Get a Job at Snap: Interview Process and Top Questions

Learn how to prepare for Snap interviews with this in-depth guide.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is not only the creator of Snapchat and a major player in the social media space, but it also produces Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform, and Spectacles, which are smart glasses. Snap is a great place to start your career because of its internships and Snap Up program, which introduces the engineering field to new grads through a full-time rotational role.

Below, we break down the Snap interview process and top questions you should expect to answer.

Snap Interview Process

The interview process at Snap is typically split into 3 stages: a phone call with a recruiter, a technical assessment, and a final round of 4–6 interviews all on 1 day. Expect to be tested on your technical prowess, as Snap interviewers look for accuracy in results more than anything else.

The Snap interview process typically takes about 3–4 weeks and involves:

• Recruiter phone screen,
• Technical screen,
• Final round.

Recruiter phone screen

This is a 30–60 minute phone call with a Snap recruiter. You’ll likely discuss your resume and any relevant experience. Expect to answer why you want to work for Snap and this team, some basic situational questions, and discuss the rest of the interview process.

Technical screen

The second round of the interview process at Snap is a 60-minute technical screen with an engineer or the hiring manager. You’ll likely get 10–20 minutes to answer behavioral questions or questions about your background and then the rest of the hour to complete a coding challenge.

For non-technical roles, such as a PM role, expect a conversational interview with the hiring manager.

Final rounds

For your final round at Snap, expect 4–6 hour-long rounds focused on your domain. Your final round at Snap usually takes place all in 1 day. The final round can be conducted virtually or in person, depending on the role and your location.

Something unique about Snap’s final round is the lack of a standalone behavioral round. Instead, you’ll likely get 10–15 minutes of behavioral questions in each of your other final-round interviews. 

Top Snap Interview Questions

These are examples of real interview questions asked at Snap as reported by candidates.

Behavioral

• Tell me about a time when you had to solve a difficult problem.
• Tell me about yourself.
• Why do you want to work at Snap?
• Walk me through your resume.

Coding

• Given a list of conversion items between symbols, write an algorithm to return the conversion ratio for each pair of symbols.
• Given a list of integers, return 1 if the integer is a power of 2 and 0 if it is not.
• Given a list of buses and the stops they take, given a start and end stop, find the minimum number of transfers needed to reach. Return -1 if it's not possible.
• Build a binary tree from an array.

System design

• Design a 'people you may know' system.
• Design a scalable push notification service that alerts users of new Snaps, messages, or app events.
• Design a system that shows friends’ locations on a live map within Snapchat.
• Design a URL shortener system for Snap’s shared content links.
• Design a system that shows a scrollable feed of short videos to users, optimized for performance and engagement.

Machine learning

• Explain how LLMs might be susceptible to adversarial attacks.
• Implement a k-nearest neighbors algorithm.
• Implement k-means clustering.
• Design an Instagram ranking model.
• Design a recommendation engine.

Data science

• How would you use data to help Snap engineering improve phone camera speed?
• Describe one of your past projects in detail.
• Given a table user_logins(user_id, login_date), write a query to find the number of daily active users for each day.
• A Snap ad has a 20% chance of being clicked and each click is worth $0.10. What's the expected revenue per 100 views?
• You're given conversion rates for Group A and Group B. How would you determine if the difference is statistically significant?

Product management 

• Design a social media application for introverts.
• How would you improve the Spotlight feature at Snapchat?
• How would you measure the success of Snap Map?
• How many windows do you estimate exist in Tehran?
• How would Snapchat expand into Indonesia?

Snap Interview Loops

Behavioral

The behavioral round at Snap is incorporated into all of your other final-round interviews. You won't have a dedicated behavioral round. Expect 10–15 minutes of behavioral interview questions included at the beginning of each of your other rounds to assess your culture fit and values.

Consider Snap’s core values ahead of time: we are kind, we are smart, and we are creative. Prepare anecdotes that demonstrate these values in yourself and your past roles to demonstrate your culture fit at Snap.

Coding

Most engineers get 2 coding rounds at Snap. Expect hour-long interviews focused on solving traditional coding problems of medium difficulty. Since most coding roles at Snap don’t require a specific language, a strong knowledge of software engineering is most important. 

Snap looks for engineers with a range of skills, an ability to write and review exceptional quality code, and a strong background in ML.

System design

The system design round is a standard whiteboard interview. You'll likely get a design question that involves ML because of how pivotal ML is in Snap’s products.

Expect a high-level problem with real-world Snap use cases, focused on scalability, latency, storage, distributed systems, API design, and user experience. To prepare for real-world questions, get to know Snap’s products, Snapchat, Spectacles, and Snap AR, and read Snap’s engineering blog. 

Machine learning

Snap’s machine learning round is a 1-hour interview that assesses your understanding of ML fundamentals and previous experience. The ML round at Snap depends on your interviewer, so it can involve a technical ML assessment, or be more conversational. For example, the interviewer may ask you to present a past ML project. 

Expect questions on standard ML topics such as metrics, unbalanced data, overfitting, and optimizers. If presenting a past project, expect to discuss the problem statement, data collection, feature engineering, model optimization techniques, and the model selection process.

Data science

For the data science round at Snap, expect a 1-hour interview focused on technical DS questions, including behavioral questions at the beginning or end of the round. You’ll be assessed on your solutions to SQL, statistics, and experimentation questions. 

Product management 

The product management round at Snap involves interviews with 4–5 cross-functional stakeholders, so your interviewers depend on the team associated with your role. Remember, you’ll also get behavioral questions throughout your PM round since it’s not a separate round at Snap. 

To prepare, study strategy, product design, and execution questions. Practice technical questions related to the team. Study up on how ML is used in the product.

Snap Interview Tips

Snap values creativity. 

As the creator of Snapchat and Snapchat filters, you can see how creativity and fun are driving forces behind Snap’s social products. Stand out by showing off your innovative side in interviews. Think outside the box in open-ended questions, like in your system design interview. 

And discuss past creative projects you contributed to in your conversational interviews. Years of past practical experience are highly valued at Snap.

Snap’s interviews are highly technical. 

Perhaps on the flip side of creativity, Snap interviewers assess candidates on the accuracy of the technical portions of the interview process. While other companies often focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills, expect to be almost purely assessed on the accuracy of your results at Snap.

Brush up on coding, ML coding, and system design before your interview.

Know Snap inside and out.

• Get to know Snap’s products. Download and use Snapchat, and learn about Spectales and Snap AR.
• Read up on news and current ventures on Snap's newsroom page.
• Look into Snap’s developers page and engineering blog.

FAQs

How competitive are Snap interviews?

Snap interviews are fairly competitive. As we said, Snap’s interview process focuses on technical ability, so to land the role, you should prepare a good deal ahead of time. Plan to study your domain technical skills the most.

How should I prepare for my interview at Snap? 

• Before applying, get a resume review. 
• Brush up on your coding skills and behavioral interview questions.
• Study interview questions asked at Snap.
• Prep for interviews according to your role: ML engineering, data science, SWE, system design, or PM. 
• Get expert coaching ahead of your Snap interview.

Does Snap hire students or new grads? 

Yes! Snap offers internships for current college students. Snap also runs a Snap Up program, which offers rotational engineering full-time roles to new graduates without internship experience. Check out Snap’s University page to learn more.

More Snap Interview Prep Resources

Exponent has extensive resources to prepare you to feel your best when it comes time for your interview at Snap:

💬 Brush up on interview questions asked at Snap

📖 Read through these role-specific Snap interview guides