Yelp

Site Reliability Engineer Interview Experience - Germany

November 1, 2019

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Introductory HR round - Nothing specific, just background checks.
An online coding test - Three questions on HackerRank, exceptionally easy to solve.
Another HR interview - Primarily involves details about the whole interview process.
Face-to-face online coding round - You are expected to code in a programming language the interviewer knows. If you are like me, you will get a guy who only knows Python. You will be asked, or let's say "forced," to code in Python even if you are not comfortable with it. Also, you are expected to give the exact solution the interviewer has in mind. Any other solution, and BAM! you are out of the interview process.

Two days later, I received a rejection email saying, "We cannot provide individual feedback" for the rejection. I felt that I was better off where I am instead of going to Yelp. After all, who'd want to work for a company where transparency is not valued, where shady decision-making is done, where you are forced to code in a programming language.

My advice:

Only apply if you are a Python expert turned SRE.
You are okay with zero transparency.
You can give the answers to the interviewer from the manuals, as is. Like a kindergarten test.

Will I ever apply to Yelp again after this experience? Never, not in this lifetime. Am I satisfied after the rejection? Of course, I am. I value transparency and polyglotism.

Questions

Can you code in Python? I do not know any other language (or Golang, to be specific).

Did you open the Codility page? I cannot see you.

After providing a solution the interviewer had no idea existed Can you do it any other way?

Was this helpful?

Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Yelp Site Reliability Engineer role in Germany.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Yelp's interview process for their Site Reliability Engineer roles in Germany is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Yelp's Site Reliability Engineer interview process in Germany.

Yelp Work Experiences

I can honestly say I like it

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a company with a big and solid user base. Lot of traffic, lot of load, lot of things you will probably never get a chance to work with and issues to resolve, working for a startup. Yelp is not one of FAANG and generally speaking a medium-sized business. The engineering department looks fairly lean. This means it is quite unlikely the board is going to dump hundreds of workers in the end of a year to improve financial reports – a practice quite common in big companies. Can't tell about other departments, but the culture in engineering is nice and chill. I worked as a contractor with big companies previously, and it was a breath of fresh air since I've joined Yelp. Opportunities for growth – plenty of them. Yelp is a public company; you are not paid in promises. Shares you get are convertible to real money instantly. Office – a skyscraper in downtown SF limits the ability to build an open space, and you can actually make your/team space quite cozy. On-call schedule is not brutal. Downtown SF – plenty of opportunities before/after work: concerts, bars, tech meetups.

Cons: Most of these apply to the folks who plan to work in the office. They tell nothing for remote folks. * You won't buy a Lambo after IPO; the company is already public. * You go out and pay for your food yourself; no daily deliveries, just cafeteria and snacks. * No dry cleaning service. * No gym. * No showers (critical if you're biking). * No Uber/Lyft credit to get to/out of the office. You pay for your transportation/parking yourself. You can pay for BART/Muni/parking pre-tax, though. * Downtown SF is the filthiest place west of the New York City Subway. * You have options: either live in SF and dump a lot of money into rent, or waste a lot of time commuting.

I can honestly say I like it

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a company with a big and solid user base. Lot of traffic, lot of load, lot of things you will probably never get a chance to work with and issues to resolve, working for a startup. Yelp is not one of FAANG and generally speaking a medium-sized business. The engineering department looks fairly lean. This means it is quite unlikely the board is going to dump hundreds of workers in the end of a year to improve financial reports – a practice quite common in big companies. Can't tell about other departments, but the culture in engineering is nice and chill. I worked as a contractor with big companies previously, and it was a breath of fresh air since I've joined Yelp. Opportunities for growth – plenty of them. Yelp is a public company; you are not paid in promises. Shares you get are convertible to real money instantly. Office – a skyscraper in downtown SF limits the ability to build an open space, and you can actually make your/team space quite cozy. On-call schedule is not brutal. Downtown SF – plenty of opportunities before/after work: concerts, bars, tech meetups.

Cons: Most of these apply to the folks who plan to work in the office. They tell nothing for remote folks. * You won't buy a Lambo after IPO; the company is already public. * You go out and pay for your food yourself; no daily deliveries, just cafeteria and snacks. * No dry cleaning service. * No gym. * No showers (critical if you're biking). * No Uber/Lyft credit to get to/out of the office. You pay for your transportation/parking yourself. You can pay for BART/Muni/parking pre-tax, though. * Downtown SF is the filthiest place west of the New York City Subway. * You have options: either live in SF and dump a lot of money into rent, or waste a lot of time commuting.

Genuinely cares about employees

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

Pros: Throughout the pandemic, Yelp's leadership has been making sure that employees have the resources they need to work at home. This includes office supplies, as well as time off to get vaccinated, check in on their mental health, and recover. Teams get to choose their own destiny, within reason, and there's a huge amount of flexibility.

Cons: Historically, the flexibility and freedom that teams have had have led to myriad different implementations of the same thing. Recently, this has started to become less of an issue with standardized platforms that make it easy for folks to do the right thing.

Genuinely cares about employees

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

Pros: Throughout the pandemic, Yelp's leadership has been making sure that employees have the resources they need to work at home. This includes office supplies, as well as time off to get vaccinated, check in on their mental health, and recover. Teams get to choose their own destiny, within reason, and there's a huge amount of flexibility.

Cons: Historically, the flexibility and freedom that teams have had have led to myriad different implementations of the same thing. Recently, this has started to become less of an issue with standardized platforms that make it easy for folks to do the right thing.

Pretty good experience

Site Reliability Engineer • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

September 30, 2020

Pros: Very friendly teammates. No overwork, and no unreasonable expectations.

Cons: None that I can think of, to be honest.

Pretty good experience

Site Reliability Engineer • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

September 30, 2020

Pros: Very friendly teammates. No overwork, and no unreasonable expectations.

Cons: None that I can think of, to be honest.

I can honestly say I like it

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a company with a big and solid user base. Lot of traffic, lot of load, lot of things you will probably never get a chance to work with and issues to resolve, working for a startup. Yelp is not one of FAANG and generally speaking a medium-sized business. The engineering department looks fairly lean. This means it is quite unlikely the board is going to dump hundreds of workers in the end of a year to improve financial reports – a practice quite common in big companies. Can't tell about other departments, but the culture in engineering is nice and chill. I worked as a contractor with big companies previously, and it was a breath of fresh air since I've joined Yelp. Opportunities for growth – plenty of them. Yelp is a public company; you are not paid in promises. Shares you get are convertible to real money instantly. Office – a skyscraper in downtown SF limits the ability to build an open space, and you can actually make your/team space quite cozy. On-call schedule is not brutal. Downtown SF – plenty of opportunities before/after work: concerts, bars, tech meetups.

Cons: Most of these apply to the folks who plan to work in the office. They tell nothing for remote folks. * You won't buy a Lambo after IPO; the company is already public. * You go out and pay for your food yourself; no daily deliveries, just cafeteria and snacks. * No dry cleaning service. * No gym. * No showers (critical if you're biking). * No Uber/Lyft credit to get to/out of the office. You pay for your transportation/parking yourself. You can pay for BART/Muni/parking pre-tax, though. * Downtown SF is the filthiest place west of the New York City Subway. * You have options: either live in SF and dump a lot of money into rent, or waste a lot of time commuting.

5.0
I can honestly say I like it
Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
April 10, 2019
Pros: Yelp is a company with a big and solid user base. Lot of traffic, lot of load, lot of things you will probably never get a chance to work with and issues to resolve, working for a startup. Yelp is not one of FAANG and generally speaking a medium-sized business. The engineering department looks fairly lean. This means it is quite unlikely the board is going to dump hundreds of workers in the end of a year to improve financial reports – a practice quite common in big companies. Can't tell about other departments, but the culture in engineering is nice and chill. I worked as a contractor with big companies previously, and it was a breath of fresh air since I've joined Yelp. Opportunities for growth – plenty of them. Yelp is a public company; you are not paid in promises. Shares you get are convertible to real money instantly. Office – a skyscraper in downtown SF limits the ability to build an open space, and you can actually make your/team space quite cozy. On-call schedule is not brutal. Downtown SF – plenty of opportunities before/after work: concerts, bars, tech meetups.
Cons: Most of these apply to the folks who plan to work in the office. They tell nothing for remote folks. * You won't buy a Lambo after IPO; the company is already public. * You go out and pay for your food yourself; no daily deliveries, just cafeteria and snacks. * No dry cleaning service. * No gym. * No showers (critical if you're biking). * No Uber/Lyft credit to get to/out of the office. You pay for your transportation/parking yourself. You can pay for BART/Muni/parking pre-tax, though. * Downtown SF is the filthiest place west of the New York City Subway. * You have options: either live in SF and dump a lot of money into rent, or waste a lot of time commuting.

Genuinely cares about employees

Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

Pros: Throughout the pandemic, Yelp's leadership has been making sure that employees have the resources they need to work at home. This includes office supplies, as well as time off to get vaccinated, check in on their mental health, and recover. Teams get to choose their own destiny, within reason, and there's a huge amount of flexibility.

Cons: Historically, the flexibility and freedom that teams have had have led to myriad different implementations of the same thing. Recently, this has started to become less of an issue with standardized platforms that make it easy for folks to do the right thing.

5.0
Genuinely cares about employees
Site Reliability Engineer • Current Employee
London, England, United Kingdom
May 11, 2021
Pros: Throughout the pandemic, Yelp's leadership has been making sure that employees have the resources they need to work at home. This includes office supplies, as well as time off to get vaccinated, check in on their mental health, and recover. Teams get to choose their own destiny, within reason, and there's a huge amount of flexibility.
Cons: Historically, the flexibility and freedom that teams have had have led to myriad different implementations of the same thing. Recently, this has started to become less of an issue with standardized platforms that make it easy for folks to do the right thing.

Pretty good experience

Site Reliability Engineer • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

September 30, 2020

Pros: Very friendly teammates. No overwork, and no unreasonable expectations.

Cons: None that I can think of, to be honest.

5.0
Pretty good experience
Site Reliability Engineer • Former Employee
London, England, United Kingdom
September 30, 2020
Pros: Very friendly teammates. No overwork, and no unreasonable expectations.
Cons: None that I can think of, to be honest.

Yelp Interview Questions

Destination City

You are given a list of paths, where each path connects two cities. Find the destination city, which is the city that has a path coming in but no path going out.

ArraysStringsGraphs

Course Schedule

Determine if it is possible to finish all courses given prerequisite relationships between them. Essentially, detect if a cycle exists in the course dependencies.

GraphsRecursion

Filter Restaurants by Vegan-Friendly, Price and Distance

You're given a list of restaurants with their vegan-friendly status, price, and distance. Select the restaurants that match specified vegan, price, and distance criteria and return their IDs in sorted order.

Copyright © Taro