How Raycast Interviews in 2026: Process, Sample Questions & What They Score
The complete process, sample questions, and what interviewers score.
Raycast / Interview snapshot
7
stages from
application to offer
33
reported questions
11
public sources
Independent: SupaCV is not affiliated with or endorsed by Raycast. This is one well-documented shape of Raycast's interviews, not a script: processes change and vary by role, team, level, and region, so confirm specifics with your recruiter.
On this page
01 / For every Raycast candidate
The process, start to finish.
Raycast (YC W20) is a small, fully remote company, described on its own careers page as spread across 17 countries and two continents, building a keyboard-first launcher and productivity app, originally macOS-only and now expanding to Windows, with a React/TypeScript extension ecosystem. This playbook covers the track Raycast is best known for and hires most: product engineering, meaning macOS/Swift application engineers plus full-stack, design and community/extension engineers. Sales and support roles exist but are rare and are not covered here.
Raycast publishes its full hiring process on its careers page as seven named steps, from a written application message through a hiring manager intro, a team round, a take-home task, a task assessment presentation, a founders conversation, and the offer. No source states how long any step takes or how long the whole loop runs, so every duration below is marked as varies.
Two features of the process are unusual and are stated explicitly by Raycast: the take-home is run collaboratively in a dedicated Slack channel and going silent during it hurts candidates, and pay is location-independent and, per Raycast's own compensation blog, is now published upfront in the job posting rather than negotiated; that same post frames discussing salary during the first interview call as something the company used to do, not its current practice.
Raycast does publish a values list (Speed, Simplicity, Transparency, Trust, Quality, Inclusivity) on the same careers page that carries the hiring process, and that list appears below. Raycast does not publish an interview rubric, scorecard, or any statement that interviewers score candidates against those values, so treat the framework as published company values rather than a documented evaluation framework. Public candidate-side evidence is thin.
No candidate reports from Glassdoor, Reddit or Blind are included, and no first-person write-up of a Raycast interview was found. The sample questions below are therefore derived from criteria, task-assessment prompts and engineering practices that Raycast states on the cited pages, not from reported word-for-word interview transcripts, and each such question is flagged in its note.
Stage 1: Send an engaging message
varies
Application step. Raycast asks for more than a resume: a message explaining why you want to join and why you generally care about the problem Raycast is solving. The careers page frames this as the first impression that gets you into the process. Timing depends on whether a role is open, since Raycast frequently lists no open positions and invites speculative applications to jobs@raycast.com.
The written message is treated as a real screening signal, not a formality.
Stage 2: Hiring manager intro
varies
Conversation with the hiring manager or people manager about what it takes to work at Raycast and whether both sides fit. The careers page tells candidates to come prepared with questions and with familiarity with the product. No length or scheduling window is published.
Stage 3: Meet the team
varies
Round with future colleagues who assess technical knowledge and collaboration style. Raycast does not publish how many people are involved, how long it runs, or whether it includes live coding.
Stage 4: Take-home task
varies
A practical assignment run as a simulation of real work: Raycast opens a Slack channel and collaborates with you while you work on it. The careers page states explicitly that most candidates go silent during this phase and come back with bad results. No time budget, scope or deadline is published, and it likely varies by role and level.
Communicating in the provided Slack channel is explicitly part of what is being evaluated.
Stage 5: Task assessment
varies
You present the results of the take-home. Raycast explicitly says it does not expect a slideshow and wants you to articulate your thinking: why you took the shortcuts you took, what you would do differently with more time, and what details you would add.
Stage 6: Get to know our Founders
varies
Conversation with the founders about Raycast and where the product is heading. The careers page advises preparing for it the same way as the earlier conversations.
Stage 7: Offer Stage
varies
Final discussion of details. Raycast states there should be no surprises at this step, consistent with its compensation policy: one location-independent salary benchmarked to London, now published in the job posting before candidates even interview, set by role and performance rather than by negotiating ability. Raycast's own blog explicitly frames discussing pay during the first interview call as past practice, not the current one.
Salary is disclosed publicly before interviews begin, and framed as not negotiation-driven.
02 / What Raycast scores
Raycast values
01
Speed
02
Simplicity
03
Transparency
04
Trust
05
Quality
06
Inclusivity
These six value names are published, in this wording, on the Raycast careers page, the same page that lays out the seven hiring steps. Raycast's own wording: Speed is "We get things done and have a bias towards action" (the fuller quote continues "We run a marathon and not a sprint.
Though it's still a race"); Simplicity is "We keep things simple and prefer pragmatic solutions over complicated abstractions"; Transparency is "We communicate early and often ... and are honest if things went bad"; Trust is "All of us own a piece of Raycast and we trust each other to do what they think is best for the company"; Quality is "We don't settle on mediocrity and choose quality over quantity"; Inclusivity is "We come from different backgrounds and reflect our diverse community".
Read the rest of the framework notesShow less
Important caveat: Raycast does not publish an interview rubric, competency scorecard, or any statement that interviewers rate candidates against these values; the careers page itself frames them as "Applying our values is what helps us thrive, enjoy what we do, and ship our best work," with no link to the hiring-process section. Treat this as published company values that indicate what the team cares about, not as a confirmed evaluation framework.
Value tags on the questions below are attached only where a question directly probes the wording of a specific value.
03 / Coach's notes
Coach's tips.
The coach's tips are part of Interview Prep, which is included with Career.
04 / The research
Where this page comes from.
Compiled from public sources across 5 sites. Raycast's own page is among them: raycast.com/careers.
- sites
- 5
- Raycast's own pages
- 7
- coaching and prep guides
- 4
Source composition
Where the research comes from
Grouped by the kind of site that published each source: Raycast's own domain, candidate forums, and everything else.
- Raycast's own pages7
- Coaching and prep guides4
05 / The questions
Sample questions, by category.
Sample question, Motivation and product knowledge
Beyond your resume, why do you want to join Raycast and what excites you about what we are building?
Sample question, Craft and technical depth
Walk us through a user-facing feature you owned end to end, from ideation through release to maintenance.
Sample question, Take-home task and assessment
Walk us through your task: what did you build, and why did you make these choices?
Showing 3 of 33 reported questions. The rest are in Interview Prep.
Practice Raycast questions in Interview Prep
Interview Prep is included with Career. Add Raycast as a Target Role and it builds an 8-question practice session from Raycast's reported questions, scores your answers, and adds the coach's tips.
Start free: score your resume, no credit card. Prep for Raycast comes next, in Interview Prep on Career.
Common questions
Quick answers.
How many stages are in Raycast's interview process?
Raycast has 7 stages, set out in The process.
What framework does Raycast use to evaluate candidates?
Raycast evaluates candidates against Raycast values, set out in What Raycast scores.
What kinds of questions does Raycast ask?
Raycast's questions fall into 4 categories, grouped in The questions.
How reliable is this Raycast interview playbook?
It is compiled from public sources, and the evidence is in The research.
Sources (11)
Every public source this page was compiled from. Links open in a new tab.
5 sites, by sources
- raycast.com7
- devopsprojectshq.com1
- talents.studysmarter.co.uk1
- tuple.app1
- wfh.team1
- 01raycast.com/careers
- 02raycast.com/jobs
- 03raycast.com/blog/no-code-reviews-by-default
- 04raycast.com/blog/we-hack-every-friday
- 05raycast.com/blog/feedback
- 06raycast.com/blog/focus-document
- 07raycast.com/blog/why-we-pay-equal-salaries-wherever-you-work
- 08devopsprojectshq.com/raycast-software-engineer-macos
- 09talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/raycast/community-engineer-windows-19011762
- 10tuple.app/distributed/raycast-founder-on-ios-community-and-quali…
- 11wfh.team/companies/raycast
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How similar companies interview
Compare Raycast's process with other Developer Tools & Infrastructure companies in this playbook: