Inside iStream's 4-Stage Technical Vetting Process

We receive hundreds of applications for every role we fill. Our placement retention rate — the percentage of engineers still active with a client after 12 months — is 97%. That number is not an accident. It's the direct result of a vetting process that most firms consider too expensive to run.

Stage 1 — Portfolio & Background Review (Pass Rate: 30%)

The first filter is a structured review of work history, GitHub activity, and prior project complexity. We look for evidence of real production ownership — not just tutorial projects or agency work on thin specs. Candidates who can't demonstrate they've shipped something real to real users don't advance.

Stage 2 — Technical Screen (Pass Rate: 40% of Stage 1)

A 45-minute live technical call with one of our senior engineers. We don't use LeetCode-style algorithm puzzles. Instead, we run through system design problems scaled to the candidate's claimed seniority, and we ask them to walk through a complex bug they've personally debugged in production.

Stage 3 — Async Coding Assessment (Pass Rate: 60% of Stage 2)

A focused 90-minute async exercise tied to a real-world problem type relevant to the client engagement. We evaluate code quality, documentation habits, test coverage decisions, and — critically — how the candidate communicates trade-offs in their solution write-up.

Stage 4 — Culture & Collaboration Fit (Pass Rate: 75% of Stage 3)

The final stage assesses remote work maturity: async communication habits, documentation practices, self-management, and timezone overlap viability. We've seen technically brilliant engineers fail this stage because they're wired for office environments and struggle in distributed settings.