Instacart application questions — all 46, word for word
Instacart hires through Greenhouse. Beyond name, email and CV, its application form asks 46 questions, 45 of them required. 4 of them are required, fixed-choice questions about your eligibility to work. A cover letter is optional.
296 roles were open when this was last checked, mostly in engineering and product. The questions below are the form's own wording, not a paraphrase.
What Instacart has open
These are the roles the form was read from, as Instacart titles them, in United States - Remote, Canada - Remote (ON, AB, BC, or NS Only), Israel - Hybrid (3 days/week in office required), Allentown, PA; Harrisburg, PA; Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA; Selinsgrove, PA:
- Account Manager
- Activation Sales Development Representative II
- Bilingual CX Specialist (French)
- Bilingual Customer Experience Specialist (Spanish)
- Billing Operations Lead
- CX Vendor Manager
- Chief of Staff, Online Grocery
- Commercial Counsel
- Data Operations Manager
- Director of Customer Success
- Director of Product, Logistics
- Director, AI Solutions Strategy & Planning
40 of the questions below are ones at most two of the 213 employers measured ask (median: 18), the least standard being “Tell us about a time you were working toward an important goal and hit an unexpected obstacle that put your success at risk. What was the goal, what got in the way, and what specific steps did you take to get back on track? What was the outcome?”.
The eligibility questions
These are required, and answered from a fixed list rather than in your own words: work authorisation, visa sponsorship or security clearance. Employers often use questions like these to filter applications automatically, but Greenhouse's public data does not say whether Instacart does — so treat them as the answers most likely to matter, not as a verdict. Answer them honestly either way.
| Question | Answers accepted |
|---|---|
| Are you authorized to work in the United States? required, fixed choice | Yes, No |
| Do you, now or in the future, require sponsorship to work in the United States? required, fixed choice | Yes, No |
| Are you legally entitled to work in Canada? required, fixed choice | Yes, No |
| Will you now or in the future require immigration sponsorship to work for Instacart? required, fixed choice | Yes, No |
Every question on the form
| Question | Type | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Are you authorized to work in the United States? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you, now or in the future, require sponsorship to work in the United States? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Are you legally entitled to work in Canada? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Will you now or in the future require immigration sponsorship to work for Instacart? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| First Name | text | Yes |
| Last Name | text | Yes |
| text | Yes | |
| Phone | text | Yes |
| Resume/CV | file | No |
| Cover Letter | file | No |
| Are you currently, or have you previously, worked at Instacart? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| How did you hear about this job? | text | Yes |
| LinkedIn Profile: | text | Yes |
| Which state or province do you currently live in? (US) Alabama, (US) Alaska, (US) Arizona, (US) Arkansas, (US) California, (US) Colorado (+55 more) |
select | Yes |
| Tell us about a time you were working toward an important goal and hit an unexpected obstacle that put your success at risk. What was the goal, what got in the way, and what specific steps did you take to get back on track? What was the outcome? | textarea | Yes |
| What is your gender or gender identity? | text | Yes |
| Do you identify as a member of the LGBT2QIA+ community? | text | Yes |
| What is your race and/or ethnicity? Please check all that apply. | text | Yes |
| Military Veteran Status | text | Yes |
| Disability Status | text | Yes |
| Website(s) | text | No |
| Are you currently, or have you previously, worked for Instacart? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you identify as a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community? | text | Yes |
| Please indicate which best describes your race/ethnicity/national heritage and/or cultural background. Check all that apply. | text | Yes |
| Do you identify as a Person of Colour? | text | Yes |
| Are you a Canadian Armed Forces Veteran/Reservist or the spouse of a Canadian Armed Forces Veteran/Reservist? | text | Yes |
| Are you fluent in Spanish? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 7+ years in marketing operations, marketing strategy, or a closely adjacent discipline? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Have you have shipped AI-powered workflows and processes that demonstrably changed how teams work? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have hands-on daily experience with frontier AI tools such as Claude, GPT-4o, or Gemini, including writing prompts that produce reliable, production-quality output at scale? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have experience building agentic systems where AI components interact with each other, including multi-agent design, orchestration layers, and workflows that run without a human in the loop at every step? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Are you available to work the hours outlined in the job description? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 1+ year of customer-facing experience in a support, call center, retail, or hospitality environment? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| What is your experience with R&D? | textarea | Yes |
| Do you have R&D experience — earned in a direct R&D role (product, design, engineering, or technical program management), an adjacent role embedded with R&D teams, or as a Chief of Staff within an R&D organization? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| How many years of professional (not including school) work experience do you have with SQL? 0-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9+ |
select | Yes |
| Do you have working knowledge of marketing data and metrics? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 10+ years of progressive compensation experience? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 5 to 10 years of B2B event marketing experience? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have a proven track record managing high-profile tradeshows and industry events? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have hands-on Cannes Lions experience or similar industry event experience? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have expert-level proficiency with spreadsheets (e.g. Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel)? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have experience working with Salesforce or a similar CRM? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| This is a remote role that may be performed from any U.S. State except California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Washington. If hired, would you be able to perform this role primarily from an eligible state by your start date? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 4+ years of experience in account management, digital advertising, paid media, ad operations, ecommerce, client services, or a related field? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Are you fluent in French? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have experience with Salesforce CPQ? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have hands-on experience using Jira or a similar Project Management tool? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have hands-on experience working with AI tools (for example: Claude, Gumloop, Gemini, etc.)? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have experience using SQL? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 5–6 years of experience in influencer marketing, creator partnerships, social media, or campaign management? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
| Do you have 5–6 years of experience in influencer marketing, creator partnerships, social media, experiential, or a related marketing discipline? Yes, No |
select | Yes |
What it's really asking about
Grouped by what each question is for, so you can prepare the answers that repeat across employers.
| Topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Other | 21 |
| Voluntary diversity questions (EEOC) | 9 |
| Years of experience | 4 |
| Language proficiency | 3 |
| Visa sponsorship | 2 |
| Work authorisation | 2 |
| How you heard of them | 1 |
| Portfolio and links | 1 |
| Remote or on-site | 1 |
| Role-specific screening | 1 |
| Start date | 1 |
What other employers ask
The same question rarely comes out the same way twice. These employers' forms are measured the same way, from their own job boards:
Podium · Prodigal · Prolific · Quip · R Zero · Razorpay Software Private
Before you apply
Have the answers to the required questions ready before you open the form — Instacart's asks for 45 of them, and Greenhouse does not save a partial application by default. Settle the eligibility questions first — they are the ones with no room to elaborate, so knowing your answer before you start tells you whether the rest of the form is worth your time.