The interview process at Airbnb for a Staff Software Engineer role was structured but fair.

It started with a recruiter screen focused on background and motivations, followed by a technical phone screen with coding and system design questions.

Onsite consisted of four rounds:

• Deep system design
• Coding
• Behavioral
• Cross-functional collaboration interview

The technical questions emphasized scalability and real-world trade-offs, not just algorithms.

Behavioral questions leaned heavily on Airbnb’s core values and past leadership experiences.

Communication and clarity were just as important as coding skills.

Overall, the process felt thorough, transparent, and aligned with Airbnb’s culture.

They asked me to design a scalable service for handling millions of real-time booking requests and explain trade-offs.