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Backend Engineer hiring process template

Backend Engineer

Engineering Backend Paid assignment

A backend hiring process built around a paid API and data-model take-home that candidates defend in a live systems interview.

Why this works:

  • A scoped, paid take-home on a real scaffold shows how someone models data and designs APIs, not how they perform on a whiteboard
  • A hard time limit with auto-submit keeps the field level and respects candidates with jobs and families
  • Rubric-scored team review replaces gut-feel verdicts with specific, debatable observations
  • The live interview uses the candidate’s own code as the agenda, the hardest signal to fake

Best for: Startups hiring engineers to own APIs, data models, and production infrastructure
Timeline: ~2 weeks
Candidate effort: 3-4 hours (paid)
Before you publish: point the take-home stage at a GitHub template repository.

Process stages

This template includes 6 stages that candidates move through:

1

Application

Submit Application

Tell us about the systems you’ve built: what you owned, what broke in production, and what you’d want to own here. Skip the cover letter formalities.

2

Paid Take-Home: API & Data Model

Code Assignment

Design a small API and its data model on a scaffold we provide: a realistic slice of backend work, not an algorithm puzzle. The private repo includes setup, a test framework, and the grading rubric, so you know exactly what we score before you start. The clock auto-submits at the deadline, and the work is paid ($400 USD) regardless of outcome.

USD 400
3

Rubric Code Review

Team Review

Two of our engineers independently score your submission against the published rubric: data-model choices, error handling, test quality, and commit history. You get written feedback whichever way the decision goes.

4

Systems Interview

Interview

Walk us through your take-home, then extend it live: what happens at 100x the traffic, what you’d monitor in production, and what you’d redesign with another week. Your own code is the agenda; there is no whiteboard.

75 min
5

References

Reference Check

We’ll have short calls with two references, ideally an engineer you shipped a system with and someone who managed you.

6

Offer

Offer

Expect an offer within 48 hours of your systems interview, with salary, equity, and how the team works spelled out.

Make this process yours.

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