Yelp Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 620 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Yelp.
Yelp
Software Engineer
Entry Easy Negative experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite Offer
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical
The interview scheduling process felt unfair. I was scheduled for a final interview weeks in advance, prepared thoroughly, and then suddenly told the position was already filled. Instead of interviewing all shortlisted candidates before making a final decision, they closed the role early, which left me with wasted preparation time and a poor candidate experience. It felt like timing, not qualifications, decided my fate — very frustrating as a candidate.
Confirmed questions0 questions
No confirmed questions were included in this interview report.
Yelp
Software Engineer
Senior Average Neutral experience No offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Take home Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite Panel Background check Offer
Interview formats
Coding Behavioral Technical System Design Presentation
The process was okay. It started with a timed coding test on HackerRank, which I thought I bombed because I didn't get all test cases right, but I guess it was fine. Then I had a call with the recruiter, followed by another coding interview. The final stage was a 4-part panel, each 45 minutes long. This included another coding question, a system design problem, a non-technical chat about a past project focusing on my working style, and a culture/communication interview. I thought I did well in all parts but was ultimately rejected. I had to ask for feedback, and they just said I wasn't senior enough for the role's needs. This was confusing given the wide salary range, which made me think they were open to less experienced candidates. If they need senior-level talent, they should offer a senior salary.
Confirmed questions3 questions
- Tell me about a project you've worked on that you felt proud of.
- Could you share something you've worked on that you were proud of?
- Describe a project you're proud of.
Yelp
Software Engineer
Mid Average Positive experience Accept offer 8 rounds
Interview process
Technical screen Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite Panel Panel Panel Panel
Interview formats
Coding Behavioral Technical Coding System Design
It's a pretty standard interview process: First, there's a small technical exercise that's easy to medium difficulty coding. Then a recruiter screen. After that, a behavioral/first technical interview. Finally, there are panel interviews covering coding, technical aspects, communication, behavioral questions, and system design. They seem to be tailoring the coding and system design questions to their specific domain. The coding tasks are still similar to LeetCode, but they're framed as simplified problems that could occur at Yelp.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Can you tell me about a significant challenge you've recently overcome and the steps you took to resolve it?
Yelp Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Yelp interview reports.
“Given test_data, a list of restaurant names, and a search term, return at most k restaurant names that start with the search term.”
Read reports →“Given a set of user subscription data and several updated data sorted by time, return a list of users whose subscription status has changed after the update.”
Read reports →“Find the first 5 businesses that have any word matching the search phrase by prefix, given a list of businesses and a search text.”
Read reports →“Implement a feature to return at most k restaurant names that start with the search term (prefix) or contain the search term (infix). Prioritize prefix matches and fill up to k with infix matches if needed.”
Read reports →“Given a list of tuples, where each tuple is (testID, testTime), and a time value T, schedule the maximum number of tests that can be completed within time T.”
Read report →“Using Depth First Search (DFS), can you find the largest square composed entirely of 1s within a grid of 0s and 1s?”
Read report →“Given a collaborative code editor where text synchronization between two users is implemented, but a cursor position issue arises when text is added (as shown in the example), implement the `fixCursorRow` method within the `Cursor` class to correct the row of the cursor. Assume the `diff` represents changes from the other screen and `content` is the current screen's text before applying the `diff`. The `cursor` is the current screen's cursor. The `diff` format indicates equality ('0'), addition ('1'), or removal ('-1') of content segments. You don't need to worry about fixing the column.”
Read report →“Given a list of List<Pair>, where each pair represents a boss-reportee relationship, use an N-child tree to model a company's management structure with the CEO at the top and nodes having 1 to N reportees, and return the tree Node.”
Read report →“Given a data stream, how would you implement the `add(int num)` method to add a number and the `calculate()` method to return the mean of the 10 most recently added numbers?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 620 Yelp interview reports.