What is a Software Engineer at Athelas?

As a Software Engineer at Athelas, you are at the forefront of building robust, scalable systems that directly impact our users and business operations. Your role goes beyond simply writing code; you are an architect of practical solutions in a fast-paced, high-growth environment. You will be responsible for developing end-to-end features, integrating complex external APIs, and ensuring our infrastructure can handle rapid scaling.

The impact of this position is immediate and highly visible. You will contribute to core product lines, working on everything from backend data pipelines to frontend user interfaces. Because our teams move quickly, the software you build will often go from concept to production in a matter of days, directly influencing how users interact with our platform and how efficiently our internal operations run.

What makes this role uniquely challenging and interesting is the emphasis on practical engineering velocity. We do not focus on theoretical puzzles; instead, we value engineers who can take a basic CRUD architecture, integrate it with messy real-world data sources, and scale it effectively. You will be expected to make pragmatic architectural decisions, collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, and maintain a high bar for code quality while moving at startup speed.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for an interview at Athelas requires a shift in mindset from traditional algorithmic interviewing to practical, hands-on software development. You should approach your preparation by focusing on building real applications, reading technical documentation, and communicating your design choices clearly.

We evaluate candidates across several key criteria:

Practical Coding and API Integration At Athelas, we rely heavily on connecting disparate systems. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to quickly read external documentation, construct API queries, and parse complex JSON responses. You can demonstrate strength here by writing clean, modular code that handles edge cases gracefully and extracts exactly the data needed.

System Architecture and Scalability As our user base grows, so must our infrastructure. We assess your ability to design full-stack applications from the ground up. Strong candidates will confidently discuss how to structure a basic CRUD application, choose the right database schemas, and outline strategies for scaling backend services when traffic spikes.

Product Pragmatism and Execution We value engineers who can deliver working software quickly without over-engineering. Your interviewers will look for your ability to take a high-level prompt, ask clarifying questions to narrow the scope, and implement a functional solution. Showing that you can balance speed with maintainability is critical.

Communication and Collaboration Building software is a team effort. We evaluate how well you articulate your thought process, respond to feedback, and clarify ambiguous requirements. You will succeed by treating your technical interviews as collaborative working sessions rather than solitary exams.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Software Engineer at Athelas is designed to be highly practical, moving quickly from initial introductions to hands-on technical evaluations. You will begin with a recruiter screen focused on your background, location preferences, and general alignment with the role. This is often followed by a deeper conversational interview with a hiring manager or a member of the sales engineering team, where you will discuss your past projects and behavioral scenarios.

The core of the evaluation takes place during the technical rounds. Rather than abstract whiteboard problems, you will face real-world scenarios. Expect a focused technical screen where you will be asked to query an API and parse its data using Python. If successful, you will move to a virtual onsite consisting of multiple sessions: a full-stack application build, a system design discussion focused on scaling, and a final alignment call with engineering leadership, often the CTO.

We pride ourselves on a process that mirrors the actual day-to-day work at Athelas. We want to see how you read documentation, write functional code, and communicate when hitting roadblocks.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from your initial application to the final leadership interview. Use this to structure your preparation, focusing first on core API and Python skills for the technical screen, and then expanding into broader full-stack and system design concepts for the virtual onsite. Note that while the process is generally fast-paced, timelines can occasionally vary based on team availability.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

Your technical interviews will test your ability to build, integrate, and scale applications. We break our evaluation down into three primary technical domains.

API Integration and Data Parsing

A massive portion of our day-to-day engineering involves talking to external services. This evaluation area tests your ability to read third-party documentation, authenticate, fetch data, and manipulate it into a usable format. Strong performance means you not only get the data but also handle pagination, rate limits, and unexpected null values elegantly.

Be ready to go over:

• Reading Documentation: Quickly scanning provided API docs to find endpoints, required headers, and query parameters.
• Data Manipulation: Using Python (or your language of choice) to filter, map, and transform nested JSON responses.
• Error Handling: Anticipating what happens when an API returns a 400 or 500 series error and writing resilient code.
• Advanced concepts (less common): Implementing exponential backoff, handling asynchronous API calls, and caching responses.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Given this documentation for a public chess API, write a script to fetch the top 10 players and calculate their average win rate."
• "Parse this dataset from our mock API, filter out the invalid records, and restructure the output into a specific JSON schema."

Full-Stack Application Development

You will be asked to architect and implement a functional web application from scratch. This tests your familiarity with modern frameworks, database interactions, and overall application state management. A strong candidate will rapidly spin up a working environment and build a functional CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) interface.

Be ready to go over:

• Backend Setup: Creating simple RESTful endpoints using Python or Node.js.
• Frontend Implementation: Building reactive interfaces, often utilizing React and state management tools like TanStack Query.
• Database Integration: Writing SQL queries to insert and retrieve data efficiently.
• Advanced concepts (less common): Setting up Docker containers on the fly, configuring basic CI/CD pipelines, or deploying to GCP.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design and implement a basic CRUD application for managing a bookstore inventory, including the frontend UI and backend endpoints."
• "Create a React component that fetches data from a provided endpoint and displays it in a sortable table."

System Design and Scalability

As we grow, our systems must handle increasing load. This area evaluates your high-level architectural thinking. We want to see how you transition a simple application into a robust, distributed system. Strong candidates will drive the conversation, identifying bottlenecks and proposing concrete solutions.

Be ready to go over:

• Scaling Strategies: Discussing horizontal vs. vertical scaling and when to use each.
• Database Optimization: Explaining indexing, sharding, and read replicas in SQL databases.
• System Architecture: Drawing out components like load balancers, caching layers (Redis), and message queues.
• Advanced concepts (less common): Microservices architecture, event-driven systems, and handling eventual consistency.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "How would you architect our basic CRUD app to handle 10,000 requests per second?"
• "Walk me through how you would scale the database layer of an application experiencing heavy read latency."

Key Responsibilities

As a Software Engineer at Athelas, your day-to-day work will be heavily focused on shipping features and maintaining system reliability. You will spend a significant portion of your time developing API queries, analyzing external data structures, and integrating those data streams into our internal databases. This requires a strong command of backend logic and a meticulous approach to data integrity.

You will also be responsible for building out user-facing features. This means collaborating closely with product managers to understand requirements, and then translating those requirements into responsive React frontends and robust backend services. You will frequently architect basic CRUD applications, ensuring they are optimized for both speed of delivery and long-term maintainability.

Collaboration is a constant. You will work alongside other engineers, participate in code reviews, and occasionally interact with the sales engineering team to troubleshoot customer-facing technical issues. Because we operate in a fast-paced environment, you will be expected to take ownership of your projects, proactively communicating blockers and driving your tasks from conception to deployment on GCP.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be successful in this role, you need a blend of strong practical coding skills and the ability to navigate ambiguous product requirements. We look for engineers who are builders at heart.

• Must-have skills:
  • Serious, production-level experience with Python.
  • Strong proficiency in building and consuming RESTful APIs.
  • Solid understanding of relational databases and writing SQL queries.
  • Experience building user interfaces with modern JavaScript frameworks, specifically React.
• Nice-to-have skills:
  • Experience with TypeScript and state management tools like TanStack Query.
  • Familiarity with deploying and managing applications on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
  • Previous experience in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Experience level: Typically, successful candidates have 2+ years of full-stack or backend software engineering experience, with a proven track record of shipping end-to-end web applications.
• Soft skills: Exceptional communication skills are vital. You must be able to ask clarifying questions, explain technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders, and advocate for your architectural decisions.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the typical technical and behavioral challenges you will face during the Athelas interview process. While you may not get these exact prompts, practicing them will help you identify the patterns and expectations of our engineering team.

API & Data Parsing

These questions test your ability to interact with external services, read documentation, and manipulate data structures using Python.

• "Given a mock API endpoint, write a script to fetch all user records, filter out those who are inactive, and return a list of their email addresses."
• "Query this public API, handle any pagination required to get all results, and parse the JSON to find the item with the highest specific value."
• "Read this provided API documentation. Notice any hidden constraints? Write a function that safely extracts data without hitting the documented rate limits."

Full-Stack & CRUD Implementation

These prompts evaluate your ability to build working software quickly, utilizing React, SQL, and backend routing.

• "Architect and implement a basic web application that allows a user to create, view, edit, and delete customer profiles."
• "Build a React frontend that consumes a provided Typescript API call and displays the data using Tanstack Query."
• "Set up a simple backend service that connects to a SQL database and exposes an endpoint to retrieve aggregated metrics."

System Design & Architecture

These questions assess your high-level thinking and your ability to plan for future growth and traffic spikes.

• "Take the simple web app you just built. How would you redesign the architecture to scale it for 1 million active users?"
• "Identify the single points of failure in this proposed system diagram and explain how you would mitigate them."
• "Walk me through how you would optimize our SQL database if our read queries start taking longer than 2 seconds."

Behavioral & Background

These questions help us understand how you work within a team, how you handle adversity, and if you align with our fast-paced culture.

• "Tell me about a time you had to build a feature with very vague requirements. How did you proceed?"
• "Describe a project you built from scratch. What were the hardest technical challenges, and how did you overcome them?"
• "Why are you interested in joining Athelas, and what kind of impact are you looking to make here?"

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to grind LeetCode to pass the technical interviews? No. Athelas focuses on practical engineering. You will not be asked abstract dynamic programming or complex graph theory questions. Instead, practice building basic web applications, writing SQL queries, and parsing API data in Python.

Q: What is the company's stance on remote work versus in-office? While some initial screens may be remote, Athelas strongly values in-person collaboration. Depending on the specific team, you may be expected to work from the Mountain View or San Francisco office up to 5 days a week. Be sure to clarify location expectations with your recruiter early in the process.

Q: How quickly does the interview process move? The process is designed to be highly efficient. Rounds are often scheduled quickly back-to-back. However, be proactive in your communication. If you haven't received a calendar invite or a follow-up within a few days, reach out to your recruiter directly to ensure nothing has slipped through the cracks.

Q: What makes a candidate stand out during the technical onsite? Candidates who stand out treat the interview like a collaborative working session. They read documentation carefully, ask clarifying questions before writing code, and are vocal about their architectural trade-offs. Building personal web projects prior to the interview is one of the best ways to prepare.

Other General Tips

• Communicate Proactively: Effective communication is vital. Talk through your thought process while coding. If an interviewer gives you ambiguous instructions, take it as an opportunity to ask scoping questions and define the requirements yourself.
• Master Your Environment: You will often be asked to write code in a shared editor or your own IDE. Ensure your local development environment is fully set up for Python, React, and basic database connections so you don't waste time on boilerplate during the interview.
• Read the Docs Carefully: When given an API task, spend the first few minutes thoroughly reading the provided documentation. Interviewers specifically look for candidates who spot hidden information, rate limits, or specific formatting requirements before they start typing.
• Advocate for Yourself: Startups move fast, and occasionally scheduling hiccups happen. If an interviewer is late or a link isn't working, remain professional, email your recruiter immediately, and stay ready. Resilience and adaptability are highly valued traits here.

Summary & Next Steps

Joining Athelas as a Software Engineer is an opportunity to build critical infrastructure in a rapidly scaling environment. You will be challenged to move fast, think pragmatically, and take ownership of full-stack features from day one. The work you do here will directly impact our operational efficiency and our ability to deliver value to our users.

To succeed in your interviews, focus heavily on the fundamentals of practical software development. Ensure you are highly comfortable parsing complex data from APIs using Python, building out robust user interfaces with React, and discussing how to scale backend architectures. Remember that we are looking for builders—engineers who can translate vague requirements into functional, scalable code.

This compensation data provides a baseline expectation for the role. Keep in mind that total compensation at a high-growth company often includes equity, which can significantly increase your earning potential as the company scales. Discuss your specific expectations and how they align with your experience level openly with your recruiter.

Approach your preparation with confidence. By focusing on real-world projects, reviewing external API documentation, and practicing your system design communication, you will be well-positioned to excel. For more detailed insights, peer experiences, and targeted practice scenarios, continue exploring resources on Dataford. You have the skills to make a massive impact at Athelas—now it is time to showcase them.