Substack candidates describe recruiter or HR screens, a hiring-manager or behavioral conversation, a take-home assignment and, in one report, a technical panel. All three reports ended without an offer, with limited feedback.
$195K
Avg. Base Comp
$335K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Three candidates describe interviewing at Substack for engineering roles, and they did not all apply for the same job: one was a flight software engineer, one a senior engineer and one a software engineer. All three ended without an offer, so read what follows as individual accounts rather than a single fixed loop.
The software engineer candidate described an HR screen that included coding questions, a round billed as technical and behavioral that turned out to be purely technical, a technical assignment and then a panel. The coding questions covered Python and C++, and the candidate felt some panel questions drifted away from software engineering. A generic rejection email arrived a week later, and a request for feedback went unanswered.
The flight software candidate described a different path: a recruiter screen with basic questions drawn from the job description, a virtual hiring-manager interview mixing technical and STAR-style questions, then a substantial take-home assessment covering data processing, container setup and documentation. A planned scoping call never happened, and the walkthrough promised after submission was never scheduled.
The senior engineer candidate described a remote interview with a resume walkthrough and a behavioral question about the biggest recent challenge. They were asked to keep their camera on.
To prepare, have a concrete problem-solving story ready, refresh your Python and C++ fundamentals, and if you receive a take-home, ask about scope up front and write down your assumptions.
Synthesized from 5 candidate reports by our editorial team.
Had an interview recently?
Share your experience. Unlock the full guide.
Real interview reports from people who went through the Substack process.
I applied to Substack online and heard back about two and a half weeks later for an initial recruiter phone screen. That call was pretty straightforward — the recruiter was friendly and asked some basic software engineering questions, mostly things directly pulled from the job description. It felt designed to filter out people who'd never actually coded before, not to challenge anyone seriously. A week after that, I had a virtual interview with the hiring manager that mixed technical questions with STAR-style behavioral ones. The vibe was chill and the technical portion didn't feel particularly hard.
Then came the take-home assessment, which was substantial — a multi-part task that felt like actual work someone would do at the company. I was supposed to have a video call with someone from the engineering team before diving in to clarify scope, but that never got scheduled. I went ahead anyway and completed it, which involved data processing, container setup, documentation, and a few other components. The instructions were light, so I had to make a lot of assumptions and just tried to ship something solid with thorough documentation of my design decisions.
After submitting, I was told an interview would be scheduled to walk through my implementation. That's where things fell apart. I never heard back, got ghosted for a few weeks, and then received a rejection email. The whole process left a sour taste — not because of the technical bar, but because of the disorganization and lack of communication once I'd invested serious time in the take-home. I got the sense the team had some internal friction, which made me wonder if I'd dodged a bullet or just gotten unlucky with a particular group.
Prep tip from this candidate
Go into the take-home assessment with clear questions about scope and expectations before starting — if the instructions are vague and you can't get clarity, that's a red flag about the team's communication style. Document your assumptions explicitly so the follow-up discussion can focus on your reasoning, not on defending ambiguities.
Share your own interview experience to unlock all reports, or subscribe for full access.
Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Substack
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Scrambled Tickets | |
| Size of Joins | |
| String Shift | |
| Largest Salary by Department | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Find Bigrams | |
| Prime to N | |
| Last Transaction | |
| Longest Streak Users | |
| Duplicate Rows | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Paired Products | |
| Minimum Change | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Payments Received | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| Get Top N Frequent Words |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
The flight software candidate heard back about two and a half weeks after applying and had a friendly recruiter call with basic software engineering questions taken from the job description. The software engineer candidate described an HR screen that included coding questions. Expect a short filter and be ready to explain your core skills.
The flight software candidate had a virtual hiring-manager interview a week after the screen, mixing technical and STAR-style behavioral questions. The senior engineer candidate described a remote resume walkthrough and a question about the biggest recent challenge. The software engineer candidate's equivalent round, billed as technical and behavioral, was purely technical.
The flight software candidate described a multi-part task involving data processing, container setup and documentation, with light instructions that forced assumptions. The software engineer candidate also had a technical assignment and found the turnaround long and the project demanding. Clarify scope first and document your design decisions.
The software engineer candidate described a panel with Python and C++ coding questions and some questions that felt disconnected from the role. The flight software candidate was told a walkthrough of their implementation would be scheduled but heard nothing for weeks before a rejection email. Be ready to explain your take-home choices.
