10 Toast Software Engineer (New Grad) Interview Questions (2026)
Toast's new-grad SWE loop in 2026 is a recruiter screen, an online assessment, a technical phone screen, and a virtual onsite covering coding, system fundamentals, and behavioral. Toast builds the restaurant operating system — POS, payments, online ordering, payroll — so candidates with restaurant or hospitality exposure get a small but real signal advantage.
By Alex Chen, Founder, InterviewChamp.AI · Last verified
Loop overview
New-grad candidates report a 4-7 week timeline in 2026. Online assessment (2 problems, ~75 minutes on HackerRank), then a 45-minute technical phone screen. Onsite is four rounds: two coding rounds, one system-fundamentals round (often around restaurant-domain workflows), one behavioral. Backend stack is Java and Kotlin; frontend is TypeScript and React; the POS terminal runs Android.
Behavioral (3)
Why Toast?
Frequently askedOutline
Tie to something concrete: restaurant work experience, interest in vertical SaaS, the multi-tenant complexity of running thousands of restaurants on one platform, or the offline-first engineering challenge. Mentioning a Toast restaurant you have visited adds authenticity. Vague answers about 'mission' land flat.
Tell me about a time you had to work with a stakeholder who was not technical.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR. Restaurant operators are not engineers — Toast PMs and customer-success talk to them daily. Show you can translate technical constraints into operator language. Pick a moment where you simplified a technical decision for a non-technical partner.
Tell me about a time you shipped something with a tight deadline.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR. Toast ships fast — restaurant tech is operational software where downtime costs real money. Pick a moment where you cut scope smartly to hit a deadline. Be specific about what you cut and why.
Coding (LeetCode patterns) (4)
Given a list of menu items with prices and a target order total, return all combinations that sum to the target.
Frequently askedOutline
Coin Change II variant. Recursion with memoization or DP. Sort prices to prune. Discuss whether items can repeat (yes for menu — you can order two coffees). Walk through the DP table. O(N * target) time.
Given a string representing a receipt with item names and prices, parse it and return the subtotal.
Occasionally askedOutline
Tokenize by line. Each line is item-name + price. Use a regex to extract the trailing decimal. Sum and return. Edge cases: missing prices, currency symbols, comp'd items (price = 0). O(N) for N lines.
Implement an LRU cache.
Frequently askedOutline
HashMap + doubly-linked list. Map keys to nodes. On get: move node to head. On put: if exists, update + move to head; else insert at head and evict tail if over capacity. O(1) get and put. Walk through pointer updates carefully.
Given a binary tree of menu categories with items as leaves, return all items in alphabetical order.
Occasionally askedOutline
DFS to collect all leaf values, then sort. O(N log N) for N leaves. Alternative: if the tree is already structured, in-order traversal may yield sorted output. Discuss the assumption with the interviewer.
Technical (1)
Design a data model for an order at a multi-table restaurant where guests can split a check.
Frequently askedOutline
Domain-shaped. Think Order, OrderItem, Check, CheckParticipant. Each OrderItem references the Check it belongs to (can move between checks). Splitting = reassigning items, or even percentages. Walk edge cases: shared appetizer split evenly, tax/tip allocation, partial payments. Restaurant-specific complexity matters at Toast.
System / object-oriented design (2)
How would you build a POS terminal that keeps working when the internet goes down?
Frequently askedOutline
Offline-first is core to Toast's product. Local-first storage (SQLite on Android), queue writes locally, sync when connectivity returns. Discuss conflict resolution (last-write-wins vs CRDT for menus). Walk through reconciliation when two terminals were offline and both modified the same order. Discuss the receipt/printer path — printing must work offline too.
Given a stream of orders, return the top-K most popular menu items in the last hour.
Occasionally askedOutline
Sliding window over the last hour. Maintain a counter map + min-heap of size K. Evict orders older than 1 hour from the counter. Walk through bucket-by-minute approach for memory efficiency. Discuss what 'popular' means — count vs revenue.
Toast interview tips
- Toast hires for restaurant-domain interest. Even one shift waiting tables or working a register makes your answers feel grounded.
- Backend is Java/Kotlin heavy. Frontend is TypeScript/React. POS is Android. Coding rounds are language-agnostic.
- Offline-first thinking shows up across the loop. Be ready to discuss sync, conflict resolution, and local-first storage.
- Toast's engineering blog publishes regularly. Reading 1-2 posts before your loop gives you talking points.
- Compensation per Levels.fyi 2026 is solid Boston-area new-grad. Equity has 4-year vest with 1-year cliff.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Toast's SWE new-grad interview process in 2026?
Most reports show 4-7 weeks from recruiter outreach to offer.
Where is Toast headquartered?
Boston, MA. Toast also has engineering hubs in Dublin and remote roles in select US states. Confirm location with recruiter.
Does Toast ask system design for new-grad SWE?
Yes, a light system-fundamentals round is standard. It often covers restaurant-domain workflows (POS, offline-first, menu sync) rather than abstract distributed-systems.
What language should I use for Toast interviews?
Whichever you know best. Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript are all accepted.
Does Toast sponsor visas for new-grad SWE?
Toast has sponsored H-1B and OPT in past US cycles. Confirm with your recruiter for 2026.
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