Airbnb Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Airbnb in May 2018.

Interview

After applying online through Airbnb's website I was invited to continue the process by doing what they called a "recorded video interview," which in my opinion was not an interview of any sort but rather an extended application. Outsourcing the work to a company called ConveyIQ, I had to sign up (quick and easy) and then I was able to do this "interview." Before getting to the section where I would be recorded, there was some videos available about Airbnb where they took the time to explain how important human capital is among this network of travelers that make up their customer base but also among employees (video available on youtube where they had a minitaure village built that a train drove around). Anyways, it was odd to watch this video and have it be conveyed how important the people are and then do this extended application that they decided to call an interview. You start the application where they offer a practice (short questions, not like the ones in the actual interview with same setup); the setup is 30 seconds to read the question and prepare an answer and then a timer counts down from 3 to the 3 minute period where you get to record your answer. Nothing about this conveyed anything about the company, their processes, or what I would hope to expect from a new age company like Airbnb. Interviews require interaction and always open for questions at the end should the applicant choose to express further interest; not to mention an interview is never timed. It really should be considered an extended application; I'm sad I had this experience with Airbnb.

Interview Questions

Interview

Applied online, received an email 2 weeks later. Had a phone interview, then moved on to phase two: Portfolio review, cross functional interview, and two general interviews with other designers

Interview Questions

Interview

I was contacted by a recruiter and went through 3 phone screens and a full-day onsite.

The phone screens were straightforward... recruiter, then hiring manager, then a peer interview.

The structure of the onsite interview was fine -- morning case study followed by an afternoon series of interviews. However, the way that Airbnb hosted me was most unprofessional.

During the case study presentation, members were clearly not paying attention (checking phones, emails, falling asleep, etc) and later on fired off several questions that were not relevant to what I had presented. It's as if they didn't listen to the presentation at all.

The 1:1 interviews became more unprofessional. The first interviewer asked several vague questions trying to get a specific answer. Upon telling him straight up that I could tell he wanted a specific response, but I'm not sure what he wants, he said he would "connect the dots for me" in a very condescending manner -- the subject matter turned out to be a fairly basic concept dressed up with vague business terms. Later when asking about tools for PMs at the company, he responded with a lecture about some questions from the earlier case study which was completely unrelated to what I had asked.

Other 1:1 interviews included people who looked like they were falling asleep during the interview, an interviewer waving at friends while I was answering questions, and more questions that made it clear that the interviewer(s) did not review my background.

All in all, this was a most disappointing experience at a company I was initially excited to join. I had hoped that the interviewers would be more engaged throughout the day and would make more effort to understand what I had to say before making assumptions and asking unrelated questions.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb (San Francisco, CA) in May 2018.

Interview

Phone screen with the recruiter, another with one of the DS managers, and then a take-home which they give you four days to complete and expect a candidate to spend about eight hours on.

Getting tired of this general tech trend of making a candidate go through these long "homeworks" where the candidate is incredibly engaged, but there being very little effort from the company. Spent many hours on the homework, but was not accepted to come on for the final loop and received zero feedback on the work provided. Takes five to ten minutes to jump on the phone to give some feedback and suggestions. On top of that I had a DS from a larger tech company look at my work, gave a few small nits, but said it was solid work overall which just leads me to more questions on what Airbnb is even looking for.

Respect your candidates and try to put in at least half as much effort as they do when going through the process.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb (San Francisco, CA) in May 2018.

Interview

After a lengthy wait before I got a screening call from the hiring manager. She called me 36 minutes late for a 30 minute call. Asked me some questions about previous positions, then said I was then selected for an onsite.
Having made quite a lot of arrangements to attend the onsite, I was notified less than 2 hours before the interview that I didn't have to come in because they had made an offer to another candidate that morning that was further along in the process.
It's extremely disappointing because I had applied over a month before and attended every interview at the earliest date they gave me. Not only is it completely unfair that I was not given the same opportunities to prove my credentials, but the hiring managers conduct throughout the process was completely disrespectful of me and my time.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took a week. I interviewed at Airbnb.

Interview

The recruiter reached out to me and I decided to given them a try although I usually don't like interviewing with big name companies. Did one phone interview and it went well and was invited to the onsite. The onsite experience was pretty bad. It started with them telling me I need to their 999 brannan building but them changed to 888 brannan without notifying me, so I headed to 999 and was asked to go to 888. They boost a culture of "Belonging" but what I felt is they treat you like a commodity. This is further exemplified by they way they schedule the interviews.

My onsite consists of two coding interviews, one architecture and one experience interview. Each lasts only 45 minutes. The coding problems are not super hard and I was able to come up with solution but because they only allow a shorter than normal time(most companies have one hour interview), from the interview walking into the room till they leave, it's not easy to get to working code. This is the part I dislike the most for the interview process. There was a short break after the first interview, but no break between the next 3 consecutive interviews -- dang! You are commodity again. For the architecture interview, it was really not very clear what the interviewer really want--even after asking clarification questions. After the lunch, they decided not to continue the interview and I was walked out of the building -- I am glad they did that because I also didn't feel great about them and I will definitely never interview with them again.

All in all, I appreciated they were able to move fast but the onsite experience was so bad, which aligned with most of the interview reviews here. So dear fellow engineers, think about what they say and what they do twice before you decide to interview with them. If you want to practice your coding skills you can give them a try but I doubt you will enjoy their onsite process.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through an employee referral. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb (San Francisco, CA).

Interview

Technical phone screen was great. Neat question with a good interviewer. She was a woman, and I liked that signal about their engineering culture.

Onsite didn't start off well. First interviewer was pretty late, but explained it was due to confusion over the new building. Next couple went smoothly. Problem was fun and interviewers were genuinely interested in testing my abilities. Algorithmic interview was really dry; the engineer was late and barely paid attention while I worked through the problem. Felt like he was debugging an incident at the same time.

Then the culture interviews. I took these seriously because culture is key. Also the recruiter was very helpful and emphasized that I should review certain press, career videos and the values, which I did. First culture interview was with a data scientist and we both seemed to enjoy it. The second person was late and we didn't get off to a good start. I felt like I was being grilled and she was searching for reasons I didn't fit.

The next day I was told by the recruiter that I smashed the technical portions but didn't pass on culture. She offered to set me up with a second chance. I agreed and that got canceled so it was rescheduled to someone remote.

We had an online video call and it was the same grilling feeling. One of the questions was about a time being a "Cereal Entrepreneur", which their values statement describes as, "Be bold and apply original thinking. Imagine the ideal outcome. Be resourceful to make the outcome a reality." I described the time I rebooted a startup that had contracted out its product development and was a bit lost. I knew we could move much faster with people passionate about the space and having a different engineering skillset. I described hiring that person and convincing them to move to take the job, which I thought was quite resourceful. Together we recreated years of code in a month using better practices and were able to develop product much faster. The interviewer reflected my story back to me. I really appreciate reflection, shows how you've heard someone. "You fired the remote team to hire your friend." I laughed, but then saw he was serious. Oh right, this person works remotely. That was all he heard. His verdict: reject.

Airbnb's first value is "Be a Host." "Care for others and make them feel like they belong. Encourage others to participate to their fullest. Listen, communicate openly and set clear expectations."

You don't know me. Maybe I would have inadvertently been toxic to their company and these culture cops detected it. I don't know exactly what I could or should have done differently to be culturally acceptable. But I do know I've interviewed many places and never been treated so skeptically.

I know excellent people at Airbnb who like their jobs. For them, I am disappointed at how the recruiting process failed to live up to the company's ostensibly number 1 value.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb.

Interview

Contacted by recruiter online, and got 2 phone screens. Both phone screens were bad experience. The interviewer in the first question seems to be working on her own work, and was not answering my clarifying questions. I felt like talking to a wall. Second interviewer was the same thing, kept repeating the question without clarifying it. I imagined working here and you were suppose to work on a project and all your peer or manager could tell you is do xxx, oh u mean a, b, c? Just do xxx. *this is where I roll my eyes*

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb (San Francisco, CA) in April 2018.

Interview

Very positive experience from start to finish. The recruiter and team I interviewed with were very welcoming and supporting. Even though they chose to go with a different candidate we still keep in touch about other roles and openings at the company.

Started with a recorded one sided video interview which was a new experience for me. I'm not a huge fan of this since it is very impersonal but good to understand basic background. However, the video interview and onsite were wonderful and focused on getting to know who you are as a person.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Airbnb.

Interview

Had hackerrank, and then phone interview. Phone interview asked about code I wrote for the hackerrank challenge, but I had not seen the code for almost a month, so I felt unprepared. Interviewer was hard to hear, spoke in broken English

Interview Questions