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Interview format at top companies

👋 Hi there, I'm Yangshun, an ex-Meta Staff Engineer, author of this handbook and Blind 75. Follow me on LinkedIn for Software Engineering advice and interview tips!
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Due to COVID travel restrictions, many companies hold interviews remotely even for the onsite rounds, so the instructions might differ.

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

Asana​

  • 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

Dropbox​

  • 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

Google​

  • 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

Indeed​

  • 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

Lyft​

  • 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

Meta (previously Facebook)​

  • 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

Palantir​

  • 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

WhatsApp​

  • 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
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