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Web: squareup.com | HQ: San Francisco, CA

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Updated May 16, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.

Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 8 ratings

3.0

“Average” Interview

Interview Experience [?] Based on 8 ratings

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Neutral	50%
Negative	25%

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4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed May 2012 in San Francisco, CA (took 1+ week)

My first contact was with a recruiter, who was a bit disorganized - he missed our first phone call due to meeting schedules, a sign of how busy things are at Square. After some chitchat, he scheduled a Skype interview with an engineer.

The Skype interview was fun, actually. Square has an Evernote-like online wordpad, on which the interviewer and I wrote code. The task was to implement a function from the C standard library, going through several iterations. The interviewer was also a bit disorganized, but was thoroughly pleasant and engaged throughout the hour-long process.

The interview went well, and within a few hours the recruiter contacted me to set up an in-person battery of interviews for the next week.

The in-person interviews took place at the main office in San Francisco, which is thoroughly modern and attractive. A series of 6 different interviews ensued, with a roughly equal mix of 'discussion' (read: whiteboarding) interviews with pairs of Square employees and pair-programming with single interviewers. The discussions ranged from in-depth discussions of system architecture to sketching out solutions to given problems. There was a pleasant lack of 'academic' challenges in the discussion phases.

The pair programming exercises ranged from academic to practical, but the experience was good. The engineers were pleasant, and I never felt pressured or judged (despite the fact that an interview is, by definition, an exercise in judgement).

After the formal interviews, I was told immediately that an offer would be made. I was introduced to some engineers and had dinner with one. A formal offer was made the following morning.

On the whole, the hiring process was an odd combination of relaxed and rapid. I liked everyone that I met, had interesting discussions and challenges, and the whole process took 12 days - a record in my experience.

Interview Questions

Given an architecture, describe possible approaches to minimizing latency and downtime.

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Skills Test and a Background Check.

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4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Apr 2012 in San Francisco, CA (took 2 weeks)

Interview process involved a phone screen, then a day of 1:1 skills tests with 5 different people. Skills tests were mixture of whiteboards, and pair programming. Pair programming tests had a fair level of difficulty. Nothing too hard, but under pressure (and not being used to the process) I found it hard to think relax and code effectively.

Interview Questions

Implement a queue from scratch in your a language of your choice (obviously can't use a built in one).

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.

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Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

2.0

Easy Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed May 2011 (took 2 weeks)

Interview Questions that I was asked:

+ What's your favorite app/design?
+ How would you make that better/change?

Interview Questions

What's your favorite app/design?

Answer Question

How would you make that better/change?

Answer Question

Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test and a Background Check.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Mar 2012 in San Francisco, CA (took 4+ weeks)

Totally unprofessional outfit.

I applied online, got invited to fill out a questionaire and return to the office for interviews with HR and the hiring manager. Interviews were fine, mostly behavioral questions. They told me they'd invite me back for a technical interview for early the next week and let me know ASAP about scheduling.... For two weeks, I got radio silence. I checked in again... nothing. A week later, with another offer on the table, I checked in with them again... got an apologetic e-mail and a promise to get back to me by the end of the day.... nope. By that time, it was clear to me that I wouldn't want to work for them, but I'd expect at least a little more courtesy. Finally, a week later, I got an automated (!) e-mail from Jobvite ending the process.

Definitely a pretentious culture. If you interview, be sure to drink the Kool-aid beforehand and be ready to say how awesome they are.

Interview Questions

What are your strengths?

Answer Question

Other Details

The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Oct 2011 in San Francisco, CA (took 4 weeks)

Writing sample, followed by phone interview, followed by group interviews (3 of them, with 2 people each), followed by "pair working" (where you basically get trained to do the job and do another on-the-spot writing sample)

Everything was seamless and pretentious- as you might expect from their culture.

I think they actually have a thing about interviewing a lot of people, and interviewing them a lot, before making a decision. Friend of a friend interviewed for 7 hours and got a No. And this wasn't for employee #3 or something.

They seem to have some problems with Jobvite, because I've heard of them losing track of emails and they lost one of mine. That, or their recruiters are over worked due to interviewing people they'll never hire.

Interview Questions

What are three things you'd do to improve Square?

Answer Question

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

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Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Feb 2012 in San Francisco, CA (took 2 days)

The first call with the HR rep was very simple and short. The rep seemed to be disctracted and didn't really care about my background or who I was. I was instantly shot on to the next phase of interviewing with a engr who asked me technical questions off of a form. The engr was very cold and had no interest in the candidate and didn't even ask about my experience or background. The whole process was poorly organized and impersonal.

Interview Questions

Describe a OO design for a deck of cards

Answer Question

Write a script that will pull the IP addresses out of a random text file. Do this in the language that you are most comfortable in.

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Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

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Helpful Interview?

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Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Nov 2010 in Saint Louis, MO (took 3 weeks)

I initially applied as an iOS developer. In order to apply, you must complete a simple code puzzle. This is equivalent to something you'd encounter in an entry level computer science class. The initial interview was a phone screening. The square employee was 3 hours late for the call. I had to reschedule for 1 week later. He was on time for the second call. Less than 1 week later, square recommended I apply as an Android developer. They sent a different slightly more complicated code puzzle, which you might encounter in a junior level computer science class. I interviewed with the Android manager who gave some java and object-oriented programming trivia questions. 1 week later, I went to their office to pair program with him for 2 hours. We had lunch, and everything seemed to go well. 1 week later, I went to their office again to pair with another developer. That also seemed to go well. 2 days later, Square set up travel for me to fly to their San Francisco office to interview. 2 days after that, Square called to end the process.

Interview Questions

What is a volatile variable, and why would you use it?

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Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

2.0

Easy Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jan 2012 in San Francisco, CA (took 6 weeks)

Applied for a position in the Risk/Compliance department. About two days later, I received an email from a recruiter wanting to schedule a phone interview with me. I emailed her back within a few hours, but I didn't hear anything back from her (to confirm the interview) for several days. I sent her another email to see if she was still interested, and she sent me an email saying that she didn't see my first response, and to send my availability again to her. Slight hiccup, but I think with the expansion of the company in its current state, recuiters must be over-worked (During my in person interview, the manager said that the company is at about 220 employees now...and expects to potentially be up to 800 at the end of the year. Rapid expansion). The first phone interview was with the person who would have been my manager. He called me, and was propmt, time-wise. The interview was very conversational. None of the standard, "what are you strengths/weaknesses). He basically asked me to review my resume with him. The interview was about 30 min. It went well, and he stated at the end that he would be setting me up for an in person interview with him and a few members on his team. I had emailed the recruiter (she was the only one I was asked to have contact with during this process) to ask the names and positions of who I would be interviewing with...twice. She never got back to me. The in-person day came, and it lasted about 2.5 hours. I met with four members of the risk/compliance team. Every interview was conversational, similar to my telephone interview. I received really positive responses from each member of management. One of my questions was "who would you be looking for in a position like this?". The managers response was, "well, someone like you, with your experience". Anyway, all seemed very positive. After the interview, I emailed the recruiter a thank you letter to forward to the team. Again she never got back to me. A few days later I received a standard "you were not selected for this position" email, and that was that. Overall the staff seemed great, but the recruiter, with her lack of communication, was bad. Only other side note, the person who would have been my manager stated that he worked, on average, 9-10AM through 8-10PM, Mon-Fri, and on one weekend day about once a month. This company definately does not seem to be focused on maintaining a work/life balance, at least not while they are still in their "start-up" stage.