Barista applicants have rated the interview process at Blue Bottle Coffee with 2.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 70% positive. To compare, the company-average is 61.1% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Barista roles take an average of 13 days to get hired, when considering 77 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Blue Bottle Coffee overall takes an average of 20 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Blue Bottle Coffee as a Barista according to 77 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 35%
Phone interview: 29%
Group panel interview: 9%
Skills test: 6%
Presentation: 5%
Background check: 4%
Personality test: 4%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Other: 3%
Drug test: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. I interviewed at Blue Bottle Coffee
Interview
You have a phone interview where they ask you bizarre, robotic sounding questions almost as if they are trying to find a reason not to hire you. And as someone stated in another review, the rejection email is very uninformative and cold. I emailed back asking what the reason for not hiring me would be, as I am more than qualified for a simple barista position. My advice would be for the hiring managers to conduct REAL interviews with REAL, down to earth, get-to-know-you questions. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!
I interviewed at Blue Bottle Coffee (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
Not difficult at all was very friendly. They asked about past experiences and availability but mainly about different senarios. Overall if you are able to answer those senario based questions you will be good
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Past barista experiences and how you would deal with difficult coworkers
The interview was ghosted. They reached out to me through email about the location and set the phone call interview. But I was waiting for an hour and no call has been come and no follow up email.
I applied online. I interviewed at Blue Bottle Coffee (Chicago, IL) in Mar 2026
Interview
Relatively simple, spoke to a corporate worker over email and discussed employment options. Second interview was in person with the leader of the cafe and we discussed customer service and coffee expertise.