MeritFirst Software Engineer Assessment

A little about our process.. We think resumes are a poor proxy for someone's real potential. So we built this assessment to give anyone regardless of resume, school, or title, a real shot to show what they can do. If you're structured, curious, and scrappy, we want to see it. And even if not a fit for us right now (could just be location!), we have many great partner companies that you can get in front of by taking our test and filling out your candidate profile. 🎯 The Role We’re hiring a product‑minded Software Engineer at MeritFirst. Small, scrappy team, modern stack (TypeScript, Next.js, Postgres/Drizzle, Vercel), high ownership. You’ll ship user‑facing work fast, measure impact, and help decide what we build next. 🧠 The Assessment We designed this take‑home to see what actually matters: * How you frame messy problems and make smart trade‑offs * How you use data/metrics to reason about outcomes * How clearly you communicate under constraints * Whether you think like an owner (not a task‑taker) You’ll get a short sequence of realistic scenarios. Answer in concise bullets, with snippets if helpful. ✅ How to do well * State assumptions up front * Keep it crisp; prefer runnable‑looking code and concrete examples * Tie proposals to success metrics and a simple rollout/measurement plan * Mention what you’d log/trace and how you’d verify performance ⏱ Total Time: ~60-75 minutes (plan for up to 90) Next steps if it’s a fit: → live technical interview → final round interview with CEO.