What candidates report about interviewing for engineering roles at Affinity.co: a recruiter call, coding, system design, and leadership conversations, drawn from four reports that all ended without an offer.
$158K
Avg. Base Comp
$185K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Four candidates who interviewed for engineering roles at Affinity.co describe overlapping stages, though not every candidate reported every step. The stages include a recruiter or HR call, a coding stage, a system design conversation, and, for some, time with engineering leadership. Their roles ranged from Software Engineer II to Senior Software Engineer and Engineering Manager, so read the details as role-adjacent rather than identical. None of the four received an offer.
Coding is where the clearest detail comes from. One senior candidate had a 45-minute live session on parsing and retrieving data as if it were stored in a CSV. That candidate was allowed to use Google and ChatGPT during the session. An Engineering Manager candidate said they failed the coding challenge and never got a clear explanation. A Software Engineer II candidate called the first technical screen fairly easy, then saw the same problem again with a different interviewer.
System design came up in three reports. A manager-track candidate said a Staff Engineer started with a simple problem and layered on requirements to test trade-offs. Another candidate was asked to design a blog, and a third described a systems design round without more detail. Start from requirements and scope before drawing components.
Expect questions about your background too. The Software Engineer II candidate said conversations kept returning to past projects. A manager-track candidate was told the mismatch was about working style. Feedback varied: three candidates got little or none, while another said HR explained the decision. Ask for specific feedback after each stage.
Synthesized from 4 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Featured question at Affinity.co
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
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| Monthly Customer Report | |
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| Prime to N | |
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| Minimum Change | |
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| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
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| Scrambled Tickets | |
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| Flight Records | |
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| P-value to a Layman | |
| Daily Retention Summary | |
| Project Pairs |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates describe opening with a recruiter or HR call. One senior candidate found it casual, with the recruiter explaining what Affinity does and asking standard background questions. A manager-track candidate covered experience and what drew them to the role. Prepare a concise career summary and a clear reason for wanting this role.
One senior candidate reports a 45-minute live coding session over a shared link with an SDE II, on a CSV-style parsing and retrieval problem, with Google and ChatGPT allowed. A Software Engineer II candidate called their technical screen fairly easy, and an Engineering Manager candidate reported failing the coding challenge. Practice edge cases such as empty fields and quoted values.
Reports diverge here. A Software Engineer II candidate describes a second technical screen that repeated the first problem with a different interviewer. A manager-track candidate describes a conversation with the Engineering VP. Be ready to solve a problem cleanly twice and to go deep on past projects, which dominated the SWE II candidate's conversations.
Three candidates mention system design. One manager-track candidate says a Staff Engineer began with a simple problem and layered on requirements to probe trade-offs. Another was asked to design a blog. A Software Engineer II candidate had a systems design round as part of a longer virtual block. Practice clarifying requirements, sketching a simple design, and adapting it as constraints grow.
The Software Engineer II candidate reports a chat with the CTO within a four-hour virtual onsite block. A manager-track candidate met someone from Product and was later told their working style did not fit the team. Another candidate felt bias toward people similar to the interviewers. Prepare concrete collaboration examples and ask for specific feedback afterward.
