Underdog Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process seemed standard initially, but two parts gave me pause. One involved looking at actual production code from their data ingestion pipeline, which felt less like an interview exercise and more like real work. The other round required designing a whole system based on a lengthy set of requirements that closely mirrored the company's existing roadmap. The interviewer even noted that my proposed solution was unique, making me suspect they might be using interviews to get free technical advice instead of just evaluating candidates. It felt more like unpaid consulting than a fair skills assessment. I'd suggest future candidates ask about the purpose of any take-home or design tasks to ensure they're reasonable and in line with typical industry interviews.

Really great interview experience. They had this awesome take-home test that really checked my ruby and class knowledge. It was pretty easy to medium difficulty and took about 2.5 hours. They even sent a gift card for doing it! The final part was a panel interview, broken into three parts: a technical challenge, a question about databases, and then some behavioral questions.

Got an outreach from a recruiter after applying online and set up a phone screening. The recruiter was a bit late and at the start explained what to expect: 1. Review my experience. 2. Ask me questions about my experience. 3. Explain the role. 4. Open the floor for my questions. I have 6 YOE, 4 as a full stack SWE and 2 as Front End in the same field Underdog works in. The job listing asked for 2+ years as a front end developer since the role was Software Engineer with a front end focus. The conversation started okay, then the recruiter asked off-topic questions about how my former employer operated other sides of their business which I wasn't involved in and had nothing to do with my work there or the work I'd do at Underdog. The recruiter then said my experience at my former employer wasn't what the team was looking for, despite the job listing saying I fit. This was 4 years of full stack development on multiple platforms, products, and tech stacks, and the recruiter ignored my most relevant 2 years of experience. When it was supposed to be the 30 minute window, they said we were out of time and I didn't get to answer further questions or ask my own. I was confused why I was rejected since I met all the requirements. I got a rejection email later that week and asked what I could improve and was told they had already filled the position. The same position was reposted twice within the next 1-4 weeks. Terrible experience overall, wouldn't recommend.