trivago Backend Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and was asked to do a take-home task within a week. I tried to get clarification on the task but never received a response. Although the instructions said initial submissions could be improved, I couldn't resubmit even before the deadline. The HR person asked me to submit it again, so I sent it with a different email. Weeks later, I got the same request to resubmit. After informing them I had already submitted, they went silent again. When I inquired about their decision weeks later, they said they had hired someone else. It felt like a complete waste of time as they never replied to my emails and likely never reviewed the code, given they repeatedly asked for a resubmission. It seems like people there are lazy and always on vacation.

It was a simple 3 step interview that took about 4 weeks. First was the hiring manager call where they asked about why I want to join, some personality questions, and salary expectations. Then came the technical interview, split into two 30-minute rounds. The first technical round focused on daily technical challenges in the team I'd be joining. The second was a medium complexity leetcode problem. Finally, there was a 60-minute Culture Fit call with 3-5 people from the main team, like a senior QA guy, product manager, technical manager, and tech lead. This last part had behavioral and team performance questions.

I applied online and heard back about two weeks later for the first interview. They always asked for my availability before scheduling. All interviews were on Skype. The hiring manager conducted the first one, which was mainly behavioral, covering my experience, expectations, and why I wanted to join trivago. A few days later, after I provided my availability again, two software devs interviewed me for a coding challenge. The problem itself wasn't too difficult, and I managed to solve it, though their test cases initially failed, requiring me to debug and fix my code. Then, I had to write unit tests. They also asked about my development philosophy, ideal work environment, and how I implement features from start to finish. A few days after that, I got a rejection email saying they were looking for someone more senior with more relevant experience.