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Pilot

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Pilot is a financial services company that provides bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services for startups and small businesses. It combines software automation with human accounting experts to manage back-office finances.

4 interview notes · updated Jul 2026

Pilot·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Jun 2026
Interviewed for a software engineering role at Pilot. Pretty standard technical screen covering Python basics and some web fundamentals. Nothing that blindsided me, but a couple questions made me realize my explanations were shakier than I thought.
  • What are the differences between a list and a tuple in Python, and when would you choose one over the other?
  • In Python, what is the difference between the `is` operator and `==`?
  • Can you explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?
  • What do CRUD and API stand for, and how do CRUD operations typically map to web service endpoints?

“I knew the mutability thing right away but then kind of rambled about performance without being super confident in the numbers.”

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Pilot·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

May 2026
Pilot software engineer screen that was basically a Python and web trivia gauntlet. Nothing too deep, but you need to have clean answers ready because there's no time to ramble.
  • What are the differences between a tuple and a list in Python?
  • How does the 'is' operator differ from '==' in Python, and what are the gotchas?
  • Can you explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, including what TLS adds and how certificate trust works?
  • What are CRUD operations and how do they map to HTTP verbs in a RESTful API?
  • What is an API and how are REST APIs typically structured?

“Covered mutability fine, but I fumbled on hashability for a second.”

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Pilot·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

May 2026
Did a technical screen for a Software Engineer role at Pilot. One coding question, pretty focused, no fluff. The constraint about not sorting threw me for a loop at first.
  • Given two strings, determine whether one is an anagram of the other. Sorting is not allowed. Aim for a linear time solution.

“The no-sorting constraint is what makes this interesting.”

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Pilot·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Apr 2026
Interviewed for a software engineer role at Pilot and got a string manipulation problem that had a sneaky constraint attached to it. Nothing too crazy but the no-sort rule tripped me up a bit.
  • Given two strings, determine whether one is an anagram of the other. You cannot use any sorting functions, and your solution must run in O(n) time with O(1) extra space.

“The base problem is easy enough, I've done anagram checks before.”

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