I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Gusto (San Francisco, CA) in Dec 2018
Interview
I applied for a Full-Stack/Front-End Software Engineer position. I first talked to an engineering manager for the team I was interested in. Our conversation was very friendly and interesting and he explained the technical challenges the team was planning on addressing in the near future.
I then did a phone screen with a Software Engineer using JS and coderpad. The test was quite interesting as it both tested your ability to decode raw input into a useful data structure but also your ability to think of edge cases and your attention to detail. Make sure to ask questions!
Finally, my on-site experience was great as well. I first started with a pairing session to add a realistic feature to their real codebase. The collaboration was great and I learned a fair amount about the tech stack they use. I also took part in an other pairing session on a more independent type of problem where we needed to build a functional UI component (user interaction, etc.), also a great experience. Finally, I went through two non-technical "values" discussion, one with an non-engineer and one with an engineering manager. My advice here is to be genuine, Gusto cares a lot about values/mission and it shows in their questions. My conversations with the Gusto folks were interesting and insightful.
Overall a great experience and no gotchas at all. If you've built products in your past and you're able to ask questions and ask for help when you're stuck you'll do just fine.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Add a feature to the Gusto codebase in a pairing session
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Gusto (New York, NY) in Jun 2025
Interview
Initial recruiter phone call followed by technical phone screen. Question was a simple data parsing to extract/aggregate JSON data. Interview was friendly, and wrapped up with closing questions. I received a rejection email a week later, with no details.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given the following JSON data, aggregate statistics based on the request.
I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Gusto in Mar 2025
Interview
I was surprised by how cumbersome this interview was, several rounds, on top of take home project. It's really rigorous for a company that isn't FAANG level. Honestly a take home and a discussion of a take home is enough technical signal, instead its take home, coding, take home extension live and systems design, plus values and behavioral session. It's a huge time investment for pay and benefits that are not very competitive.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Gusto (New York, NY) in Jan 2025
Interview
medium difficulty, or easier if you look up the q+a's before. one interviewer was late, and had the nerve to mark off points for time. so i did not get a job.