Upside Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

This was a really bad interview experience, possibly the worst ever, and I felt compelled to leave a review. I avoid companies that use whiteboarding, and when asked to use an IDE, I was worried. I suggested alternatives like a take-home assessment or a code review of my OSS, but they insisted on the IDE, saying it was to simulate the job and they wouldn't use trick questions. I was surprised when the assessment involved implementing a poker hand analyzer within 50 minutes. It felt like a puzzle, and the interviewer (CTO) gave me no guidance on inputs, saying 'up to you'. What they called 'pair programming' was me talking through my thoughts while someone else watched and typed in the background without offering helpful input. They let me use String for rank and suit and only pointed out the issue with comparing them at the end. The last 10 minutes were for my questions, and I should have asked about their definition of 'pair programming'. What angered me most, besides the dishonesty, was their insistence on my salary history, and their annoyance when I refused to provide it. Their career page lacks any mention of 'inclusion'. Salary histories perpetuate pay gaps. If you like CS trivia, puzzles, and whiteboarding, and don't mind potentially illegal salary history questions, this might be for you. Otherwise, I'd look elsewhere.

The interview started with standard steps. First, a chat with the manager, then a coding challenge with two engineers. These initial stages went well, and I felt good about the people I spoke with. Following that, there was a Topgrading interview. They asked for the names of all my past supervisors and college professors. The interviewer didn't introduce themselves or explain their role at the company before starting this intense questioning. I later learned this person was another engineering manager from a different team, and they are even featured in a company recruiting video about their culture. In my 20+ years of experience, I've never encountered anything like this. After about 15 minutes, I decided to end the interview and withdraw from the process, which is the first time I've ever done that. It turns out this is a method called TORC (threat of reference check), which assumes candidates are dishonest and treats them like criminals during interrogation. This was created by the same people at GE who invented stack ranking and is not typical for software interviews; GE doesn't even use it anymore. Starting a potential relationship with such a negative approach raised serious concerns for me about the company's culture.

I had a couple of initial chats with the recruiter, Nick. Then, I was set up with an engineer for a technical interview that involved screensharing. Unfortunately, I didn't make it past the tech interview. I'm not sure what the rest of the process would have entailed, but I suspect there would have been more behavioral interviews.