- A government-issued photo ID. Driver's license or passport. We look at it, confirm it matches the name your recruiter gave us, and hand it back. We do not scan it, photograph it, or keep a copy.
- Your own laptop, if you want it. Most people work faster on their own setup, with their own editor and their own AI tools signed in. If you'd rather not, there is a machine in the room with the common tools installed.
- Nothing else. No prep packet, no algorithm review. The exercise is shaped like real work in the stack the role uses.
You'll be met at the door, shown to a quiet room, and introduced to the engineer you'll be working with. They'll walk you through the exercise and answer questions before you start. Then you build. They'll ask about your choices as you go, the way a colleague would in a pairing session. Plan on two to three hours, with a break whenever you want one.
Use AI tools. Copilot, Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, whatever you actually use. We expect it. Nobody senior writes boilerplate by hand anymore, and pretending otherwise would tell us nothing useful. What we pay attention to is how you work with the tools: what you hand off, whether you read what comes back, and what you do when it's wrong.
There is no recording. No cameras, no screen capture, no audio. The engineer takes notes, and the code you write is kept with their report.
Talk. Thinking out loud helps. If you make a tradeoff, say so. If you'd normally ask a teammate something, ask the engineer.
A short written report the next morning. It records that your ID was checked, gives structured observations on five things (how you framed the problem, code fluency, how you used AI tools, debugging, and communication), and ends with a short note from the engineer. It does not include a hire or no-hire recommendation. That decision belongs to the company you're interviewing with, using everything else they know about you.
You are welcome to ask your recruiter to share the report with you. Whether they do is their call, not ours.
- Where. Our office is in downtown San Francisco. The exact address and arrival instructions are in your confirmation email.
- Accommodations. If you need anything to do your best work, from extra time to a different room setup to a specific keyboard, tell your recruiter or write to us directly. We will arrange it and it does not appear in the report.
- Rescheduling. Go through your recruiter, ideally with 24 hours notice. Life happens; just tell someone.
- Your information. Your name and the role are all we hold before the session. The candidate notice lists exactly what we keep afterwards and for how long.
Anything else, write to hello@onsiteround.com. A person reads it.