Tripadvisor

Software Engineer Interview Experience - Houston, Texas

February 1, 2015

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interview happened after the fall semester career fair expo.

There were a total of two questions asked.

One question was about basic search.
Another was about trees.

I wrote the code on paper and was allowed to use any language, including C, Java, or Python.

The interview lasted about one hour, and I received a take-home programming assignment afterward.

The programming assignment asked me to perform a sorting operation on strings from one to many files.

If I passed the programming assignment, I would be invited to the company for an on-site interview.

Since I did not do well on the programming assignment, I did not make it to the on-site interview.

Questions

Write a binary search tree.

Find the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree (not a binary search tree).

Follow-up question: Can you do it in O(1) space, allowing any data structure or space complexity?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Tripadvisor Software Engineer role in Houston, Texas.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Tripadvisor's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Houston, Texas is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive100%

Neutral0%

Negative0%

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

Tripadvisor Work Experiences

A Good Company On The Decline

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Pros: The people are the biggest pro. I worked as an engineer here for a couple of years with very hard-working and fun people. Management was open about the direction of the company and each employee's role in its future. We all put in a lot of time and effort, and we were recognized for going the extra mile. We tried to innovate and put out a solid product to satisfy our customers.

Cons: After the acquisition and the founders left, things started to change for the worse. The communication from upper management ceased, as did the incentive to give extra effort. New management made no attempt to get to know any of the employees. We began to more closely imitate our competitors when building new features, and it always felt like we were a few steps behind. This is not a terrible place to work, but if you're an engineer looking to use cutting-edge technologies, host meet-ups, release open-sourced projects, contribute to a useful tech blog (like the competitors), or climb the corporate ladder -- this is probably not the place for you.

A Good Company On The Decline

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Pros: The people are the biggest pro. I worked as an engineer here for a couple of years with very hard-working and fun people. Management was open about the direction of the company and each employee's role in its future. We all put in a lot of time and effort, and we were recognized for going the extra mile. We tried to innovate and put out a solid product to satisfy our customers.

Cons: After the acquisition and the founders left, things started to change for the worse. The communication from upper management ceased, as did the incentive to give extra effort. New management made no attempt to get to know any of the employees. We began to more closely imitate our competitors when building new features, and it always felt like we were a few steps behind. This is not a terrible place to work, but if you're an engineer looking to use cutting-edge technologies, host meet-ups, release open-sourced projects, contribute to a useful tech blog (like the competitors), or climb the corporate ladder -- this is probably not the place for you.

Great Team, Uncertain Progression

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Good work-life balance. Nice culture. Great team. Decent perks. Great vacation.

Cons: Struggles during COVID. Progression uncertain overall.

Great Team, Uncertain Progression

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Good work-life balance. Nice culture. Great team. Decent perks. Great vacation.

Cons: Struggles during COVID. Progression uncertain overall.

Good Work, Tough Job

Software Engineer • Former Employee

August 31, 2022

Pros: OK, very good. No complaints.

Cons: Tough job, a lot of work.

Good Work, Tough Job

Software Engineer • Former Employee

August 31, 2022

Pros: OK, very good. No complaints.

Cons: Tough job, a lot of work.

A Good Company On The Decline

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Pros: The people are the biggest pro. I worked as an engineer here for a couple of years with very hard-working and fun people. Management was open about the direction of the company and each employee's role in its future. We all put in a lot of time and effort, and we were recognized for going the extra mile. We tried to innovate and put out a solid product to satisfy our customers.

Cons: After the acquisition and the founders left, things started to change for the worse. The communication from upper management ceased, as did the incentive to give extra effort. New management made no attempt to get to know any of the employees. We began to more closely imitate our competitors when building new features, and it always felt like we were a few steps behind. This is not a terrible place to work, but if you're an engineer looking to use cutting-edge technologies, host meet-ups, release open-sourced projects, contribute to a useful tech blog (like the competitors), or climb the corporate ladder -- this is probably not the place for you.

2.0
A Good Company On The Decline
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
March 27, 2015
Pros: The people are the biggest pro. I worked as an engineer here for a couple of years with very hard-working and fun people. Management was open about the direction of the company and each employee's role in its future. We all put in a lot of time and effort, and we were recognized for going the extra mile. We tried to innovate and put out a solid product to satisfy our customers.
Cons: After the acquisition and the founders left, things started to change for the worse. The communication from upper management ceased, as did the incentive to give extra effort. New management made no attempt to get to know any of the employees. We began to more closely imitate our competitors when building new features, and it always felt like we were a few steps behind. This is not a terrible place to work, but if you're an engineer looking to use cutting-edge technologies, host meet-ups, release open-sourced projects, contribute to a useful tech blog (like the competitors), or climb the corporate ladder -- this is probably not the place for you.

Great Team, Uncertain Progression

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Good work-life balance. Nice culture. Great team. Decent perks. Great vacation.

Cons: Struggles during COVID. Progression uncertain overall.

4.0
Great Team, Uncertain Progression
Software Engineer • Former Employee
March 17, 2022
Pros: Good work-life balance. Nice culture. Great team. Decent perks. Great vacation.
Cons: Struggles during COVID. Progression uncertain overall.

Good Work, Tough Job

Software Engineer • Former Employee

August 31, 2022

Pros: OK, very good. No complaints.

Cons: Tough job, a lot of work.

4.0
Good Work, Tough Job
Software Engineer • Former Employee
August 31, 2022
Pros: OK, very good. No complaints.
Cons: Tough job, a lot of work.

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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