The Trade Desk Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 149 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at The Trade Desk.
The Trade Desk
Software Engineer
Entry Average Positive experience No offer 7 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Take home Onsite Presentation
Interview formats
Coding Case Technical Behavioral Presentation
First, a 30-minute call with a recruiter to chat about your resume and experience. Then, an online engineering assessment (usually on CodeSignal) for 90 minutes, focusing on algorithms and data structures like you'd see in real projects. Or, for Commercial/Trading roles, a take-home case study or data presentation you prepare beforehand and then show the team. After that, you'll have a series of 4-5 interviews, about 30 minutes each, back-to-back or virtual, with different team members and managers. They'll ask about your past experiences, behavioral stuff, and how you solve problems. Finally, a wrap-up interview, often in person, to make sure you're a good cultural fit and have the confidence and skills to do the job.
Confirmed questions8 questions
- Tell me about designing a banking system, starting with basic deposits and withdrawals.
- How would you design a banking system to handle "Top K" transaction ranking?
- Describe the design for scheduled payments in a banking system.
The Trade Desk
Software Engineer
Mid Average Negative experience No offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
Applied for a SDE role in Sydney AU. Went through online assessment, recruiter call, then 4 onsite rounds. The recruiter was very professional and efficient. Some interviewers were friendly and professional too. However, one hiring manager from HK had terrible manners. They gave an ambiguous topic and didn't help clarify or specify focus areas. When I asked for more details, they got frustrated and started yelling. I suggest the company improve this hiring manager's maturity before they interview again. This bad experience might explain why the job keeps getting reposted on LinkedIn without being filled for the past 2 months.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Note that the hiring manager is from Hong Kong.
The Trade Desk
Software Engineer
Senior Difficult Neutral experience No offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite Background check Offer
Interview formats
Coding System Design
The interview process was good overall. The interviewers were nice, professional, and engaged. It had about 5-6 rounds over a few weeks, which was good for checking skills and company fit. They seem to want to give candidates a fair shot. But, the recruiter's planning and communication could be better. Candidates put in a lot of time to prepare and interview. It's only respectful to give feedback or let everyone know the decision, no matter the outcome. Not following up or closing the loop, especially for those not getting an offer, really hurts the otherwise good experience. Ghosting people makes it seem like only offer-recipients matter, which is the opposite of the effort they put into the interview process. Making sure all candidates get a response, even a rejection, would make the company look better and fit with their goal of a respectful process.
Confirmed questions3 questions
- Tell me about system design.
- Have you practiced LeetCode Medium problems?
- Describe your coding practice.
The Trade Desk Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from The Trade Desk interview reports.
“How do you find all islands in a matrix of 0s (water) and 1s (land)?”
Read reports →“Given a dataset of regions and their sub-regions, along with a specified target, identify and output all regions that match the target.”
Read reports →“Would you say a river segment's flow is the total flow of the segments feeding into it?”
Read reports →“Could you implement an algorithm for playing the Mastermind game that guarantees a solution within 12 turns?”
Read reports →“Given lists of coordinates defining the top-left and right corners of houses, can you write code to draw the skyline they form, ensuring you only draw the essential lines that contribute to the skyline's shape?”
Read report →“Build an in-memory cache system in C#, Java, or Python with type-safe keys and values as a library, including LRU, MRU, and a custom replacement algorithm.”
Read report →“Regarding the skyline problem, given building coordinates, how would you find the minimum points contributing to the skyline?”
Read report →“Could you figure out what river elements would show up on a map at different zoom levels?”
Read report →“From a distributed database of people and events, could you write the code to retrieve all people and the events they are attending?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 149 The Trade Desk interview reports.