Upstart Interview Questions
& Process

This was the most unprofessional interview experience ever. It started with a recruiter call, then a technical screen, followed by a behavioral screen with the hiring manager. After that, there was a full onsite interview that included design, project, and coding portions, also with the manager. Finally, references were checked. Throughout the process, I was interviewing for a Senior Software Engineer role. After the comprehensive onsite, the recruiter verbally confirmed I would receive an L5 Senior Software Engineering offer. However, after a reference check and over two weeks of silence, I was presented with an L4 offer. This was a significant waste of my references' time and felt like a bait-and-switch tactic. Be very cautious.

So I interviewed at Upstart, and it was honestly the worst. After my final onsite interviews, HR called me and said they were happy to offer me the job, but they just needed to do a reference check with a previous manager and colleague, and also set up a short call with their VP of ML. That call with the VP was supposed to be 30 minutes, but it ended up being an hour for no reason. During the VP call, she asked some really weird questions like 'What is your dream?' and about my ideal career path. When I said I wanted to learn, do passionate work, get good mentorship, and grow with clear promotion paths, she got weirdly defensive and pressed me on why promotions were so important. The mood totally changed. She asked a couple of stats questions after that, which I think I answered okay. Then, a few days later, HR called again, sounding surprised, and said the team decided not to move forward with an offer after all. He said he was still figuring out why but apologized and admitted he was as shocked as I was. It's confusing because if the VP's vibe check was the deciding factor, why do a reference check first? It didn't make sense to do the reference check and then suddenly pull the offer.

The recruiter was great and made the three weeks of back and forth scheduling worth it. I was even more excited about the opportunity than when I first applied. The hiring manager was the complete opposite. They joined 10 minutes late wearing a wrinkled undershirt, appeared as if they had just rolled out of bed, and spent much of the call rubbing their eyes and checking their breath. Midway through, they admitted they thought the interview was for a different role and had to read the posting out loud on the spot before asking me to “tell them something not on my resume.” I was genuinely excited about the chance to interview at Upstart, but I felt so disrespected that I ended the call and declined to continue. It was disappointing to see a leader at the company act with such unprofessionalism.

So the interview process started with a recruiter and then the hiring manager. After that, I had four more rounds. These rounds were focused on different areas like my impact and execution, company values, how I work with stakeholders, and my strategy and vision. Honestly, PM interviews can be pretty subjective, and this one was no different. But it was cool because the team actually reached out to me, which felt really genuine and boosted my confidence. The questions were pretty standard stuff.