Our Vetting Process: How We Select the Top 5% of Engineers
Three rounds — technical assessment, domain interview, and communication fit — and why we only accept senior engineers with 5+ years experience.
Bart Korpershoek
28 April 2026 · 6 min read
SelectCursor accepts fewer than 5% of applicants into our Proptech and Fintech network. Clients do not have time to run six interview rounds on every candidate — so we front-load rigor in our vetting pipeline. Pakistan-based engineers in our network hold 5+ years of production experience and mandatory EU timezone overlap.
Round 1: Technical assessment
Live coding plus system design for the candidate's declared stack. We score correctness, tradeoff articulation, and testing habits — not leetcode trivia. Senior engineers must demonstrate they have shipped under real constraints.
Round 2: Domain knowledge
For fintech placements we probe payment flows, idempotency, and regulatory awareness. For proptech, data modeling for listings, search, and geospatial queries. Domain fluency reduces onboarding from weeks to days.
Round 3: Communication and culture fit
English proficiency, async written clarity, and experience in distributed teams. Clients interview finalists themselves — we coordinate, we do not replace your judgment.
Ongoing quality
Monthly check-ins, performance reviews, and replacement guarantee if fit degrades. Vetting is not a one-time filter; it is an operating system for long-term embedded teams.
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