The Staff Software Engineering Assessment is intended to be used as one of the first interview rounds to effectively capture signal on general core skills typically needed for a staff-level software engineer role.
At a high level, staff software engineers are technical experts, but also adept at collaborating with and leading others. The amount of code writing or decision-making a staff engineer is expected to do varies from role to role, but the questions in this assessment are designed to measure the quality of performance for these tasks.
Part 1 - Technical Roadmap and Systems Design (60 minutes)
A document writing exercise where candidates can edit and contribute to technical documentation. They can collaborate with teammates and demonstrate their ability to communicate via document comments.
Skills Measured
Self-Management
Leading Others
Collaboration
Communicating Ideas
Project Management
Product Prioritization
Systems Design
Performance & Scalability
Focus Areas | Context and Question | Evaluation Criteria |
Systems Design | Candidates will be asked to collaborate on the redesign of an existing technical system (connected to a roadmap) and provide recommendations on the systems performance and scalability. | Candidates are expected to address all the major fallbacks of the existing system and provide well-reasoned alternatives. |
Navigating Business Requirements | Candidates will collaborate with stakeholders and optimize an 18-month technical roadmap while considering inputs such as the business goals, technical debt, process improvements, headcount, etc. | Candidates are expected to make difficult decisions based on technical and organizational constraints and will be measured by their ability to clearly explain their reasoning. |
Part 2 - Code Review and Code Implementation (60 minutes)
A code editor exercise where candidates can edit and contribute to a complex multi-file code base and can provide technical feedback and guidance to teammates.
Skills Measured
Data Structures & Algorithms
Leading Others
Communicating Ideas
Technical Reasoning
Code Quality
Innovation
Systems Design
Leading Others
Testing
Excellence Mindset
Tasks | Context and Question | Evaluation Criteria |
Code Review | Candidates will review a small, multi-file codebase authored by a junior engineer. They will be asked to comment on the quality of the work and provide feedback. | Candidates are expected to provide effective, targeted feedback that is actionable by their teammate and will be measured by the quality of their technical reasoning. |
Writing Code | Candidates will work on a complex, open-ended coding task. | Candidates are expected to approach the problem given limited direction and complete this task by writing high-quality, compilable code that serves as a model to teach other junior engineers. |