I applied online and was contacted by a recruiter to set up a phone screen. Thinking it was merely HR, I didn't really expect any coding. The phone screen mainly involved questions about why Yelp and my background. I was then given a coding challenge to be completed by the end of the day. Thankfully, the coding challenge was really easy (FizzBuzz), and I completed it in a few minutes.

I was then moved on to a Skype interview with an engineer. Coming from an Electrical Engineering background, I didn't really know any SQL or much about web technologies. I was asked questions about these, and I honestly told them I didn't know. I was again asked about why Yelp, etc. We moved on to a coding question about load balancing of servers and were asked to implement various functions for it. I was extremely nervous after answering a string of questions with "I don't know." The interviewer was really nice and helpful and really tried to encourage me to get the right answers. I felt I had messed up a really basic interview, though surprisingly, I was passed over to the next round.

The next round was two back-to-back Skype interviews with an engineer and a manager. I managed to crack all the coding questions thrown at me; however, I felt the engineer was impressed with me, but not the manager. I was asked the same "why Yelp" question, but also many other typical behavioral questions. I was also asked about Yelp products and how I thought they should be improved. I thought I did pretty well in the final rounds, so I was disappointed when I was rejected. Overall, a good learning experience, I guess.

All the coding questions I was asked are repeats mentioned in the other reviews.

What issues does Yelp have now?

What new products should Yelp come out with?