Interviewing at Stripe? You’ll want to be ready to answer some of their most commonly asked interview questions. With the right preparation you can ace your Stripe interview!
I’ve compiled a list of frequent Stripe interview questions based on research from Glassdoor and Exponent. Knowing what to expect can help you craft winning answers that impress your interviewers
In this article, I’ll cover questions for software engineering, product management, data science, and other roles. Let’s dive in!
Software Engineering Interview Questions
The software engineering interview at Stripe focuses heavily on coding and system design. Brush up on data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming.
Here are some of the most common technical questions candidates report:
- Explain how you would design a system like Stripe. Focus on APIs, microservices, databases, etc.
- Implement code to reverse a linked list in place.
- Given a stream of numbers, return the median at any point in time.
- Design an API rate limiting system.
- Optimize a MySQL query for faster performance.
- Find duplicate elements in an array in O(n) time.
Expect to write clean, efficient code during the interview. Communicate your thought process clearly. Testing and debugging are also important.
Beyond coding, Stripe engineers look for strong technical fundamentals. Review operating systems, networking, system design patterns, and other CS basics.
Product Manager Interview Questions
Product managers at Stripe work closely with engineers to shape the product roadmap. Expect PM interview questions about your technical background, analytical skills, and leadership abilities.
Some examples:
- How would you design the Stripe dashboard? What metrics would you track?
- How would you improve the Stripe onboarding experience for new users?
- What factors influence pricing for Stripe products? How would you optimize pricing?
- What is an example of a good API you’ve used before? Why was it well-designed?
- How do you prioritize new features or products? Describe your framework.
- How would you design fraud detection for Stripe payments?
Use concrete examples to demonstrate your product sense. Show you can balance business and technical factors.
Data Science Interview Questions
Data scientists at Stripe leverage analytics and machine learning to fight fraud, improve APIs, and more. Brush up on probability, statistics, ML algorithms, and Python/SQL coding.
Some frequent data science interview questions:
- How would you build a model to detect fraudulent transactions? What features would you use?
- Given transaction data, design an algorithm to identify correlated payments.
- How would you productionize a machine learning model at Stripe?
- Implement k-means clustering on sample customer data in Python.
- What techniques would you use to optimize a random forest model?
- Describe how you would evaluate a classification model. What metrics would you look at?
For data science, emphasize your statistical knowledge and ability to translate analysis into products. Show your coding skills in Python, R, SQL, etc.
Leadership and Behavioral Questions
In addition to technical questions, expect behavioral and situational questions at Stripe. These assess your leadership, communication, and decision-making abilities.
Some examples:
- Tell me about a time you influenced a team without formal authority.
- Describe a difficult coworker and how you worked with them.
- What is your leadership style? How do you motivate teams?
- How do you handle ambiguity or uncertainty in projects?
- Tell me about a conflict you faced working on a team. How did you resolve it?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses as a manager?
Use real examples to demonstrate leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Share successes as well as failures you learned from.
Final Tips for Acing Your Stripe Interview
With preparation and practice, you can master the Stripe interview:
- Review Glassdoor and Exponent for more examples of real interview questions.
- Study up on algorithms, data structures, system design, statistics, etc. based on your role.
- Practice writing clean code on a whiteboard or IDE. Get feedback from colleagues.
- Do mock interviews to get comfortable explaining your thinking and coding approach.
- Research Stripe’s products, culture, and competitors. Have insightful questions ready for your interviewers.
- Rest up the night before and arrive early. Being relaxed and engaged helps you perform at your best.
Step 1: Recruiter Call
The recruiter call from Stripe lasts 30 minutes and is pretty standard. They’ll ask you about your previous work experience, why you’re interested in working for Stripe, how well you understand the company’s value proposition, and what you want to do next. They will also go over the hiring process and the role you are applying for to make sure you understand what is expected of you.
At this point, it’s very important not to say how much you want to be paid or where you are in the process with other companies. We wrote an in-depth post about negotiating salaries that tells you exactly what to say if recruiters make you name the first number.
Stripe’s Interview Process for Software Engineers: 4 Steps
Mid to senior-level engineers interviewing at Stripe can expect the following process:
- Recruiter call (30 minutes)
- Tech talk on the phone with any company engineer for an hour
- Second recruiter call (30 minutes)
- Onsite (5 hours)
Engineers with at least a bachelor’s degree who want to work at Stripe will go through the same three steps, with a few changes at the “Onsite” stage. We’ll get to that later.
Stripe has a hybrid process. Their eng team is divided into two orgs: Product and Infrastructure. You are interviewing for a certain organization, but engineers from all over the company will be involved, as well as a hiring manager from that organization. There is likely some flexibility in terms of which team in that org you end up on. That discussion usually happens post-onsite. You will have the opportunity to discuss team placement during the onsite interview with the hiring manager.
The whole process takes about six weeks, but our sources say it can be done in as little as two weeks if you are a referral.
Ace the Stripe Software Engineering Interview | What to Expect
FAQ
Is Stripe interview difficult?
How to prep for a Stripe interview?
What questions are asked in Stripe Behavioural interview?
How long is Stripe interview?
What is the interview process like at stripe?
I interviewed at Stripe (San Francisco, CA) This was for a Solutions Engineer role. The interview process was average. Recruiter call, followed by hiring manager mostly behavioral, experience based scenarios. Then asked to write a technical document, received a rejection after submission without any feedback or reason for rejection.
How do I prepare for an interview at stripe?
Regular check-ins with my supervisor and staying abreast of company-wide communications can help ensure that I’m always aligned with the current focus areas. Get ready for your interview at Stripe with a list of common questions you may encounter and how to prepare for them effectively.
How did you feel about working at stripe?
After our tour, we sat down with the CEO for a meeting. He was really personable and seemed like he genuinely cared about his employees. He asked us a lot of questions about our backgrounds and what we were looking for in a job, and it was clear that he had done his research prior to meeting with us. Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Stripe.
Are stripe interview questions language agnostic?
Stripe’s questions are language-agnostic but might change a little bit depending on the language used. They playtest the questions internally to figure out if they are easier or more difficult in certain languages, and the interviewer will adjust as needed during your interview.
