Rippling Technical Screening Experience | Senior Software Engineer | USA

Role: Senior Software Engineer
Location: USA
Date of interview: Oct 26, 2026
Result: Rejected

Completed recruiter screening and was requested to provide availability; technical phone screen interview scheduled for 60 mins

I got the food delivery question - see #1 and #2 in References below.

Experience:

• The interview was conducted on HackerRank with one interviewer and one shadow interviewer. I was given the option to use the built‑in AI assistant, which I opted for.
• I started by reading through the requirements, clarifying assumptions, and deciding on the data structures and time representation. I chose Python and Unix timestamps. There is no pre‑written code. You need to define the class and the functions.
• I initially implemented the solution using dictionaries to store driver rates and delivery records. I used AI to assist with implementation after outlining the approach.
• The interviewer asked me to write test cases and verify the implementation. We spent some time debugging the rate update functionality, particularly how effective timestamps impact deliveries.
• There were follow‑up questions around historical driver rates, floating‑point precision when dealing with money, and optimizing getTotalCost() from O(n) to O(1).
• I was able to discuss the optimization approach, but ran out of time before fully implementing and verifying all the changes.

Notes:

• There are multiple parts to this question; because of this, time management is extremely important. I spent too much time clarifying requirements and planning the initial implementation.
• In the prep material the recruiter mentioned to use your own IDE and agent, and then upload the code to Hackerrank. BUT this has recently changed in Rippling, and now you have to use the in‑built Hackerrank editor and agent. The agent is by default GPT latest model with an option to change the models. It has multiple modes, like Ask and Edit (don't remember the exact names).
• Hello Interview's guide on AI‑enabled interviews is a good starting point; you can also try to use Claude Code make up a similar question. #3 and #4 has more examples.
• The interviewer expects you to independently verify correctness rather than simply getting the code to run. Writing test cases early would have helped.
• Be prepared to discuss time complexity and optimizations even if your initial solution is functionally correct.
• Understand monetary precision and why using floats with rounding to two decimal places is not necessarily sufficient.
• If using AI, make sure it accelerates implementation rather than taking up additional time debugging generated code.

References:

1. Rippling SDE-2 Phone Screening – Interview Question
2. [AI Enabled Coding] Food Delivery Company | EXTERNAL LINK
3. Rippling Offer Received | AI Coding Experience Share
4. Senior Software Engineer | Rippling | Reject

*Used AI to format Experience and Notes section.*

Good luck!