I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart (San Francisco, CA) in July 2021
Interview
Step 1: Recruiter Screening Call
Step 2: Coding interview (60min)
Step 3: Virtual Onsite (5hrs)
The onsite included 2 coding rounds, 1 system design and 1 behavioral. The overall process was smooth. The interviewers showed up on time, provided plenty of feedback throughout the interview and showed a lot of support. I was given plenty of opportunities to ask questions and there was a 15-min chat with an engineer where I was given the opportunity to ask anything I wanted about Instacart.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The coding interviews were different from the typical LeetCode interviews. The questions were broken into 3 parts where the first part was a simple coding task, and parts 2 and 3 built off of the previous ones.
I applied online. I interviewed at Instacart (Toronto, ON)
Interview
I had a couple of interview rounds with Instacart. Overall, I think it went pretty well, except for one round that didn’t feel as strong. I asked for feedback afterward, but unfortunately they didn’t share any. The system design and algorithm questions were manageable, especially if you’re familiar with LeetCode-style problems. One thing I really appreciated is that they clearly explain what to expect in each interview round ahead of time, which helps a lot with preparation.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One of the rounds was behavioral — they asked questions based on my resume and also about how I work and behave in a team environment.
Four long rounds and ghosted after the interview, even though all technical assessments went well. Tedious process but they do give you a gift card as a compensation for your time and effort.
I applied online. I interviewed at Instacart (Toronto, ON) in July 2025
Interview
2 rounds of 60 min coding sessions, a 1hr break after that, 45 min behavioural round, and then an easy system design round for 60 mins. Questions were pretty straight forward and easy. Second coding round has data structures involved, first one is just parsing thru dictionaries. Could not finish the second part of the second coding round. Behavioural interviewer has a dull personality and sort of killed the vibe. Otherwise I did really well on every round but still didn’t get the offer. Looking at Reddit, seems like many people had the same experience and were surprised to not get the offer so I don’t know if it’s worth your time interviewing here.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
[coding round 2]: you have one shopper and multiple orders of varying start times and durations. Calculate the average wait times.