Senior Software Developer applicants have rated the interview process at Instacart with 3.1 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 28% positive. To compare, the company-average is 46% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Senior Software Developer roles take an average of 32 days to get hired, when considering 18 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Instacart overall takes an average of 16 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Instacart as a Senior Software Developer according to 18 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 38%
One on one interview: 25%
Presentation: 17%
Group panel interview: 8%
Skills test: 8%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Instacart in Jan 2021
Interview
HR screen
First Interview with 1 one-hour coding session
VO with 5 rounds, 2 one-hour coding sessions, 1 system design, 1 bar raiser which is behavior interview, 1 informational talk
First code question is very hard to understand and I took 5 minutes to understand the question. Two questions were given during this round, didn't finish it.
Bar raiser round is more like a talk about expertise, cuz they mainly looking for senior software engineer, so this round is mainly check if you are senior enough. And I got only 1 yoe, so I didn't pass the interview although I think I did well on system design round and second coding session.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
kv store question in phone interview.
payment system for system design
I'm sure it's easier to grade applicants with AI, but it'd be nice to have humans involved in the interview process, too. You'll face a couple of AI powered coding challenges. The bigger problems are the ethical implications here after looking into how the company works, with variable pricing based on data on how badly they can screw the consumer with upcharges and how to keep money in their pockets rather than the shoppers & drivers
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If you could replace your family with AI, would you do it?
I applied online. I interviewed at Instacart (San Francisco, CA) in Feb 2026
Interview
First there is a codesignal test. This is for 90 minutes and felt frantic. Way too many features/code paths to implement.
Then there is the karat llm interview which is 50 minutes.
Then a full day of regular interview loop.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
For CodeSignal it was implementing a cache key store with timestamps. Started with basic setting and getting, then evolved into more advanced code. 4 different parts. Writing a lot of code for this.
For the LLM interview you work with a company called Karat. You are giving an VS code like workspace and an ai to help. You have 50 minutes. They then dump a large project in your space. For me it was a bus route simulator.
I was then asked to implement a feature : Have the system prioritize Priority Pass people. I used the LLM to track down the code and implement it, but it was difficult to test in code that is unknown to me. The next feature was implementing wheelchairs for the bus which requires special capacity checks.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart (Toronto, ON) in Feb 2025
Interview
1. Online OA with codesignal to start with. Very standard and not hard
2. Got the 4 interview rounds and you can always divide into 2 parts of 2 interviews each. It was be 2 codesignals with medium difficulty and I managed to do both. One system design which was average for me and interviewer was okay as well. Behavioural round was standard. No wonder why I didn't manage to get the offer.