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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Boston, Massachusetts

June 7, 2015
Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

One technical phone screen, then I was invited for an onsite interview. The phone interview wasn't too hard, and the interviewer was very friendly and engaging. They asked a few personal questions and invited me to ask whatever I wanted, as well as a coding question.

If you get onsite, get ready for the gauntlet. I was put in a room where four engineers came in for about 45 minutes each. They were friendly but mostly focused on technical stuff; I filled two whiteboards several times over. They seemed to care a bit more than average about getting the syntax correct on the whiteboard, but were okay with helping me out on a few questions that I could easily have referenced via Google in a real programming environment.

They'll send you a somewhat helpful blog post to help you prepare for the interview. Above all, remember that this is intentionally a high-pressure situation, and they're not expecting you to write perfect code on the first try. Always be thinking out loud and discussing your thought process.

Questions

I'm not going to give specific questions for reasons, but questions ranged from various "trivia" type questions about Java and design principles (e.g., "What does 'static' mean?") to "write a function that..." questions (i.e., 15-20 minute coding questions that don't relate to each other), to "how would you design a program that..." questions, to more generic puzzle questions.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 30 interview experiences for the Tripadvisor Software Engineer role in Boston, Massachusetts.

Success Rate

17%
Pass Rate

Tripadvisor's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Boston, Massachusetts is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive57%
Neutral27%
Negative17%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Tripadvisor's Software Engineer interview process in Boston, Massachusetts.

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