Tripadvisor

Software Developer Interview Experience - Ottawa, Canada

October 1, 2014

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The company recruiter contacted me after I handed in my resume at a university job fair. We scheduled a Skype interview with a software engineer.

At first, the engineer asked me to describe my former projects. Then, they asked a couple of technical questions:

What data structure would you use to store large amounts of phone numbers?
Given a very large text file, how would you extract all phone numbers from the text?
How would you process the text file using a parallel architecture?

Finally, the engineer gave me an opportunity to ask any questions about the company. The interview ended after about 35 minutes of talking.

After about two weeks, I received an email explaining they would not continue with my application.

The recruiter, as well as the engineer, were both very nice and helpful. However, I have never heard any feedback from either of them regarding why I am not the right fit for their company. Also, they were not interested in anything else but strictly my technical knowledge about data structures and parallel computing.

Questions

How would you extract all phone numbers from a very large text file using a parallel architecture?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Tripadvisor Software Developer role in Ottawa, Ontario.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Tripadvisor's interview process for their Software Developer roles in Ottawa, Ontario is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral100%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Tripadvisor's Software Developer interview process in Ottawa, Ontario.

Tripadvisor Work Experiences

Good place to work at

Software Developer • Current Employee

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

September 16, 2020

Pros: Good work culture Good work benefits

Cons: No leave benefits. No more drawbacks.

Good place to work at

Software Developer • Current Employee

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

September 16, 2020

Pros: Good work culture Good work benefits

Cons: No leave benefits. No more drawbacks.

OK culture with a lack of opportunities for improvement and growth

Software Developer • Current Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

February 5, 2014

Pros: There is a relaxed dress code, beer, and ping pong. And all of those things seemed great during my initial interview. But these things are standard these days at technical companies. After my first three months, I was no longer wowed.

Cons: Pay raises are minimal at best and provide a lack of future earning ability. Employees seem to get pigeonholed into tasks with little to no opportunity to grow out of them or pursue new interests. This also makes advancement extremely difficult; most employees have to leave to grow in their careers. Lack any sort of mission or vision. It feels like we want to be TripAdvisor, but are far from it.

OK culture with a lack of opportunities for improvement and growth

Software Developer • Current Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

February 5, 2014

Pros: There is a relaxed dress code, beer, and ping pong. And all of those things seemed great during my initial interview. But these things are standard these days at technical companies. After my first three months, I was no longer wowed.

Cons: Pay raises are minimal at best and provide a lack of future earning ability. Employees seem to get pigeonholed into tasks with little to no opportunity to grow out of them or pursue new interests. This also makes advancement extremely difficult; most employees have to leave to grow in their careers. Lack any sort of mission or vision. It feels like we want to be TripAdvisor, but are far from it.

Interesting, but Covid-19 put the kibosh on most of their plans

Software Developer • Former Employee

Pros: Interesting technology stack. Very people oriented. Lots of great social development / team building.

Cons: Insurmountable technical debt. Too many silos: divisions competing internally, not terribly effective. Shallow product roadmaps.

Interesting, but Covid-19 put the kibosh on most of their plans

Software Developer • Former Employee

Pros: Interesting technology stack. Very people oriented. Lots of great social development / team building.

Cons: Insurmountable technical debt. Too many silos: divisions competing internally, not terribly effective. Shallow product roadmaps.

Good place to work at

Software Developer • Current Employee

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

September 16, 2020

Pros: Good work culture Good work benefits

Cons: No leave benefits. No more drawbacks.

3.0
Good place to work at
Software Developer • Current Employee
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
September 16, 2020
Pros: Good work culture Good work benefits
Cons: No leave benefits. No more drawbacks.

OK culture with a lack of opportunities for improvement and growth

Software Developer • Current Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

February 5, 2014

Pros: There is a relaxed dress code, beer, and ping pong. And all of those things seemed great during my initial interview. But these things are standard these days at technical companies. After my first three months, I was no longer wowed.

Cons: Pay raises are minimal at best and provide a lack of future earning ability. Employees seem to get pigeonholed into tasks with little to no opportunity to grow out of them or pursue new interests. This also makes advancement extremely difficult; most employees have to leave to grow in their careers. Lack any sort of mission or vision. It feels like we want to be TripAdvisor, but are far from it.

2.0
OK culture with a lack of opportunities for improvement and growth
Software Developer • Current Employee
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
February 5, 2014
Pros: There is a relaxed dress code, beer, and ping pong. And all of those things seemed great during my initial interview. But these things are standard these days at technical companies. After my first three months, I was no longer wowed.
Cons: Pay raises are minimal at best and provide a lack of future earning ability. Employees seem to get pigeonholed into tasks with little to no opportunity to grow out of them or pursue new interests. This also makes advancement extremely difficult; most employees have to leave to grow in their careers. Lack any sort of mission or vision. It feels like we want to be TripAdvisor, but are far from it.

Interesting, but Covid-19 put the kibosh on most of their plans

Software Developer • Former Employee

Pros: Interesting technology stack. Very people oriented. Lots of great social development / team building.

Cons: Insurmountable technical debt. Too many silos: divisions competing internally, not terribly effective. Shallow product roadmaps.

3.0
Interesting, but Covid-19 put the kibosh on most of their plans
Software Developer • Former Employee
May 6, 2022
Pros: Interesting technology stack. Very people oriented. Lots of great social development / team building.
Cons: Insurmountable technical debt. Too many silos: divisions competing internally, not terribly effective. Shallow product roadmaps.

Tripadvisor Interview Questions

Find Common Characters

Find the common characters that appear in all strings within a given array of strings. Return these common characters as a list.

Valid Parentheses

Determine if a string containing parentheses is valid. A valid string has matching and properly nested opening and closing parentheses.

LRU Cache

Design a data structure that acts as a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache. Implement methods to get and put key-value pairs, evicting the least recently used entry when the cache is full.

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