How much do tech roles pay in the USA? ($)
Senior software engineerUS tech pay is the highest in the world, and the gap with everywhere else is mostly equity. A senior software engineer:
roughly $160,000 to $260,000 in base salary, averaging around $200,000.
$300,000 to $400,000+ in total pay once stock is included, Meta and Google seniors sit near the top.
higher again, often well past $500,000 for strong senior engineers.
What moves the number: Stock is the big lever. A US offer can be two to three times a European one for the same role, almost entirely because of the equity. Negotiate the whole package, not just base salary.
Job security and notice periods in the USA
Once you're hiredWeak, by design. Most US jobs are "at will," so you can be let go at any time, often the same day, with no legal notice and only the severance you negotiated. The deal is simple: the highest pay in the world, and the least security. Unemployment benefits are modest and vary by state.
Most US employment is "at will," which means either side can end it at any time. There's no legal notice period. Two weeks is the polite custom, not a rule.
- You can usually start a new job within two to four weeks of accepting.
- The whole search moves faster than in Europe, so you can run it on a shorter runway.
- Job security cuts the other way too: layoffs can be immediate, with no statutory notice.
If you're looking while still employed, this matters even more. See how to interview while you're still employed.
Working culture and turnover in the USA
Hours, hierarchy, tenureIntense and results-focused, especially at big tech and startups, where long hours are common and you're measured on impact. Hierarchy is flatter than most of Europe. Remote work boomed after 2020, but many large employers pushed return-to-office through 2025 and 2026.
High. Two-to-three-year tenures are normal, and changing jobs is not just accepted but often how you get the biggest pay rises, since external offers usually beat internal raises. Job-hopping carries little stigma.
What's different about interviewing in the USA?
The local layerThis is the loop the rest of the world copies. Expect a recruiter screen, a technical phone screen, and an onsite with several rounds:
- Coding rounds in the LeetCode style, data structures and algorithms, solved out loud.
- A system design round at mid-level and above.
- A behavioural round, often run by the hiring manager, on past projects and collaboration.
Reading this because you've got one lined up? Paste the actual job you're applying for in the USAand walk in knowing the questions that company asks at your level, then rehearse out loud.
Will I get shortlisted? →Who's hiring in the USA, and what they pay
Where the jobs areTier 1
Big tech
Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix. Highest pay, hardest loops, and they sponsor visas.
Tier 2
Startups and scale-ups
lower base, more equity, faster and less formal processes. Concentrated in SF, NYC, and increasingly remote.
Tier 3
Finance and quant
Jane Street, Citadel, Two Sigma. Top-of-market cash, intense technical bars.
AI and the 2026 market in the USA
The 2026 shiftThe US is the center of the AI boom, and pay has split because of it. AI infrastructure, ML, and AI-product roles command large premiums, with the very top specialists fielding $1M+ packages, while roles seen as automatable are squeezed. If you can credibly point at AI-adjacent work, 2026 is a seller's market; if not, expect more competition.
For the shifts hitting every market this year, see what changed in tech interviews in 2026.
Language and the international scene in the USA
The working languageEnglish only. There's no second-language question, which removes one barrier that Europe often adds.
Tech hubs are deeply international, but the gate isn't language or culture, it's the visa. Once you have status, the US is very open to immigrants and your background rarely counts against you.
Working in the USA: visas and right to work
The gateThis is the hard part for non-citizens. The main work visa, the H-1B, is capped and allocated by lottery, so even a strong offer can fall through. Big tech sponsors and also uses other routes (L-1 transfers, O-1 for standout candidates), but plan for uncertainty and ask the recruiter early whether they sponsor.
How to prepare for an interview in the USA
Etiquette and employer loopsUS tech interviews reward confident self-promotion. Interviewers expect direct I statements about what you personally built and shipped, so quantify your own impact plainly rather than hiding behind we. Coding culture is heavy on LeetCode-style data structures and algorithms, often through timed online assessments before any human talks to you. Behavioural rounds run on the STAR format and, at Amazon, map explicitly to Leadership Principles, so bring specific past-situation stories. The market moves fast and is at-will, so recruiters probe genuine interest in the role over long-term loyalty pledges.
How the loop actually runs shifts by employer. A few of the best-known names in the USA:
CoreWeave
The largest AI cloud: reported coding rounds are practical, often in Go or Python (safely rebooting a fleet of machines, a small HTTP API), then system design. Every engineering posting carries an export-control eligibility clause.
Full CoreWeave interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Together AI
Inference and training cloud: reported rounds include writing model-serving code (an attention step, batching, streaming) and an inference system design. Posted US base pay runs from $160,000 to $290,000 for engineering roles.
Full Together AI interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Crusoe
The AI data centre builder: a take-home technical assessment, then a final round with the hiring manager, a project review and an hour of coding, usually within two to six weeks. Job ads post the base pay range.
Full Crusoe interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Cerebras
The wafer-scale chip maker: designated AI-assisted coding rounds where using AI is expected and graded on framing, checking and owning the result, alongside reported C++, concurrency and parallel computing problems.
Full Cerebras interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
TSMC
The Phoenix chip fabs: online assessments first (English and personality for engineers, aptitude and English for technicians), then a panel of three to six from the team, with direct questions on 12-hour rotating shifts and months of training in Taiwan.
Full TSMC interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Boeing
Its own interview guide spells it out: a panel of two to four asking about past experience, answered in STAR form, sometimes with a coding challenge or case study. Many early career roles start with a recorded HireVue, and many engineering ads require a U.S. Person.
Full Boeing interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Deloitte
A recorded HireVue video first for most students, then live behavioural interviews, plus a case interview for consulting or a scenario interview for audit. Deloitte publishes its own five-step case approach and video tips.
Full Deloitte interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
PwC
Behavioral questions built on the PwC Professional, plus Innovation Scenario questions about how you would approach something new. Many countries start with a recorded video interview, and Advisory adds a case. In the US, Assurance and Tax candidates have two live virtual interviews back to back.
Full PwC interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Elastic
Remote-first: a recruiter screen, team interviews, and for some roles a timed CodeSignal test candidates describe as four questions in 70 minutes; sales roles add a panel presentation. Since July 2026 interviews are human-to-human with no AI tools.
Full Elastic interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Amazon
An online assessment for SDE I and II that since mid-2026 pairs one algorithm problem with a repository task you fix using a built-in AI assistant, then a Work Simulation. The loop is four or five interviews of about 55 minutes, each with Leadership Principle questions, and one interviewer is a Bar Raiser from another team who decides with the hiring manager.
Full Amazon interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Online coding assessment, then one or two 45-minute phone screens over Google Meet solving algorithm problems in a shared doc with no autocomplete or execution. Onsite is four to five rounds: three to four coding rounds plus a Googleyness and Leadership behavioural round in STAR format. L4 and up add one or two system design rounds, weighted more heavily at senior levels.
Full Google interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Meta
A recruiter call, often a CodeSignal test, then a 45-minute screen. The onsite pairs a classic coding round with an AI-assisted one, where Meta says candidates are expected to use the built-in assistant, plus system design or product architecture by role and a behavioural round. Then team matching before the offer; Meta puts the whole process at about two to three months.
Full Meta interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Uber
Uber publishes its rounds per level. A 60-minute Business Phone Screen of coding and design sets your level, then algorithms, Depth in Specialization in your own track, design from L4, and collaboration and leadership. Candidates call the design round the Bar Raiser; hiring slowed in 2026.
Full Uber interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
DoorDash
DoorDash is replacing classic coding rounds with a 60-minute AI-assisted working session on your own machine. Candidates in 2026 still also report Code Craft (practical API coding), a debugging round, system design and a hiring manager round, mostly on HackerRank.
Full DoorDash interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Microsoft
Short recruiter screen, then a technical phone screen or an asynchronous Codility coding assessment of about 60 minutes. The onsite is a four-round loop covering two or three coding rounds, one system design round, and one behavioural round focused on growth mindset. A final As Appropriate round with senior leadership happens only when earlier rounds go well, and an invite is a strong positive signal.
Tesla
A recorded AI voice screen comes first, 10 to 25 minutes and four to seven questions built from the posting, reviewed by a recruiter afterwards. Then a hiring manager call, an assessment or take-home for technical roles, an onsite panel, and for some roles an executive who reads the evidence of excellence you wrote on the application form.
Full Tesla interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Goldman Sachs
A recorded HireVue interview of four to six questions, about 30 seconds to think and two to three minutes to answer with no second take, reviewed by a recruiter. Engineering skips it for a HackerRank assessment instead. Both paths end at a Superday, three to five interviews back to back in one sitting.
Full Goldman Sachs interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
JPMorgan Chase
Early-career engineers apply to the Software Engineer Program, take a required HackerRank coding challenge, then a recorded video interview candidates call the HireVue: two behavioural questions, about two minutes each. US interns come in through Code for Good, a two-day hackathon for a nonprofit.
Full JPMorgan Chase interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
GitHub
A timed take-home in a private repository, submitted as a pull request and marked Approve or Request changes, then a follow-up on it, pair coding and system design. Almost every role is remote in the US, the UK or Canada.
Full GitHub interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Visa
An online coding test first, CodeSignal for graduates and HackerRank for experienced hires, then coding, a system design round often built on payments, and a hiring manager round that rejects people. Candidates report long waits after the final round.
Full Visa interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Palantir
A 90-minute HackerRank screen in three parts, coding, SQL and a REST API task, then 60-minute rounds from a rotating pool. Decomposition is the one that decides it: a huge, badly defined problem turned into an engineering plan in an hour, with little or no code written. Three to four weeks end to end.
Full Palantir interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
xAI
The application asks for a written statement of your most exceptional work alongside the resume, and engineers rather than recruiters read it before any call is booked. Then a short screen, a proctored coding assessment of about an hour, a live technical screen, and a loop of three or four rounds that goes back to what you wrote.
Full xAI interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Anduril
The recruiter asks why defence before anyone asks you to code, and about half the roles need a clearance, so US citizens and permanent residents only. A phased screen, then a final round of about four hours; candidates hear back the day after each round.
Full Anduril interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Scale AI
A one-hour screen graded on how much working code you ship, a debugging round on a live model endpoint, and a Credo interview at the end. About three weeks to a month, longer for senior roles.
Full Scale AI interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Perplexity
Applied Python screens, an onsite built around search systems with a product round, and a founder or senior-leader call at the end. One to three weeks, and replies within days.
Full Perplexity interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Databricks
A 60-minute CoderPad screen, a dedicated concurrency round, two kinds of system design, then three references called and a hiring committee before any offer. About eight weeks in one 2026 account.
Full Databricks interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Stripe
A 60-minute coding screen, then five onsite rounds: production-quality coding on a business problem, the Bug Squash (a failing test in a repository you have never seen, internet open), the Integration round (a feature against an API from its docs, open book, no AI assistant), API or system design on money, and a behavioural round against six operating principles. Team matching after. Four to eight weeks, the same shape in every hub.
Full Stripe interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Circle (USDC)
A recruiter screen on fintech interest, the CodeSignal in-memory database assessment, then two long live rounds: 60 minutes of system design on money movement and 90 minutes of pair programming writing a web API with SQL, and a 30-minute hiring manager. Remote-first, New York headquarters.
Full Circle interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Kraken
Fully remote from the first call: a talent screen on mission fit, a 60-to-90-minute live coding screen, a hiring manager, a multi-hour take-home on some teams (a rate-limited API client or financial data, judged on error handling), then an onsite of two coding rounds, exchange design under concurrency, a crypto domain round at senior and a values round. Four to seven weeks across time zones.
Full Kraken interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Coinbase
Three assessments before a person: a 90-minute CodeSignal test built around a four-level in-memory database (set and get, scans, time-to-live, backup and restore), proctored and scored out of 800; a 15-minute aptitude test; a long workstyles survey. Then a screen, two practical coding rounds, exchange-flavoured system design, a behavioural round on the nine cultural tenets and a hiring manager. Six to eight weeks, remote-first.
Full Coinbase interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Robinhood
Coding problems built on its own products, posted in full by candidates: fractional shares inventory kept under one share, a referral chain leaderboard, the load on services in a dependency graph, on CodeSignal and graded for correctness. The onsite adds two system design rounds, a past project you present from a system diagram, and a hiring manager. No AI tools in live interviews.
Full Robinhood interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Block
Square and Cash App test engineers with pair programming in CoderPad: one problem in parts, each adding a requirement to the code you already wrote, with your explanation graded alongside it. Two or three pairing rounds, system design and a past-work conversation. Hiring again after a 40% cut in February 2026, with AI fluency in the ads.
Full Block interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Firecrawl
The web data API for AI agents: a 25-minute intro, a 45-minute think-out-loud chat on a real problem from your role's ad, a founder chat, then a paid work trial of about 40 hours on real product work, which is where it decides. No take-home or LeetCode. $235K to $290K base in San Francisco.
Full Firecrawl interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Surge AI
Human data for AI labs, and you apply by doing the work: its published exercises are an email to an unhappy customer for operations roles and a 1,000-engineer benchmarking plan for coding-evaluation roles. Contract engineers take a coding screen of a couple of hours instead of an interview loop.
Full Surge AI interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Zapier
Fully remote, and it has published how it tests AI fluency: at the application, the first screen, the skills test and the executive interview, against a four-level rubric. The skills test watches how you prompt, push back on an output and adapt; engineers report an AI-native coding round. No résumé required.
Full Zapier interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Atlassian
A recruiter screen that sets your P-level, a Karat technical screen (rapid-fire fundamentals, then coding, with a redo on request), and a four-round onsite: coding graded on quality and tests, code design that builds a real thing and extends it, system design in Jira's domain, and the values interview, scored against five values by someone outside the team and reported as decisive. A hiring committee before the offer; three to six weeks, Team Anywhere.
Full Atlassian interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
GitLab
From the handbook: a 30-to-40-minute screen with its questions published, then the merge request round (a self-contained MR sent 72 hours ahead, an hour of asynchronous review, a 90-minute call walking it through and improving it live, AI encouraged), team interviews on the six CREDIT values, references with an optional resource-group call, and an offer from a public compensation calculator. Three to six weeks across time zones.
Full GitLab interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
PostHog
Four stages from a public handbook: a 20-minute talent call, a workshop-style technical interview with no whiteboarding, an exec conversation on the five values, then the SuperDay, a paid full day ($1,000) building a small web service on a task sized to be too much, plus 45 minutes debugging an unfamiliar codebase with no AI beyond autocomplete. A decision within 48 hours; the pay formula and calculator are public too.
Full PostHog interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Cursor
A screen that checks you use the product, one to three hour-long technical rounds on editor primitives with no AI beyond autocomplete, then the round every engineer and designer does: two days on site in a frozen snapshot of the real codebase with no assigned task, a demo at the end and a line-by-line review. Meals with the team count.
Full Cursor interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
ElevenLabs
Often a voice agent first, then a recruiter, a self-paced CoderPad challenge of two or three medium problems, and a three-round loop: a behavioural deep dive on work you led alone, practical coding on an audio workflow, and Product Decomposition, a design round with no code where you take a customer tool from the screen down to the data model. A founder call closes it. Two to five weeks, remote.
Full ElevenLabs interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Harvey
A 60-minute Python coding screen, then an onsite of coding with a text-under-structure shape (a spreadsheet engine, a file vault, overlapping highlights), system design over a law firm's documents with citations, and a project deep dive in place of a behavioural round. A founder call at senior. Legal engineers, a track for lawyers, are placed across three roles at the recruiter call.
Full Harvey interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Glean
Enterprise AI search, with engineering in Mountain View, San Francisco and Bangalore. A coding phone screen on practical problems (a BPE tokenizer, word search, the 2048 tilt move), then an onsite of coding, a search system design round, and a practical build of about two hours in your own IDE where the code has to run. Every ad adds a short exercise on how you use AI. Hybrid, three or four days in the office.
Full Glean interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Abridge
AI clinical notes for US health systems, hybrid from San Francisco. A recruiter call, a manager call built on a project you shipped, an onsite of system design on its own clinical product (partial code handed over to complete), a coding round that is sometimes AI-related and a product-sense round, then the CTO. About a month.
Full Abridge interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Cognition
The makers of Devin and Windsurf, in San Francisco. The CEO describes the engineering interview as building your own Devin in eight hours. Deployed engineers, most of the hiring, sit a take-home inside Devin, a project presentation, leadership conversations, a pitch to a mock executive panel and a live customer call.
Full Cognition interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
Roblox
The 3D games platform in San Mateo. For early-career roles the first interview is a game-based assessment, the Robots and Factories games and workplace scenarios, plus a coding test and the Outpost: Mars block-coding game for technical roles, before any CV review. Then coding rounds, a values interview and a hiring committee. Offices three days a week.
Full Roblox interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
TRM Labs
Blockchain intelligence, remote-first, and its loop is published: recruiter, hiring manager, a 30-to-60-minute technical assessment, then a final of three to seven interviews including Code Review in CoderPad, Systems Design in Whimsical and a Leadership Principles interview. Candidates report a screen where you change a codebase with an AI coding tool. About two weeks.
Full TRM Labs interview guide: every round, the values they score, and what they pay →
These loops describe engineering hiring. Management and leadership candidates meet a similar local process but a different bar, so pair this page with the leadership interview prep hub and your role guide.
Questions worth preparing for interviews in the USA
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager and how you handled it (STAR format).
- Describe a situation where you took ownership of a problem outside your direct responsibility.
- Design a large-scale system such as a URL shortener, news feed, or rate limiter, walking through scalability and trade-offs.
- Solve this medium-to-hard algorithm problem on arrays, hash maps, trees, or graph traversal, then optimize it.
- Tell me about a time you had to deliver results under a tight deadline with incomplete information.
The role itself doesn't change at the border. A senior engineer is held to a senior engineer's bar wherever you are, so the substance of your prep comes from the role-by-role guides and the 2026 Tech Interview Report. This page is the local layer on top: pay in dollars, the right timeline, and a process that shifts with the company. It's also worth reading why strong candidates get rejected, since those mistakes travel everywhere. And wherever you interview, the prep that actually transfers is rehearsing out loud, so run a mock interview before the real one.
Frequently asked questions
The short answersWhat's different about interviewing in the USA?
US tech interviews reward confident self-promotion. Interviewers expect direct I statements about what you personally built and shipped, so quantify your own impact plainly rather than hiding behind we. Coding culture is heavy on LeetCode-style data structures and algorithms, often through timed online assessments before any human talks to you. Behavioural rounds run on the STAR format and, at Amazon, map explicitly to Leadership Principles, so bring specific past-situation stories. The market moves fast and is at-will, so recruiters probe genuine interest in the role over long-term loyalty pledges.
How much do software engineers earn in the USA?
US tech pay is the highest in the world, and the gap with everywhere else is mostly equity. A senior software engineer — Most companies: roughly $160,000 to $260,000 in base salary, averaging around $200,000. Big tech and top startups: $300,000 to $400,000+ in total pay once stock is included, Meta and Google seniors sit near the top. Quant and trading firms: higher again, often well past $500,000 for strong senior engineers. Stock is the big lever. A US offer can be two to three times a European one for the same role, almost entirely because of the equity. Negotiate the whole package, not just base salary.
How do notice periods work in the USA?
Most US employment is "at will," which means either side can end it at any time. There's no legal notice period. Two weeks is the polite custom, not a rule. You can usually start a new job within two to four weeks of accepting. The whole search moves faster than in Europe, so you can run it on a shorter runway. Job security cuts the other way too: layoffs can be immediate, with no statutory notice.
Do you need to speak the local language to work in tech in the USA?
English only. There's no second-language question, which removes one barrier that Europe often adds. Tech hubs are deeply international, but the gate isn't language or culture, it's the visa. Once you have status, the US is very open to immigrants and your background rarely counts against you.
How is job security in the USA?
Weak, by design. Most US jobs are "at will," so you can be let go at any time, often the same day, with no legal notice and only the severance you negotiated. The deal is simple: the highest pay in the world, and the least security. Unemployment benefits are modest and vary by state.
Can a foreign engineer get a work visa in the USA?
This is the hard part for non-citizens. The main work visa, the H-1B, is capped and allocated by lottery, so even a strong offer can fall through. Big tech sponsors and also uses other routes (L-1 transfers, O-1 for standout candidates), but plan for uncertainty and ask the recruiter early whether they sponsor.
Sources
Where the numbers come from- 01CoreWeave, 10-K for 2025headcount and company facts; the export-control clause is on its job postings.
- 02Together AI, software engineer postingthe posted base pay range.
- 03Crusoe, early careersthe take-home and the final round.
- 04Levels.fyi, Senior Software Engineer, United Statestotal-compensation data including big-tech equity.
- 05Glassdoor, Senior Software Engineer, USbase-salary ranges and averages.
- 06AI Engineer Compensation Trendsthe AI pay premium splitting the US market.
- 07Amazon SDE II interview prep (official)Amazon's loop shape, Leadership Principles, and Bar Raiser.
- 08IGotAnOffer, Google Software Engineer interviewphone screens, coding rounds, and the Googleyness round.
- 09IGotAnOffer, Meta Software Engineer interviewthe CodeSignal-to-onsite pipeline and round weighting.
- 10IGotAnOffer, Microsoft Software Engineer interviewrecruiter screen, Codility assessment, and As Appropriate round.
Pay, notice, protection and visa details are sourced above. The notes on working culture, turnover and market trends reflect widely-reported conditions as of 2026, and are meant as a general read rather than precise figures.
Walk in ready
Walk into your interview in the USA ready to land it.
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