Three candidates describe Shipt engineering interviews that mix recruiter and phone screens with technical problem-solving, code reading, and design discussion. This guide covers what they were asked and how to prepare.
$130K
Avg. Base Comp
$153K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Candidates who interviewed for engineering roles at Shipt describe a process that leans toward practical reasoning over pure algorithm drills, though the three reports differ by role and level. One candidate was told the technical round would be a conversation, yet was given a problem in Coderpad and, with only 45 minutes, talked through the solution verbally. The same interview touched on SOLID principles and REST API design. Expect to explain your thinking out loud, even when a round is described as casual.
A full stack candidate reports a phone screen, two interview rounds, and then a final loop of back-to-back conversations with four team engineers and a product manager. Questions included a palindrome problem, a front-end question about handling onclick events, and a URL shortener that called for design trade-offs. That candidate found the interviewers friendly and interested in reasoning, and described the process as taking a couple of months.
A Staff Engineer candidate for a Golang role describes two phone conversations and a three-hour virtual onsite made up of three one-hour interviews. The main technical task in the last session was reading Golang snippets, spotting issues, and suggesting improvements. Interviewers also asked about recent hands-on coding, so have a recent project ready to discuss in detail.
All three candidates reported rejections, so treat this as a small sample. Practice clear verbal explanations, REST and object-oriented design basics, simple data-structure problems, and a concrete walkthrough of your own work.
Synthesized from 4 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Shipt process.
The whole process took a couple of months from start to finish, which gave me time to prepare between rounds. I started with a phone screen where the recruiter asked why I was looking for a new opportunity — pretty straightforward. After that came two rounds of interviews before the final loop, which was the most extensive part. In that final round, I had back-to-back conversations with four engineers from the team I'd be working with, plus a PM. Everyone was genuinely friendly and helpful, which made the experience feel collaborative rather than adversarial. The technical questions weren't overly difficult — they leaned more toward practical problem-solving than algorithmic grinding. I remember being asked about a palindrome problem and then a front-end rendering question about handling onclick events. There was also a URL shortener problem that required thinking through design trade-offs. The interviewers seemed interested in my approach and reasoning rather than just getting the perfect answer. Throughout it all, the team felt approachable and the conversations felt natural. Even when I had some logistical hiccups early on with scheduling, the team worked with me to make it happen.
Prep tip from this candidate
While the technical bar isn't extremely high, prepare concrete examples from past projects you can walk through in detail — that seems to be a bigger focus than pure algorithm practice. Be ready for a final round with 4–5 interviewers, so pace your energy and bring fresh enthusiasm to each conversation.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Shipt
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| String Shift | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Daily Retention Summary | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Flight Records | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| Prime to N | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| Delivery Estimate Model | |
| Recurring Character | |
| Friendship Timeline | |
| Month Over Month | |
| Project Pairs | |
| Address Schema | |
| Retailer Data Warehouse | |
| Nearest Common Ancestor | |
| Permutation Palindrome |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
One candidate reports an opening recruiter call about why they were looking for a new role. A Staff Engineer candidate describes two phone conversations before the onsite. Expect a motivation conversation first, and possibly a technical chat, depending on level.
One candidate was told this round would be a conversation, but a Senior Software Engineer gave a problem in Coderpad. With 45 minutes available, they solved it verbally. SOLID principles and REST API design also came up, so prepare to reason aloud, even if the round is billed as casual.
A full stack candidate reports two interview rounds before the final loop. Questions included a palindrome problem, an onclick rendering question, and a URL shortener design. That candidate found the problems practical rather than hard algorithm puzzles, though this comes from a single report.
The full stack candidate describes back-to-back conversations with four engineers and a PM. The Staff Engineer candidate describes three one-hour interviews over three hours, including Golang snippet review to find issues and propose fixes. Format may vary by role, so prepare project walkthroughs and code-reading practice.
One candidate reports a rejection a week after the technical interview. The Staff Engineer candidate heard nothing for two weeks, emailed, and was told the team had chosen another candidate. Timing can vary, so follow up politely if a decision is delayed.
