Preparing for an interview at People requires a balanced approach that showcases both your deep technical execution and your high-level system thinking. The engineering team values candidates who are pragmatic problem solvers, clear communicators, and collaborative teammates.

Role-Related Knowledge – You must demonstrate a strong command of your primary stack (whether frontend, backend, or full-stack). Interviewers will evaluate your understanding of language-specific best practices, framework mechanics, and fundamental data structures.

System Design & Scalability – For mid-to-senior roles, your ability to architect scalable systems is critical. You will be evaluated on how effectively you handle high-traffic scenarios, implement caching strategies, and reason about system trade-offs.

Problem-Solving Ability – Whether tackling a live coding challenge or discussing a past project, you should demonstrate a structured, analytical approach. Interviewers want to see how you break down complex, ambiguous problems into manageable, logical steps.

Collaboration & Product Mindset – People values engineers who think like product owners. You should show a keen interest in how your technical decisions impact the end-user experience and how you collaborate with product managers and other cross-functional stakeholders.

The interview process for a Software Engineer at People is structured to evaluate your technical capabilities, architectural thinking, and cultural alignment. While the exact steps can vary slightly depending on the specific team and seniority level, the overall sequence is designed to be comprehensive and highly collaborative.

The journey typically begins with an initial recruiter screen to discuss your background and align on mutual expectations. This is followed by a conversation with the hiring manager to assess your high-level technical experience and behavioral fit. Depending on the team, you may then be assigned a practical technical assessment—either a take-home project or a live coding session—focused on real-world engineering tasks rather than abstract algorithmic puzzles.

The final stages consist of a deep-dive technical round, a system design discussion, and conversations with key product stakeholders and engineering directors. Throughout the process, the engineering team aims to create a supportive environment where you can showcase your practical problem-solving skills and discuss how you approach complex technical challenges.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical progression from the initial application screen to the final round interviews. Candidates should use this sequence to pace their preparation, focusing first on core coding and role-specific knowledge before moving on to system design and behavioral exercises. While the entire process is thorough, maintaining consistent communication with your recruiter will help you navigate each stage smoothly.

To succeed in the Software Engineer interview loop, you must understand the specific areas where the engineering team will focus their evaluation.

Practical Coding & Technical Execution

This area evaluates your ability to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code under realistic constraints. Rather than focusing solely on competitive programming puzzles, People emphasizes practical engineering skills, such as manipulating data, building APIs, and working with modern web technologies.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Structure Fundamentals – Practical application of arrays, stacks, queues, and linked lists in everyday coding tasks.
• Frontend Manipulation & DOM – For frontend-focused roles, manipulating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript using modern tools or templating engines.
• API & Tool Development – Designing robust REST endpoints, handling request/response lifecycles, and creating command-line tools.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Specialized templating engines like Swig, custom middleware implementation, and advanced microservices communication protocols.

Example scenarios:

• "You are given a live CodePen session and asked to dynamically render a list of media articles using vanilla JavaScript and a basic template."
• "Build a functional CLI tool in Go that interacts with a local REST API to log and retrieve ad-tech performance metrics."

System Design & Architecture

For mid-to-senior engineering roles, the system design round is a critical component of the evaluation. Interviewers want to see how you approach high-level architecture, manage data flow, and optimize performance for high-traffic applications.

Be ready to go over:

• Retrospective Architecture Analysis – Walking through a system you previously designed, highlighting key decisions and lessons learned.
• Caching & Distributed Systems – Implementing local and distributed caching strategies to reduce latency and database load.
• Scalable Data Ingestion – Designing pipelines that can handle high volumes of concurrent requests without data loss.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Multi-region database replication, event-driven architectures, and high-availability failover strategies.

Example scenarios:

• "Describe the architecture of a complex application you deployed in a previous role. Looking back, what bottlenecks did you encounter, and how would you redesign it today?"
• "How would you design an asset-delivery system that serves millions of static and dynamic media files daily with minimal latency?"

Behavioral & Cross-Functional Collaboration

Technical skills are only part of the equation; People highly values engineers who can collaborate effectively across teams, communicate complex ideas clearly, and align their work with business goals.

Be ready to go over:

• Working with Product Management – How you align technical timelines with product roadmaps and negotiate feature scope.
• Handling Ambiguity – Navigating project requirements that are not fully defined and making pragmatic technical decisions.
• Conflict Resolution – Managing technical disagreements within your team constructively and aligning on a path forward.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Mentoring junior engineers, driving engineering-wide best practices, and managing stakeholder expectations during system outages.

Example scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to work closely with a Product Manager to scale back a feature's technical complexity while still delivering key business value."
• "Describe a situation where you had to quickly learn a new framework or tool to unblock a critical project deliverable."