Chewy Software Engineer interviews typically run 3–6 rounds: recruiter screen, online assessment, technical coding, behavioral, and sometimes system design or debugging. The process completes in under three weeks and is notably customer-mindset-heavy compared to typical SWE loops.
$119K
Avg. Base Comp
$205K
Avg. Total Comp
4-6
Typical Rounds
2-4 weeks
Process Length
What strikes us most about Chewy's software engineer process is how deliberately the company embeds its customer-first identity into the interview itself. This isn't just a behavioral checkbox — it's a recurring theme that shows up at every stage. Multiple candidates reported being asked specifically about a time they went above and beyond for a customer or end user, and the framing of those questions maps closely to Chewy's operating principles. If you can't connect your technical work to real user or business impact, you'll struggle here even if your code is clean.
The technical bar is genuinely approachable — easy-to-medium LeetCode, classic data structures like stacks and trees, and Java fundamentals like ArrayList vs. arrays or hashmap vs. map. What's more telling is how candidates are evaluated on those problems. We've seen candidates who solved everything correctly still get rejected, while others who needed a nudge along the way received offers. The interviewers seem to weight communication and process clarity heavily — one candidate specifically noted the interviewer wanted them to talk through every step out loud and was actively helpful rather than silent. That's a signal about what they're really measuring.
The non-obvious risk in this process is the subjectivity at the senior levels. A recurring pattern in rejections is that Staff Engineers and Sr. Directors probe hard on whether your past projects had organizational impact, not just technical correctness. One rejected candidate explained their business impact clearly but felt the interviewer wasn't convinced of its uniqueness. Stack fit also matters more than candidates expect — one finalist was explicitly told the rejection came down to insufficient Spring Boot and AWS experience. Know the job description cold, and be ready to speak to their specific tools.
Synthesized from 9 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Chewy process.
I went into the Chewy software engineer interview expecting a pretty standard mix of behavioral and coding, and that’s basically what it was, just with a lot more emphasis on customer mindset than I expected. The first step was a recruiter screen with a bunch of behavioral questions. After that, I had a technical round and another behavioral round. The technical portion was leetcode easy, nothing especially tricky, and the behavioral questions were straightforward too, mostly centered on their principles and customer focus. One of the recurring themes was being able to talk about a time I went above and beyond for a customer, so I’d definitely prepare a strong example for that. In another round, the interviewer spent about half an hour on behavior and Java knowledge, including OOP concepts and the difference between ArrayList and arrays, then about 25 minutes on coding and a few minutes for questions at the end. The coding itself wasn’t hard, but the interview felt very direct and the interviewer came across as pretty unfriendly, which made the experience less comfortable than it needed to be.
The process also seemed to scale up depending on the team. I had one version that was just a behavioral round followed by a technical round, and another that turned into a hiring manager interview plus an onsite of four back-to-back interviews, all behavioral. Those behavioral rounds were described as similar to Amazon’s style, but less intense, and the advice that helped most was to really study the job description and prepare examples that map to the company’s principles. Overall, the process felt more customer-service oriented than algorithm-heavy, with easy coding and a lot of emphasis on how you work with people and handle customer situations. I ended up not getting an offer in my process, but another process did result in an accepted offer, so the experience can vary a bit by team and interviewer.
Prep tip from this candidate
Prepare a few concrete stories about going above and beyond for a customer, and be ready to tie them back to the company principles. Also review basic Java concepts like OOP and the difference between ArrayList and arrays, since the coding round was described as leetcode easy but paired with Java knowledge questions.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Chewy
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Customer Orders | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Retailer Data Warehouse | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Valid Anagram | |
| Monthly Product Sales | |
| Max Quantity | |
| String Palindromes | |
| Find Mismatched Words | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| Weighted Average Sales | |
| Generative AI Privacy | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Prime to N | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Scrambled Tickets | |
| Over-Budget Projects | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| Over 100 Dollars | |
| P-value to a Layman |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Some candidates receive a HackerRank or OA shortly after applying, sometimes within hours. The assessment is generally easy to medium difficulty and may include an OOP or DSA focus, and is not considered a major filter.
A phone call with a recruiter covering your background, resume, salary expectations, and interest in Chewy. The recruiter may also discuss the role, office locations, and walk you through what to expect in the rest of the process.
A round with a software engineer split roughly evenly between technical or behavioral questions and a live HackerRank or LeetCode-style coding problem. Questions may include Java fundamentals such as ArrayList vs. arrays or hashmap vs. map, plus one easy-to-medium DSA problem.
A conversational deep dive into your current work, past decisions, and how your experience maps to the role. The hiring manager may ask detailed follow-up questions about your responsibilities and the business impact of your projects.
A series of back-to-back interviews, typically two to four rounds, covering behavioral questions in STAR format, a LeetCode-style coding problem, and potentially a system design, debugging, or JavaScript/React round depending on the team. Behavioral questions are Amazon-style but less intense, with a strong emphasis on customer focus and operating principles.