I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Upside (Atlanta, GA) in Nov 2022
Interview
The initial parts of the process were the normal things. A chat with the manager, a coding challenge with two engineers. That part was fine and both of the people I spoke with seemed like they would have been great to work with. Then they did a Topgrading interview where they wanted to get names of every supervisor I ever worked for, college professors etc.. The person conducting the interview didn't even give an introduction as to what they did at the company etc. before they started the interrogation. Later I found out that this was another engineering manager for a different team and is featured in one of their recruiting videos highlighting their culture. In my 20+ years in the field I had never run across this. After about 15 minutes I stopped the interview and the process. That was the first time I have ever stopped an interview in my career. Later on I found out that this is a technique called TORC (threat of reference check) which assumes that you, as a candidate, are a liar and so they are going to interrogate you like a criminal. This was developed by the same people in GE who created stack ranking and is not customary in software interviews. Even GE does use this anymore. To start out a relationship with such a negative process left me with serious reservations about the culture of the company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leet coding queue stack, general background talk with the hiring manager, Topgrading interrogation with another engineering manager.
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback regarding your interview process at Upside. Upside uses Topgrading interview techniques in order to gain a deeper understanding of a candidate’s background and skills that we would not learn from a typical interview or resume. We wish you the best of luck in your career.
Positive experience
Average interview
Application
I interviewed at Upside (New York, NY)
Interview
Upside’s interview process typically covers your mobile engineering experience, ownership of features from design to launch, and how you think about architecture, scalability, and performance in a consumer app. They assess Kotlin coding skills through a practical live exercise, explore system and mobile design concepts like modularization and state management, and evaluate collaboration, mentorship, and problem-solving through behavioral questions to ensure strong product thinking and team impact.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Upside in Aug 2025
Interview
- People I interacted with were great and cordial.
- Applied from LinkedIn, initial phone call with the HR person, then hiring manager and two devs for coding interview.
- They were very accommodating when I had to reschedule due to an emergency.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
(Paraphrasing, don't remember the exact words)
- Asked my about my experience.
- How I handle and communicate scope changes in project
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Upside
Interview
A recruiter sent me a dm via linkedin and I scheduled a call. He went over the basic stuff like what upside is and asked about my experience. Then he outlines their interview process by saying first it's a hiring manager chat followed by live coding with an engineer on the team. I ask whether this is leetcode or android, and he replies it is android coding.
In the interview invitation I am sent a link to an online platform for their live coding interview. So I email the recruiter again to confirm whether this coding is data structures and algorithms based or android, and he confirmed it was android specific.
My call with the manager was pleasant and we talked about my experience and the way I approached different issues at work. But in my coding round I was asked to solve a data structures and algorithms question. I spent the days before the interview studying stuff like compose and other android topics. I tried to proceed but I was rusty and failed. I prepared for meta months ago, and actually saw a similar problem during that period so I'm pretty sure I'd be able to solve it but my preparation was for what the recruiter told me, an android specific coding interview.
After I sent an email to my recruiter explaining the situation and asked for a re-interview because of the miscommunication but was ignored. It's frustrating in a tough market to be told misinformation that causes you to miss an opportunity. The company is using compose and kotlin multiplatform so I thought android live coding was going to evaluate you about newer android specific technologies but it is a typical data structures and algorithms style interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
MVVM vs MVI, what is the difference between the two?
