To stand out in the Shipmonk hiring process, you must understand what the engineering leadership values most. Preparation should go beyond practicing standard coding puzzles; you must demonstrate a commitment to professional software craftsmanship.

Production-Grade Rigor – Shipmonk does not just look for code that works; they look for code that can be safely deployed to production. This means every piece of code you submit—including simple take-home tasks—must be accompanied by robust unit tests, static analysis configurations, and structured code style settings.

Foundational Problem Solving – You must be comfortable writing algorithms and data structures from first principles. Avoid relying too heavily on high-level language shortcuts or built-in helper functions during technical assessments. Interviewers want to see that you understand the underlying mechanics of the code you write.

System Architecture & API Design – You will be expected to demonstrate a strong grasp of API design patterns, clean database schema design, and project scaffolding. Be prepared to explain how you organize your code, manage dependencies, and decouple business logic from framework-specific code.

Collaborative Autonomy – Because the engineering team is highly distributed, with a significant presence in Prague and Gdańsk, strong communication skills are non-negotiable. You must be able to articulate your technical decisions clearly, document your assumptions, and collaborate effectively across different time zones.

The interview process at Shipmonk is designed to be fast, thorough, and highly reflective of the actual day-to-day work you will perform. The company prides itself on a rapid evaluation cycle, often providing feedback and decisions directly during or immediately after your interview sessions. However, the process is technically demanding and expects a high level of engineering maturity from day one.

The journey typically begins with a standard recruiter screen to align on experience, expectations, and role fit. This is followed by an initial technical assessment, which usually consists of a short online quiz and a take-home coding assignment. If your submission meets their rigorous standards, you will move on to a deep-dive technical interview with senior engineering leads. For some locations and teams, particularly in Prague, the final stage may involve a paid "testing day" where you work closely with the team on a realistic project to experience their development culture firsthand.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical sequence of stages in the hiring process. Candidates should use this timeline to pace their preparation, ensuring they allocate sufficient time to polish their take-home code and review core computer science fundamentals before the technical deep dive. While the exact steps may vary slightly depending on your location and seniority level, the emphasis on rigorous technical evaluation remains consistent across all tracks.

To pass the technical bar at Shipmonk, you must perform exceptionally well across several distinct evaluation areas. Understanding what is expected in each area will help you focus your preparation effectively.

Clean Code & Engineering Rigor

This area evaluates your commitment to professional software engineering standards. Shipmonk has a very low tolerance for "quick and dirty" coding solutions. They expect all code, even in interview assignments, to look like production-grade software.

Be ready to go over:

• Testing Strategies – Writing comprehensive unit and integration tests using standard testing frameworks.
• Static Analysis & Linters – Configuring tools like PHPStan, ESLint, or equivalent static analyzers to ensure code quality.
• CI/CD Configuration – Setting up basic continuous integration pipelines or scripts to automate testing and linting.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Custom static analysis rules, advanced mock configurations, and test coverage optimization.

Example scenarios:

• "Refactor this legacy code snippet to make it fully testable, and write the corresponding unit tests."
• "Configure a static analysis tool for your take-home project to prove code quality and type safety."

Algorithms & Data Structures from Scratch

Unlike companies that allow you to rely heavily on modern language features, Shipmonk often evaluates your ability to implement fundamental algorithms and data structures from first principles. Using too many built-in language shortcuts can actually result in a lower score.

Be ready to go over:

• Custom Data Structures – Implementing linked lists, stacks, queues, or trees without built-in library helpers.
• Algorithm Optimization – Writing efficient search, sort, and traversal algorithms and explaining their Big-O complexity.
• Memory Management – Understanding how your code utilizes memory and avoiding unnecessary allocations.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Custom graph traversal algorithms, memory-efficient caching mechanisms, and bitwise operations.

Example scenarios:

• "Implement a sorted linked list where elements are inserted in the correct order, without using built-in sorting functions."
• "Write an algorithm to find the shortest path through a simulated warehouse layout, optimizing for execution speed."

API Design & Project Scaffolding

This area tests your ability to design clean, maintainable, and scalable backend applications. You will be evaluated on how you structure a new project and how you design APIs that other systems can easily consume.

Be ready to go over:

• Project Directory Structure – Organizing code logically to separate routing, business logic, and data access layers.
• RESTful API Best Practices – Designing intuitive, consistent, and secure API endpoints and request/response payloads.
• Database Schema Design – Creating normalized database tables with appropriate indexes to support high-throughput operations.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Event-driven architecture, message queue integrations, and database transaction isolation levels.

Example scenarios:

• "Scaffold a new API project from scratch to manage warehouse inventory, explaining your choice of folder structure and design patterns."
• "Design an API schema that allows external e-commerce platforms to sync their orders with Shipmonk in real time."

As a Software Engineer at Shipmonk, your day-to-day responsibilities will center around building highly reliable, scalable, and efficient software that powers physical logistics operations. You will not be working in a silo; your code will directly orchestrate the movement of millions of physical goods across global warehouses.

You will spend a significant portion of your time designing and implementing new features for the Warehouse Management System (WMS). This involves writing clean, well-tested backend code—often in PHP or other modern backend languages—to handle complex inventory routing algorithms, order processing pipelines, and carrier integrations. You will also be responsible for maintaining and optimizing existing systems to ensure high availability and low latency, especially during peak retail seasons.

Collaboration is a massive part of the role. You will work closely with product managers, UX designers, and operations leads to translate business requirements into technical specifications. Because the core engineering team is highly concentrated in Europe (Prague and Gdańsk), you will actively participate in cross-border technical discussions, code reviews, and architectural planning sessions. You will also be expected to mentor junior engineers, contribute to internal tooling, and continuously advocate for engineering best practices.