tech-interview-handbook

id	title	description	sidebar_label
interview-formats-top-companies	Interview format at top companies	Interview formats of the top tech companies. Know what to expect and prepare well for them	💼 Company interview formats

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Due to COVID travel restrictions, many companies hold interviews remotely even for the onsite rounds, so the instructions might differ.

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Are there companies you would like to know more about? Email us at contact{at}techinterviewhandbook.org.

Airbnb

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview:
- 1 or 2 x Algorithm/front end on CoderPad/CodePen
Onsite (General):
- 2 x Algorithm coding on CoderPad
- 1 x System Design/architecture
- 1 x Past experience/project
- 2 x Cross functional
Onsite (Front End):
- 2 x Front end coding on CodePen. Use any framework/library
- 1 x General coding on your own laptop
- 1 x Past experience/project
- 2 x Cross functional
Tips:
- All sessions involve coding on your own laptop. Prepare your development environment in advance
- You are allowed to look up APIs if you need to
- They seem to place high emphasis on compilable, runnable code in all their coding rounds
- Cross functional interviews will involve getting Airbnb employees from any discipline to speak with you. These interviews are mostly non-technical but are extremely important to Airbnb because they place a high emphasis on cultural fit. Do look up the Airbnb section of the behavioral questions to know what sort of questions to expect

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview
Onsite (Product Engineer):
- 3 x Algorithm and System Design on whiteboard within the same session
- 1 x Algorithm on laptop and System Design. This session involves writing code on your own laptop to solve 3 well-defined algorithm problems in around 45 minutes after which an engineer will come in and review the code with you. You are not supposed to run the code while working on the problem
Tips:
- No front end questions were asked
- Asana places high emphasis on System Design and makes heavy use of the whiteboard. You do not necessarily have to write code for the algorithm question of the first three interviews
- All 4 sessions involve algorithms and System Design. One of the sessions will be conducted by an Engineering Manager
- The last session will involve coding on your own laptop. Prepare your development environment in advance
- Regardless of Product Engineer or Engineering Generalist position, their interview format and questions are similar

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interviews:
- 2 x Algorithm/front end on CoderPad/CodePen
Onsite (Front End):
- 2 x Front end on CodePen. Only Vanilla JS or jQuery allowed
- 1 x General coding on CoderPad
- 1 x All around. Meet with an Engineering Manager and discussing past experiences and working style
Tips:
- You can code on your own laptop and look up APIs
- Dropbox recruiters are very nice and will give you helpful information on what kind of questions to expect for the upcoming sessions
- One of the front end sessions involve coding up a pixel-perfect version of a real page on the Dropbox website. You'll be given a spec of the desired page and you'll be asked to create a working version during the interview

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview:
- 1 or 2 x Algorithm on Google Doc
Onsite:
- 1 or 2 x Front end on whiteboard. May be required to use Vanilla JS (or at the most, jQuery) depending on the question. (Front End only)
- 2 to 4 x Algorithm on whiteboard
- 1 x General Cognitive Ability, Leadership and "Googleyness".
Team matching
- Speak with managers from different teams who are interested in your profile
Tips:
- In rare cases, candidates may even be allowed to skip the phone interview round and advanced to onsite directly
- For non-fresh grads, you only receive an offer if you are successfully matched with a team

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview (optional)
Onsite:
- 1 x Online Assessment on HackerRank (for L0 - L2)
- 1 x Resume discussion
- 1 or 2 x Algorithm on HackerRank
- 1 x Code Review on GitHub
- 1 or 2 x System Design (for L3+)
- 1 x Technical Presentation (for L4+)
Tips:
- If you are interviewing for a specific role, the bar varies
- Hiring decision and leveling are separate discussions; leveling is determined by experience and leadership signals
- If you do well in the interviews but the position is already filled, other hiring managers can pick up your packet

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview:
- 1 x Algorithm/Front end over JSFiddle
Onsite (Front End):
- 4 x Front end on Coderpad/your own laptop. Use any language/framework
- 1 x Behavioral. Meet with an Engineering Manager and go through candidate's resume
Tips:
- Can use whiteboard and/or laptop
- For front end coding, I opted to use React and had to set up the projects on the spot using create-react-app

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interviews:
- 1 or 2 x Algorithm/front end on Skype/CoderPad
Onsite:
- 2 x Technical coding interview on whiteboard
- 1 x Behavioral. Meet with an Engineering Manager and discussing past experiences and working style
- 1 x Design/architecture on whiteboard
Onsite (University Grad):
- 2 x Technical coding interview on whiteboard
- 1 x Behavioral. Meet with an Engineering Manager and discussing past experiences and working style
Tips:
- You are only allowed to use the whiteboard (or wall). No laptops involved
- For the behavioral round, you may be asked a technical question at the end of it. Front end candidates will be given a small HTML/CSS problem nearing the end of the session
- For the coding rounds, you may be asked one or more questions depending on how fast you progress through the question

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview:
- 1 x Algorithm over HackerRank CodePair and Skype
Onsite (General):
- 2 x Algorithm on whiteboard
- 1 x Decomposition (System Design) on whiteboard
Onsite (Front End):
- 1 x Front end on your own laptop. This session lasts about 1.5 hours. Use any library/framework
- 1 x Decomposition (System Design) on whiteboard
Tips:
- I opted to use React and had to set up projects on the spot using create-react-app
- You may be asked to meet with Engineering Managers after the technical sessions and it's not necessarily a good/bad thing

Recruiter phone screen
Technical phone interview:
- 2 x Algorithm over CoderPad
Onsite (Web Client Developer):
- 4 x Algorithm on whiteboard
Tips:
- No front end questions were asked
- 1 of the interviewers is an Engineering Manager