PostHog interview, decoded.

The four stages below are the handbook's own description, with the engineering specifics from its engineering hiring and SuperDay pages. Sequential, fast, and decisive by design.

PostHog names five values and says the exec interview checks alignment with them; the SuperDay's grading criteria are published too.

• You're the driver: extraordinarily high ownership, and the company gets out of the way
• Make it public: default to transparency, including the handbook this guide quotes
• Do more weird: unconventional strategy over safe strategy
• Why not now?: ship without waiting for consensus
• Optimistic by default: aim for the best case and encourage ambitious ideas
• And for the SuperDay: shipping and execution, technical depth, product sense

PostHog publishes what it screens for rather than a question bank; the questions below are the ones its stated criteria imply and candidates report.

The SuperDay is PostHog's final round and it is fully documented by the company: a paid full day, a project sized to be too much, a 45-minute debugging session in a codebase you have not seen, a buddy, a founder chat, and three published grading criteria. Here is what each part asks and how to spend the day, from the handbook's own guidance.

• The project is too big on purpose: The handbook says you will not finish everything and that this is expected; what is graded is what you chose. Read the task, list the pieces, pick the core problem, and ship a working version of that before anything else. Its own line: a functional product that solves the core problem well beats a half-finished product that tries to do everything.
• Backend and frontend, from scratch, in a day: Choose a stack you can stand up in twenty minutes and stay on it. A thin API, a data model that fits the core problem, one screen that shows the output, then depth: error handling, a test on the logic that matters, a README. The technical-depth criterion names thoughtful architecture, clean code and sensible error handling.
• Product sense is a criterion, so build for a person: The handbook asks whether the output actually helps someone make a decision. Say who the user is in the README and make the one screen answer their question; the strongest submissions are described as ones that made the tool more useful beyond the basic requirements.
• AI tools: yes for the project, no for the debugging: Use an assistant for the build, but the check-ins will ask you to explain the architecture and the reasoning, so nothing you cannot explain should be in the repo. In the 45-minute debugging session, basic autocomplete only: it is a test of reading code you did not write, with Google open.
• 80 per cent on the task: The handbook's ratio: at least 80 per cent of the day on the project, under 20 per cent on people. Keep the buddy check-in and the founder chat short and specific, and use the buddy on Slack for blockers rather than conversation.
• The debugging session is the other half of the signal: Run the tests first, read the failure, trace to where the data was last right, fix, re-run, add the test. Narrate the search. The codebase is unfamiliar by design, so how you orient is what is watched.

Rehearse the day once: pick a task like 'a small service that ingests events and shows a chart', give yourself eight hours, and stop at seven to write the README. Then do a 45-minute bug hunt in an open-source repo without an assistant. PostHog pays for the real one and decides within two days, so the rehearsal is the only part that costs you.

PostHog publishes its formula and a calculator: benchmark × location factor × level modifier × step modifier, with the benchmark from Pave at the 90th percentile for engineering roles, read 22 September 2026. Equity is share options on four-year vesting with a one-year cliff and ten years to exercise. Run the calculator for your city and level before the talent call; the number it gives is the offer's starting point, and the handbook says so.

1. 01Run the public salary calculator for your location and level first; the loop is fast and the number is not a negotiation surprise.
2. 02Rehearse a SuperDay: an eight-hour build of a small service on a task you deliberately over-scope, shipping the core first, README last.
3. 03Practise a 45-minute bug hunt in an unfamiliar open-source repo with no AI beyond autocomplete, narrating the search.
4. 04Prepare a workshop-style walk through one system you designed: the trade-offs, what broke, what you would change. No slides.
5. 05Have a story per value, especially something shipped without asking and something changed because a user said so.
6. 06If you have built anything agents use, lead with it; the handbook now asks for it.

This guide covers PostHog's engineering loop, which the company documents publicly; sales, customer success and developer relations have their own handbook pages and their own SuperDay shapes. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.

• 01PostHog handbook, hiring processthe four stages: the 20-minute talent interview and what it assesses, the 45-to-60-minute technical interview and the definite-yes rule, the small-team interview with an exec on motivation and values, and the SuperDay as a paid full day at $1,000 with a task sized to be too much and the 80/20 guidance; the 48-hour decision.
• 02PostHog handbook, engineering hiringwhat engineering candidates are assessed on (picking up a new stack, building from scratch, written communication, building things agents use, working with users), the workshop-style technical interview with no whiteboarding or brain teasers, the full-stack SuperDay task, and that years of experience are not the measure.
• 03PostHog handbook, preparing for the engineering SuperDaythe day's shape (project, 45-minute debugging session in an unfamiliar codebase, buddy check-in, founder chat), the three grading criteria (shipping and execution, technical depth, product sense), the AI policy for the project and the debugging session, and the 48-hour decision.
• 04PostHog handbook, compensationthe formula, the Pave benchmark at the 90th percentile for engineers ($285,000 in San Francisco), the location factors and floors, the five levels and four steps, the public calculator, and the option terms.
• 05PostHog handbook, valuesthe five values as named.
• 06PostHog, raising a Series D (and a small C)the June 2025 round led by Stripe at $920 million.
• 07TechNews180, PostHog raises a $75M Series Ethe October 2025 round led by Peak XV at a $1.4 billion valuation and the total raised.
• 08Sacra, PostHog revenue and valuationthe annual recurring revenue estimate of about $57.5 million in February 2026 and the headcount of about 200.

Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.