located in a sketchy and unfriendly neighborhood, especially for those who are not local.
Zendesk Interview Questions
