went through the Instacart product design loop targeting a senior IC role. design interviews are weirdly hard to find good prep for so here's what I saw.
the structure: recruiter screen portfolio review with a design lead (60 min) take-home design challenge (48 hour window) design presentation + critique panel (90 min) behavioral round with cross-functional partners (PM + eng)
portfolio review: they specifically asked me to walk them through 2-3 projects. they wanted: what was the design problem, what was ambiguous, how did i involve research or validation, what trade-offs did i make, and what would i do differently. they were not impressed by beautiful visuals that weren't grounded in a real problem. they asked pointed questions. "why this layout over alternatives" is a real question they ask. have answers.
take-home: i'm not going to share the specific prompt but it was grounded in Instacart's actual product. something adjacent to the shopping or browsing experience. they give 48 hours but i'd recommend treating it as a constrained 4-6 hour project and not over-producing. they're not looking for a 50-screen prototype. scope clearly, solve one thing well, show your thinking.
presentation + critique: this was the most interesting round. you present your take-home, then they actively critique it. they're not trying to be mean but they will poke at your decisions. the designers in the room pushed back on some of my choices in a genuinely collaborative way. if you get defensive you will not do well here. treat it as a design crit, not a defense.
behavioral with cross-functional: the PM asked about working on a feature where you disagreed with the product direction from a design perspective and how you navigated it. the eng asked about a time a design you spec'd turned out to be infeasible to build and how you handled the gap.
overall: instacart's design culture felt pretty mature. they care about systems thinking and not just individual screens. they mentioned design systems work several times in passing. if you're coming from a mostly visual background and haven't thought about interaction patterns and component reuse, brush up.
process was 5-6 weeks end to end. feels long but they moved with clear milestones.