What is the iFood interview like for developers?

iFood does not publish a single process. Candidates report an HR conversation, a HackerRank-style coding challenge, a system design interview and a culture-fit interview.

Is the iFood interview in English?

There is no sign of it. Tech job posts are in Portuguese, do not ask for English, and no candidate report found mentions an English round.

Does iFood use HackerRank?

Yes in the Elas São Tech program, where the coding challenge runs on HackerRank. Candidates in other processes also report challenges in that style.

How does the process work for senior roles?

It is a continuous pipeline: you go through the process first and, if approved, you are matched to a team afterwards.

It depends on the area. The programs say hybrid or remote depending on the role; senior backend posts say "Brasil" and mobile posts are listed as remote.

What is the iFuture program?

iFood's internship program. It has a Technology track and a fully online process that takes about 4 months.

Hiring processes · Brazilian tech companies

What the iFood interview is like

iFood, the Brazilian delivery app, has more than 3,000 people in technology, according to the company. It does not publish a single process for developers, but it does publish its programs and what each job post asks for. What candidates report is fairly consistent: a coding challenge, a design interview where you have to justify every decision, and a culture conversation. And its tech job posts are in Portuguese, with no English requirement.

Stages (per candidates): HR, coding challenge, system design, culture fit
Coding challenge: HackerRank in the Elas São Tech program; candidates report it elsewhere too
Language: Portuguese; tech job posts do not ask for English
Senior roles: Continuous pipeline: process first, team match afterwards
Programs: iFuture (internship), Elas São Tech (women), Eleva (people with disabilities)
Values: Empreendedorismo, Resultados, Inovação, All Together

What iFood does and who it hires

According to its own job posts, iFood connects thousands of restaurants with millions of consumers and handles an average of 100 million orders a month. Besides food it covers groceries, pharmacy, pets and a financial arm, iFood Pago.

According to a company announcement reported in the press, the technology area has more than 3,000 people out of 8,000 in total, and current hiring targets mainly senior profiles and AI, data and software engineering specialists. Senior backend posts list "Brasil" as the location, and mobile posts are listed as remote.

The stages, in order

iFood does not publish a standard process for software engineers. Its tech careers page says all roles follow the same process, with criteria adapted to seniority. What is published:

Senior backend roles: a continuous recruiting pipeline ("esteira contínua de recrutamento"). You go through the process first and, if approved, are matched to a team.
Elas São Tech (Backend Junior): registration, a HackerRank coding challenge, a connection event, online People and technical interviews over about 2 weeks, then feedback and offers. In the 2025 edition the interviews were in person on a single day at the Osasco headquarters, with travel paid for candidates from outside São Paulo.
iFuture (2027 internship): it has a Technology track (software engineering, data, product and design); the process is fully online and takes about 4 months.
Affirmative-action roles: iFood says it changes no criteria or stages compared with roles open to everyone.

What candidates report

For engineering roles outside the programs, candidates describe variations of this sequence:

HR conversation. One 2025 candidate says this first screen was run by an outside recruiting firm.
A HackerRank-style algorithm challenge; one candidate also mentions database questions.
A software or API design interview: drawing an architecture for a specific problem.
A conversation with the team and a final culture-fit interview.
For Staff Engineer, one candidate reports three interviews (technical depth, architecture and culture fit) on the same day.

What each stage tests

Coding challenge: algorithms and data structures under time pressure.
System design: candidates say what counts is justifying every decision very well and weighing alternatives, not just producing a diagram.
Culture fit: the careers FAQ talks about an owner's mindset ("mentalidade de dono") and liking to dream big ("sonhar grande"). The official values are Empreendedorismo, Resultados, Inovação and All Together.
Behavioural: candidates report STAR-type questions such as "a time you gave negative feedback" or "when you left your comfort zone".

Typical technical topics

The official Senior Backend post lists what is expected; candidates add topics from the interviews:

Object-oriented and functional programming, automated tests and concurrency.
Distributed systems, microservices, queues and messaging (SQS, SNS, RabbitMQ, Kafka).
SQL, NoSQL and data modelling; AWS, Kubernetes, Docker and infrastructure as code.
Languages: Java, Kotlin or Rust for Senior Backend; Kotlin or Go for Staff, where AI/ML is a plus.
Reported by candidates: monolith versus microservices and Kafka performance problems.

Which language the interview is in

iFood's tech job posts are in Portuguese and none of those reviewed asks for English. No candidate report found mentions an English round. Plan to do the whole process in Portuguese, technical part included.

Tips

Practise algorithm problems in a HackerRank-style environment, against the clock.
In system design, say out loud why you pick each component and which alternative you ruled out.
Prepare STAR stories tied to the values and to the ownership mindset iFood asks for.
Do not be surprised if feedback after a rejection is slow or never comes: several candidates report it.

Practise the iFood interview with Entrevia

Paste the real iFood job post and your CV, and rehearse the system design or culture-fit interview out loud with an AI interviewer, in Portuguese, English, Spanish or French. At the end you get a scored debrief: which answers landed, which stayed vague and what you would be asked next.

You can try a free 7-turn web demo without signing up. A free account gives you 2 full interviews. Premium, in the iOS app, costs US$11.99 a month, US$29.99 for 3 months or US$59.99 a year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the iFood interview like for developers?: iFood does not publish a single process. Candidates report an HR conversation, a HackerRank-style coding challenge, a system design interview and a culture-fit interview.
Is the iFood interview in English?: There is no sign of it. Tech job posts are in Portuguese, do not ask for English, and no candidate report found mentions an English round.
Does iFood use HackerRank?: Yes in the Elas São Tech program, where the coding challenge runs on HackerRank. Candidates in other processes also report challenges in that style.
How does the process work for senior roles?: It is a continuous pipeline: you go through the process first and, if approved, you are matched to a team afterwards.
Is iFood remote?: It depends on the area. The programs say hybrid or remote depending on the role; senior backend posts say "Brasil" and mobile posts are listed as remote.
What is the iFuture program?: iFood's internship program. It has a Technology track and a fully online process that takes about 4 months.

Sources

Updated: 2026-10-19

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