Recently, I had the opportunity to interview for a New Grad Software Engineer role at Stripe, and it was one of the most challenging and insightful interview processes I've been part of so far.
The Interview Journey
-
Online Assessment
One coding question to kick things off. -
Phone Screening
A multi-part problem-solving round. I was able to solve 4 parts within 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute discussion related to Stripe and some questions.
Clearing this round felt really motivating and pushed me forward to the Virtual Onsite. -
Virtual Onsite
Stripe allows you to choose your preferred language - I went with Java.
Round 1:Advanced Programming Multi-part problems; I solved two parts along with follow-up questions on edge cases (45 minutes). This round went fairly well.
Round 2:Bug Squash (Most Challenging) This round stood out. I was given a large, complex codebase and asked to identify and fix bugs. While I managed to find and fix the issue with the interviewer's guidance, I realized I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be in advanced Java and deep debugging. I truly felt I could've done better here. -
Final Round: Managerial Discussion Focused on teamwork, past work, ownership, and how I approach problems.
A few days later, I heard back from the recruiter that they wouldn't be moving forward with my application.
Of course, it was disappointing - especially knowing exactly where I could have performed better. But more than anything, this experience gave me clarity: on my gaps, on what real-world debugging looks like, and on how high the bar truly is.
Every interview teaches something. This one taught me a lot.
Back to learning. Back to building. Onwards.
