Toptal Software Engineer candidates describe a recruiter screen, a timed online coding assessment, a screen-shared live coding round, and often a take-home project that they explain afterward. Outcomes in the reports are mixed.
$106K
Avg. Base Comp
$116K
Avg. Total Comp
3-4 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Toptal's Software Engineer process, as candidates describe it, is a funnel of timed coding work that ends in something more practical. It typically starts with a recruiter conversation, moves to an online coding assessment, then a live coding interview, and for several candidates finishes with a take-home project that you walk through afterward. Reports run from three to four rounds.
The online assessment is the stage with the most variation. One candidate got three LeetCode-style problems at twenty minutes each, in any language. Another had an hour for three problems ranging from easy to hard: coin change, a puzzle reconstructing a word from ordered letter pairs, and a string question about the maximum number of words in a sentence. Correctness and edge cases mattered under the clock.
The live round is where the pressure shows. One candidate shared a screen for two problems at ten minutes each and called it the real filter. Another built a React component alongside an algorithm problem and was asked how to unit test it, after being told no AI use was allowed. A third had 30 minutes to turn mock data into a product page. A senior candidate described a 90-minute session with a sliding-window problem. Narrating your reasoning matters as much as the code.
The take-home is a real time investment. A senior candidate spent about 15 hours over a weekend on a Node.js and React app, then walked through the code and architecture decisions on a call. Another presented their take-home back to the team. Several candidates received offers, while one who went through both coding stages did not, so treat the process as selective rather than uniformly easy.
Synthesized from 11 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Toptal process.
Round 1 — Intro Call
Brief introduction with the recruiter/hiring manager. Went over my background, current role, and interest in the position. Discussion about my tech projects and tech stack (languages, frameworks, tools I've used). No coding or technical problem in this round.
Online Coding Test
Online coding test lasting 145 minutes with 3 questions to solve. It was not easy, as the questions were lengthy to read and tricky to implement. I solved 2 correctly and the 3rd partially. The surprising part of the test was a question that involved implementing core features of a library similar to moment.js.
Round 2 — Technical Screen
Coding problem: A sliding-window problem, similar in style to "String Compression" — the interviewer described a scenario where I had to process a string/array in a single pass and compress or summarize consecutive elements efficiently. I talked through the brute-force approach first, then optimized with a two-pointer/sliding-window technique.
Backtracking problem: Generate all permutations of a given set of elements. Standard backtracking with a "used" array and recursion; discussed time complexity (O(n·n!)) and how to handle duplicates.
Date/timezone question: Given two timestamps in different timezones, calculate the difference between them in a specific unit (e.g., hours or days), accounting for timezone offsets. Needed to reason about UTC conversion and edge cases like DST.
Round 3 — Deep Dive / Discussion
Walked through my past projects in detail — architecture, my specific contributions, trade-offs, and challenges. Discussed tech stack decisions: why we chose certain frameworks/languages, how we handled scaling, testing, and deployment. Some behavioral questions around teamwork, conflict resolution, and handling tight deadlines.
Takeaways / Tips for Future Candidates
Know your sliding-window and two-pointer patterns cold — they came up in a string-manipulation context.
Backtracking (permutations, combinations, subsets) is fair game; be ready to explain recursion trees and complexity.
Brush up on timezone/date math — UTC offsets, DST, and converting between zones.
Be ready to talk in depth about your projects and justify your tech stack choices.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Toptal
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Reports describe a short conversation with no coding. One candidate had a 15-minute video call checking resume fit and English, and was told to start the technical assessment within 48 hours. A senior candidate's recruiter screen covered background, strengths, weaknesses and recent work. Have a concise summary of recent work ready.
Candidates report three problems, but the format varies. One candidate had twenty minutes per problem in any language. Another had one hour in total for easy-to-hard problems, including coin change. Another candidate described a timed solo coding challenge before the live round. Practice under a clock and test edge cases.
Candidates share their screen while an interviewer watches. Reported formats include two problems at ten minutes each, a React component plus an algorithm problem with a unit-testing follow-up, and 30 minutes to build a product page from mock data. One candidate was told AI tools were not allowed. A senior candidate described a 90-minute session with a sliding-window problem and a data structures question. Explain your thinking aloud as you code.
Several candidates describe a take-home project. A senior candidate spent about 15 hours on a Node.js and React application, then explained the code, architecture and complexity trade-offs on a walkthrough call. Another candidate presented their project back to the team. Keep the design simple enough to explain.
