Yelp

Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California

January 1, 2016

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

The process begins with a phone screen, followed by a coding challenge.

Next, there is a technical phone interview, which mostly involves discussing your background and a design question.

The onsite interview consists of four 45-minute sessions. These sessions include several algorithm questions, design questions, and knowledge questions. The questions are not inherently difficult, but impressing the interviewer with your answers to design questions can be challenging.

Questions

What happens when you type "yelp.com" into your browser?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 92 interview experiences for the Yelp Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.

Success Rate

14%

Pass Rate

Yelp's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive50%

Neutral32%

Negative18%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Yelp's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.

Yelp Work Experiences

Mostly Good, Some Not Great

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Good stuff, good company, you know.

Cons: Some not so good stuff

Mostly Good, Some Not Great

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Good stuff, good company, you know.

Cons: Some not so good stuff

Awesome culture, unimpressive pay

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

October 30, 2025

Pros: Lots of great people. No toxicity. Excellent engineers.

Cons: Pay isn't competitive. Some toxic management.

Awesome culture, unimpressive pay

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

October 30, 2025

Pros: Lots of great people. No toxicity. Excellent engineers.

Cons: Pay isn't competitive. Some toxic management.

Awesome place to work!

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a great place to work! This is my first internship, and all my coworkers have been very supportive. I've learned a ton. The pay is great. They really push for work-life balance (i.e., they actually want you to go home/go have fun after you've put in your 8 hours), and they plan lots of fun stuff for employees and interns.

Cons: The free snacks are meh (so basically, there is very little I don't like about working here!).

Awesome place to work!

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a great place to work! This is my first internship, and all my coworkers have been very supportive. I've learned a ton. The pay is great. They really push for work-life balance (i.e., they actually want you to go home/go have fun after you've put in your 8 hours), and they plan lots of fun stuff for employees and interns.

Cons: The free snacks are meh (so basically, there is very little I don't like about working here!).

Mostly Good, Some Not Great

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Good stuff, good company, you know.

Cons: Some not so good stuff

4.0
Mostly Good, Some Not Great
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
June 6, 2024
Pros: Good stuff, good company, you know.
Cons: Some not so good stuff

Awesome culture, unimpressive pay

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

October 30, 2025

Pros: Lots of great people. No toxicity. Excellent engineers.

Cons: Pay isn't competitive. Some toxic management.

4.0
Awesome culture, unimpressive pay
Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
October 30, 2025
Pros: Lots of great people. No toxicity. Excellent engineers.
Cons: Pay isn't competitive. Some toxic management.

Awesome place to work!

Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

Pros: Yelp is a great place to work! This is my first internship, and all my coworkers have been very supportive. I've learned a ton. The pay is great. They really push for work-life balance (i.e., they actually want you to go home/go have fun after you've put in your 8 hours), and they plan lots of fun stuff for employees and interns.

Cons: The free snacks are meh (so basically, there is very little I don't like about working here!).

5.0
Awesome place to work!
Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
August 8, 2014
Pros: Yelp is a great place to work! This is my first internship, and all my coworkers have been very supportive. I've learned a ton. The pay is great. They really push for work-life balance (i.e., they actually want you to go home/go have fun after you've put in your 8 hours), and they plan lots of fun stuff for employees and interns.
Cons: The free snacks are meh (so basically, there is very little I don't like about working here!).

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.

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