Skyscanner Fullstack Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I went through a 3-step interview process but didn't make it to the next stage. The first round involved a take-home assignment where I had to use their flight API to display data on a UI. The recruiter gave me immediate feedback, rating my performance as 4 out of 5 stars, which is above average. Following that, there was a Zoom interview that covered both technical expertise and cultural fit. Both of these interviews seemed to go well, but I'm unsure why I wasn't selected. I'm still waiting for detailed feedback, as it took a significant effort to allocate time for these interviews. Overall, the experience was polite and educational, though there was some ambiguity about their exact expectations.

I applied online and quickly got a hackerrank test. It was easy if you'd done some homework, as the problems seemed to repeat. After that, an HR person called me. They were really helpful, telling me how to get ready for the next parts: a 1-on-1 Skype call with an engineer, and then a full day of interviews at their Scotland office. The Skype call was straightforward, asking typical web stuff like cookies and HTTP. The office interviews were mostly about behavior and some web problem-solving. For the behavioral part, you should think about past jobs and answer questions like 'Tell me about your biggest accomplishment.' These can be tougher than tech questions, so practice is key. You gotta show your strengths but also that you're human and mess up sometimes. I practiced answering random questions like these daily for 10 days before the main interview. I did okay, but most of the feedback was about the technical side. The final interviews at the office had about 5-6 slots: a supposedly hard web problem (I had two), a 'bar raiser' to see if you're above average, an 'expertise' slot to go deep on past work, a 'culture' slot with behavioral questions, and a lunch with another engineer. I didn't do well on the expertise part and one hard problem, which was a bummer. Some of the issue seemed to be the interviewer's lack of engagement and unclear requirements. For instance, one question was about stopping bots from scraping their page, but they gave vague info about the page structure. I offered high-level solutions, but they wanted detailed answers, which felt unfair. I think you should practice solving problems with a really tough audience. Looking back, it seems like they'd be impressed if you were persistent and got clear requirements on the whiteboard. Overall, it was a good experience and seems like a good place to work. For prep, I'd focus on behavioral questions, scalability (databases, bottlenecks), and practicing whiteboard design problems with a tough audience who you push to give clear requirements.

It was a terrible interview experience. It took a month to get the first interview. I spent 5 hours (3h on homework and 2h on cultural+tech interviews), only to get a vague response like, “You described your current project not as we expected; we didn’t understand how it works”. They didn’t even ask me to write code or solve problems. It's worth noting I currently work for a higher-ranked company. It seems Skyscanner is unsure about its hiring needs and just wastes candidates' time. I don't recommend it.