Uphold Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

It was a 4-stage process: first a chat with the recruiter, then a take-home test, followed by a technical interview, and finally I met with the CTO. They got back to me really fast after each stage and the feedback was good all the way through.

I had a recruiter call first, which went really well, the recruiter was competent and I felt good about it. After that, they sent me a coding challenge. Honestly, it felt more like something for a junior dev, like calling an API and showing the response, maybe adding a few parameters. It had some optional extras like Docker, Postgres, and tests that could make it more production-ready, but still pretty basic. I noticed they've been using this same challenge for a while, saw it on Github. I went all out, used patterns from my production experience, wrote detailed docs, got almost 100% test coverage, and made sure the Docker image built fine. Then, I got a generic rejection email saying my assessment didn't meet criteria, and that they were looking for how I approach new problems, code structure, readability, security, scalability, and best practices. It's funny because the code was based on production stuff I'd already built. They didn't give any real feedback, and I doubt a human even looked at it. Seriously, don't waste your time on the coding challenge. Try to talk to the hiring manager first, and if they won't let you, just move on.

The interview process starts with an HR screen, which was a really nice experience for me. Following that, there was a take-home assessment. The most interesting part of the process was a conversation with both of the company's CTOs. While one was very pleasant, the other seemed to be having a bad day or lacked empathy and communication skills, making the interview quite awkward. This kind of technical manager interview is not uncommon in tech, but his arrogance really made that specific interview experience poor.