Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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30 stories

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AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Jan 2026

Passed Onsite and Core Value, Now Waiting on Team Match

I got laid off in the middle of last year, unfortunately. After that, looking at my mortgage, I felt empty and pessimistic for a while, then started grinding practice problems hard. At first I used a bunch of small companies to warm up, but I was rusty and kept getting rejected all over the place — I was almost losing my confidence. Then I finally got an interview at Airbnb through a referral. Ai…

In progressOther0
AirbnbSoftware EngineerSenior+
Dec 2025

Passed Every Round, Then the Role Was Filled

Background: US bachelor's degree, 4.5 years of experience. Timeline Mid-October: mass-applied on LinkedIn to Airbnb Beijing (the "air mattress" company) — got a recruiter email the same day. A week later: 15-minute HR Screen introducing the role. Late October: 45-minute Tech Screen. Early November: VO1 (Coding 1) and VO2 (Coding 2), 45 minutes each. > Suggest a split stay where you stay at 2 diff…

RejectedOnsite0
AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Nov 2025

Bombed the Live Bug-Free Hotel Split-Stay Problem

The interviewer got on the call and, without saying a word, immediately dropped a problem on me. I think I'd seen fragments of this one on the forum before — the hotel split stay problem. But I'd only ever seen little snippets of the description and didn't remember the actual problem in much detail, so I basically treated it as a brand new question. The gist of the problem: it's about booking roo…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
AirbnbData Scientist
Oct 2025

Five Onsite Rounds That Felt Like a PhD Defense

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Sep 2025

BQ Then a Tree Subsequence Coding Question

For the first round, there's a reference to check, but the post doesn't say what it points to. The second round started with a quick self-introduction and some small talk with the interviewer, then went straight into behavioral questions. We got asked: Talk about a time you taught yourself something — how did you learn it, and did it end up helping you in your actual work later on? Tell me about…

Technical Screen0
AirbnbSoftware EngineerSenior+
Sep 2025

A Whiteboard OOD Screen With a Difficult Interviewer

I did a team-match interview with a team at Airbnb, and the experience was pretty bad. First I had a round with the manager, and that went really well — we talked and it was a pleasant conversation. Then the manager said the next round would be a phone screen: 30 minutes for a resume deep dive and 30 minutes for coding. Before the phone screen I spent time prepping some project talking points and…

Technical Screen0
AirbnbSoftware EngineerSenior+
Sep 2025

A Whiteboard OOD Round Where Even Checking the Docs Had to Be "Documented"

I interviewed with a specific team at Airbnb, and the experience was pretty bad. First I had a round with the hiring manager, which went well — we had a great conversation. The manager said the next round would be a phone screen: 30 minutes of resume deep dive and 30 minutes of coding. Before the phone screen, I spent time preparing some project talking points and BQ (behavioral questions). Phone…

Technical Screen0
AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Sep 2025

Phone Screen, Then a Five-Part Onsite With a Brutal Experience Deep Dive

Phone screen: LC 1235 Onsite Coding: I prepared so much, and then they gave me a problem that wasn't from any of the interview-experience posts: Honestly the problem itself wasn't hard, but you had to handle the input/output strings yourself. I used Java, and with 45 minutes that also had to include small talk, I was pretty nervous, and it was just annoying. Code review: the interviewer was genui…

Onsite0
AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Sep 2025

Tree Sums, a Retry HOF, and a Rental Watchlist Design Question

The interview was on the easier side. The algorithm question was about a tree, where the leaves are numbers and each parent node's value equals the sum of its children. You need to be able to get the value of any given node. The second part adds a mutation: you can turn a node into a leaf, or take a leaf and attach a subtree to it, turning it into a parent node. Again, you need to be able to get…

Onsite0
AirbnbSoftware Engineer
Aug 2025

Full-Stack Phone Screen Lands an Onsite Invite

Sharing my full-stack phone screen — I applied for the San Francisco Hybrid position. The process was fast. One week after I submitted my resume, HR scheduled the phone screen. One round, 60 minutes: 40 minutes of live coding followed by 20 minutes of product discussion. The problem was to build a small listing booking widget: Input check-in and check-out dates, calculate the total price Select n…

In progressTechnical Screen0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

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