Software Engineer

$50–100/hr

rate as listed

Workload: ~15 hrs/week
Engagement: Project-based
Location: Worldwide
Field: STEM and Coding

Create realistic software engineering tasks from real repositories, including reproducible environments, deterministic verifiers, and reference solutions. The work focuses on subtle debugging, non-trivial feature development, refactoring, and performance optimization for evaluating frontier AI models.

The work

You will turn real repository problems into reinforcement learning environments that test whether AI models can perform substantive software engineering. Day to day, that means defining a challenging task, building a reproducible environment, writing a reference solution, and creating deterministic verifiers that accept different correct implementations while rejecting incomplete, incorrect, or hard-coded submissions. You should also flag tasks that prove ambiguous or impossible to verify.

What micro1 screens for

The screening is likely to test whether you can discuss specific work on complex systems and reason carefully about task design. Required language coverage is hands-on expertise in at least one of Python, Java, Rust, Go, C++, or TypeScript. The preferred qualification is significant hands-on expertise in at least one of Python3, Java, Rust, Go, C++, or TypeScript. Expect follow-up questions about algorithms, data structures, debugging, optimization, large-codebase refactoring, feature delivery, reproducibility, and verifier design. Previous AI experience is not required.

Practical details

This is a fully remote contractor engagement with an expected commitment of about 15 hours per week. The listing describes project-based task work rather than fixed shifts, but does not explicitly confirm an asynchronous schedule. It estimates about 5 hours per trainer task and 1.5 hours per reviewer task, with payment tied to approved output. Selected candidates are expected to begin their first tasks within 24 to 48 hours after onboarding.

Pay band: $50–100/hr

What they look for

Python3
JAVA
Rust
Algorithms
Basics C++
Typescript
bug fixing
feature implementation
codebase refactoring
performance optimization

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 10 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: This tests whether the required language experience is grounded in identifiable engineering work rather than tutorials, isolated scripts, or unsupported claims of proficiency.
A strong answer: Name the language, repository or system context, your personal responsibilities, and a difficult constraint such as concurrency, scale, correctness, or performance. Include concrete implementation decisions and outcomes that can withstand technical follow-up.
Where people lose it: Listing several languages without describing code you personally designed, debugged, or shipped makes the claimed depth difficult to verify.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

STEM AND CODING on Sidequest

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