Software Engineer Interview Experience - Boston, Massachusetts
Process
A recruiter contacted me via LinkedIn. I spoke with HR on the phone, who extensively discussed their benefits and repeatedly mentioned their acquisition by TripAdvisor. This was followed by another phone screen with an engineer who asked about OOP, string manipulation, and basic computer science concepts. Both calls, occurring a couple of days apart, went well.
I then attended an in-person interview a week later. It would be an understatement to say it was one of the worst experiences of my professional life.
I spoke with a senior engineer about databases, joins, and queries, which also went well. Subsequently, there was an hour-long interview with an unwelcoming engineer who asked me to code a tree problem. This also proceeded without a hitch, aside from the engineer's off-putting attitude, which I remained unaffected by.
After this came the worst part: an interview with a panel of two engineers. My goodness, they were incredibly rude from the start. When someone calls you in for an interview, it's assumed the candidate's resume has been reviewed, or at least glanced at. These individuals began speaking condescendingly about my resume, snickering, laughing, and commenting in hushed tones. They criticized my approach to problems, such as the atoi and strtol implementations in C, claiming they had issues with how 80% of the programming world would implement these functions.
Both of these individuals, likely in their late twenties, had absolutely no training in interviewing whatsoever. After we finished, they simply left without a word, not even a "bye." It was as if this was merely a way for them to get off work.
Following this frustrating ordeal, I proceeded with the last technical interview, more for the "heck of it," with a senior and more seemingly down-to-earth engineer. We discussed and implemented a graph problem.
Then, I had a final chat with the recruiter and departed that "hell hole" some people bear the misfortune of calling "work."
In all, it was an awful, awful experience, and I wish I had never replied to the recruiter's messages to avoid this terrible process entirely.
The company seems to be loaded with snobbish and condescending engineers who have no clue how to deal with new people. I can't even imagine the kind of culture that is propagated within this company. Perhaps the Glassdoor reviews say more than I ever could. It's ironic that they seem to have a customer representative reply to negative Glassdoor messages in hopes of pacifying their image. It would be far better to hire good and understanding people rather than college frat jerks.
After the interview, I felt genuinely traumatized and depressed, at least for a while.
Reflecting on it now, a couple of years later, I would say that experience made me a better person and taught me "what not to do" while interviewing.
Questions
Nothing they asked was too difficult. These were basic CS 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
Tripadvisor's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Boston, Massachusetts is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Tripadvisor's Software Engineer interview process in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tripadvisor Work Experiences
- 5.0Good work-life balance, but bad managementSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeBoston, Massachusetts, United StatesJune 10, 2021Pros: - Good work-life balance - Not bad salaryCons: - Bad career ladder. - High attrition.
- 3.0Flexible But Muddled Engineering EnvironmentSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeBoston, Massachusetts, United StatesApril 22, 2015Pros: Vibrant culture and engaged employees create a positive working environment. Demographically very diverse, especially for a tech company. Neat product. Fantastic benefits. Great industry.Cons: The tech stack was overly complicated and chained to technical debt. Tech practices were not terribly sophisticated; code reviews and unit tests were just getting some traction. The software process was very informal and kind of disorganized.
- 3.0Great Culture and Talent, but Years of Layoffs and Reorgs Have Damaged Stability and DirectionSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeBoston, Massachusetts, United StatesNovember 25, 2025Pros: When I joined, TripAdvisor had an incredibly strong engineering culture. The company hired highly talented, capable people who were skilled not only technically but also in communication and teamwork. As a new engineer, it was almost intimidating to sit in meetings with such experienced colleagues. Expectations were high, but in a positive way. You felt pushed to grow, and over time, you realized you belonged there and had the potential to meet that standard. The general culture was excellent. Most colleagues were supportive, helpful, and genuinely invested in team success. It was a non-toxic, friendly environment built on mutual respect. Work-life balance was solid, and management rarely pushed people to work beyond normal hours. Although the tech stack was outdated when I joined, the company committed significant resources to modernizing it. By the time I left, the technical infrastructure had improved dramatically, which made everyday engineering work smoother and more efficient. Career growth opportunities were strong. Salaries and benefits were competitive, the learning budget was generous, and professional development was encouraged. Remote flexibility was well supported, and managers were generally understanding of personal circumstances.Cons: The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the travel industry, and TripAdvisor was hit especially hard. The layoffs that followed were massive and reshaped the engineering organization overnight. The company lost an enormous amount of talent, including many of the most experienced engineers and leaders who carried crucial domain knowledge. Morale collapsed, and a wave of voluntary departures continued for months afterward. Since then, the company has never fully recovered. What used to be a cohesive culture gradually unraveled. Promotions came quickly for those who remained, but the lack of seasoned people to guide technical strategy became a long-term liability. Engineering depth and continuity suffered. What followed was a long series of reorganizations. For years now, it has felt like the company reshuffles its structure once or twice every year. Reorgs became a running joke internally. Each one disrupted team focus, slowed productivity, and forced everyone to adapt to new priorities and leadership structures before the last changes had even settled. There is also a huge operational cost to constant reorganization that often goes unacknowledged. Every reshuffle requires teams to rename themselves, recreate security groups, rebuild access structures, migrate permissions, reorganize Slack channels, update dashboards, adjust on-call rotations, reassign repos, and fix ownership mappings. Weeks of engineering time get spent on this instead of actual product work, and by the time things stabilize, another reorg is already looming. Across multiple rounds of layoffs, the company continued losing some of its most capable and seasoned engineers. Many people who were central to the culture and success of the company either left voluntarily or were laid off based on cost considerations rather than performance. Watching some of the strongest colleagues walk out the door year after year felt surreal. The knowledge gaps widened, productivity slipped, and the once strong engineering identity faded. Innovation stalled. Several new product attempts never gained traction, and large technical initiatives were abandoned mid-way at significant cost. Strategic direction became inconsistent, and communication from senior leadership often felt vague or misaligned across layers of the organization. Meanwhile, the stock price declined to historic lows, reflecting the lack of a clear long-term strategy and growing market uncertainty.
Tripadvisor Interview Questions
