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Stripe·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen·Intermediate

Intermediate
Jun 2026

Summary

Stripe technical screen for a software engineer role. One question, but it had enough moving parts to keep me busy for a while. The debugging angle made it feel more practical than a lot of API questions I've seen.

Questions Asked (1)

Q1

You have a chain of 5 sequential API requests. The first two succeed but the next three fail because they rely on a hard-coded ID instead of one generated dynamically by the first request. How do you fix this so the whole chain succeeds?

API & IntegrationsSystem DesignRoot Cause Analysis
Author's notes

My first instinct was to just say 'parse the response and store it in a variable' and I think I undersold the answer for a minute there.

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AI HintsAI Generated

Suggested Approach

Start by diagnosing the root cause: the hard-coded ID breaks the dependency chain because downstream requests don't use the dynamic ID from the first response. Then propose a fix that captures and propagates the dynamic ID through the chain, such as using a variable or context object, and validate the solution by testing the full sequence.

Pro tip: Emphasize idempotency and error handling: even after fixing the ID, ensure each request can be safely retried without side effects, and add logging to trace the ID flow. This shows you think beyond the immediate bug.

1. Identify the root cause

Explain that the hard-coded ID is the issue because it doesn't match the dynamically generated ID from the first request, causing subsequent requests to fail.

2. Capture the dynamic ID

Describe how to extract the ID from the first request's response and store it in a variable or context that can be passed to subsequent requests.

3. Propagate the ID through the chain

Modify each subsequent request to use the captured ID instead of the hard-coded value, ensuring the dependency chain is correctly linked.

4. Validate and test

Run the full chain to confirm all requests succeed, and add tests to prevent regression, such as unit tests for ID propagation.

5. Add resilience

Implement error handling and retries with idempotency keys to handle transient failures, and log the ID flow for debugging.

Key Points to Mention

  • Root cause analysis: hard-coded ID vs. dynamic ID
  • Dependency management in sequential API calls
  • Using variables or context to pass data between requests
  • Idempotency and safe retries for API requests
  • Error handling and logging for debugging
  • Testing the full chain to ensure correctness

AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.