Fullbay Software Engineer interview questions & guide 2026

The following questions are representative of what you can expect during the hiring process. They are drawn from real candidate experiences and are designed to evaluate both your technical depth and your alignment with our operational culture. Use these questions to identify patterns in how we assess engineering talent rather than simply memorizing answers.

PHP & Framework Modernization

These questions evaluate your foundational language knowledge and your experience moving legacy codebases into modern framework environments.

• How do you safely refactor a legacy, procedural PHP application into a modern framework like Laravel?
• Explain the lifecycle of a request in Laravel, from the public directory to the response.

To succeed in the Fullbay interview process, you must prepare to demonstrate both technical adaptability and a high level of operational discipline. We look for engineers who are excited about modernizing platforms and who thrive in structured environments.

Technical Adaptability – You must show that you can work across both legacy and modern codebases. Be ready to discuss how you analyze unfamiliar code, identify bottlenecks, and incrementally introduce modern design patterns without breaking existing functionality.

Precision in Estimation – We value predictability and execution. You will be evaluated on your ability to break down complex tasks into granular, hour-based estimates. Practice explaining your estimation framework and how you account for unknowns.

High-Collaboration Aptitude – Our engineering culture is highly collaborative and communicative. You must demonstrate that you can work effectively in tight-knit team settings, actively participate in peer programming, and communicate technical trade-offs clearly.

Pragmatic Problem-Solving – We focus on delivering real business value. Your technical solutions should balance architectural purity with the pragmatic realities of product deadlines and customer needs.

The interview process at Fullbay is thorough and designed to ensure a mutual fit. We want to understand your technical capabilities, how you handle day-to-day engineering operations, and how your career goals align with our current technology transition. The process moves quickly, with a strong emphasis on clear communication and realistic expectations.

The journey begins with an initial screening, followed by a deeper conversation with the hiring manager to evaluate your alignment with our team culture and operational style. The final stage is a rigorous technical evaluation where you will dive deep into both core programming concepts and future-looking technologies.

The timeline above outlines the standard progression from your initial contact to the final offer stage. Candidates should expect a highly structured experience where each step has clear evaluation goals. Use this timeline to pace your preparation, focusing first on high-level system concepts and behavioral alignment, followed by deep-dive technical practice.

Legacy Refactoring & MVC Architecture

This is a core focus of our technical evaluation. We need to understand how you approach codebases that are in transition. You should be prepared to discuss how to decouple monolithic systems and transition them to structured frameworks.

Be ready to go over:

• Legacy PHP to Laravel Migration – Strategies for routing requests through a framework wrapper, dual-running systems, and step-by-step controller migration.
• Database Refactoring – How to safely alter database schemas on live, high-traffic systems without causing downtime.

As a Software Engineer at Fullbay, your daily work will be dynamic, blending hands-on coding with collaborative planning and systems modernization. You will be responsible for delivering clean, well-tested code that directly improves the platform's stability and performance.

On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Write robust, maintainable code in PHP and Laravel, transitioning legacy endpoints to modern MVC structures.
• Participate in daily 4-hour co-working video calls with your product squad, fostering real-time collaboration, peer programming, and rapid blocker resolution.
• Estimate your engineering tasks with high precision and track your progress strictly within Jira to the minute.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, QA engineers, and operations teams to define feature requirements and ensure seamless deployments.
• Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to peers while ensuring our architectural standards are met.
• Support platform reliability by contributing to observability initiatives, writing unit and integration tests, and participating in occasional on-call rotations.

We look for candidates who possess a strong technical foundation, a highly collaborative mindset, and a desire to work in a structured, high-accountability environment.

• Must-have technical skills – Deep proficiency in PHP and modern MVC frameworks (specifically Laravel), solid understanding of relational databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL), and experience writing automated tests.
• Must-have operational skills – Proven experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment with strict Jira tracking and precise task estimation.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with legacy system migrations, front-end frameworks (such as Vue.js or React), cloud infrastructure (AWS), and observability tools (Datadog or New Relic).
• Soft skills – Strong communication skills, adaptability to changing technologies, comfort with high-collaboration environments (co-working video calls), and a proactive approach to problem-solving.

Q: What is the remote work policy and daily schedule like? A: Fullbay supports remote work, but we maintain a highly collaborative virtual environment. Teams participate in daily 4-hour co-working video calls to pair program and solve problems in real time. Additionally, Wednesdays are heavily dedicated to team meetings and syncs.

Q: How strictly is time tracked at Fullbay? A: We place a high value on operational predictability. Engineers estimate their tasks in hours and are required to track their time diligently in Jira. This helps us plan sprints accurately and measure our development velocity.

Q: What is the primary tech stack, and what changes are underway? A: Our core platform is built on PHP. We are actively migrating from a legacy, non-framework codebase to Laravel. We are also expanding our infrastructure capabilities, creating opportunities to work with modern cloud and observability tools.

Q: What does a successful candidate look like? A: Successful candidates are adaptable engineers who are not afraid of legacy code. They are highly organized, communicate proactively when hurdles arise, and enjoy working closely with their teammates in a structured environment.

• Be transparent about legacy code: Do not pretend legacy code is easy to work with. We value engineers who are honest about the challenges of refactoring and who can discuss pragmatic, step-by-step solutions to modernization.
• Demonstrate estimation logic: During the interview, walk the interviewer through exactly how you break down a feature into hours. Show that you think about edge cases, testing, and deployment overhead when formulating your estimates.
• Embrace collaboration: Show enthusiasm for pair programming and co-working. Our daily 4-hour co-working sessions are a core part of our culture, so we look for candidates who see this as an opportunity for growth and team cohesion.

• Showcase your self-learning ability: Since we evaluate candidates on forward-looking technologies that we may not even use in production yet, be ready to share examples of how you have rapidly mastered new frameworks, tools, or languages in your past roles.

A Software Engineer role at Fullbay is an exciting opportunity to drive the modernization of a platform that keeps the commercial repair industry moving. You will tackle complex technical migrations, transition legacy systems to Laravel, and work alongside a friendly, supportive team that is dedicated to engineering excellence.

To stand out in your interviews, focus your preparation on core PHP concepts, MVC architecture, safe refactoring strategies, and precise task estimation. Show us that you are not only a strong coder but also a disciplined professional who thrives in a highly collaborative, organized environment.

The salary ranges at Fullbay reflect our commitment to hiring talent across different experience levels, from foundational engineers to senior architects and operations specialists. Your compensation will align with your technical depth, your experience with system migrations, and your ability to drive operational excellence on our team.

If you are ready to take the next step in your career and help us build the future of shop management software, begin your preparation today. For additional community insights, real interview reviews, and preparation resources, explore the engineering guides available on Dataford. We look forward to seeing what you can build with us.