Airbnb Data Engineer Interview Guide

tl;dr

Airbnb was the first company to democratize the hospitality industry. Their dynamic, vibrant marketplace empowers individuals and creates an undeniable sense of community. Since its inception in 2007, Airbnb has hosted 1.5 billion guest arrivals.

What makes an Airbnb experience so personalized, seamless, and trustworthy? Data engineers work behind every tailored recommendation, dynamic pricing adjustment, and safe transaction lies the work of data engineers. They ensure a smooth user experience with search functionalities and booking pipelines for millions of users worldwide.

While this interview's technical rounds are decisive, Airbnb heavily emphasizes behavioral rounds. Ownership combined with leadership is highly valued; they want you to bring your entrepreneurial spirit to the team. Post-pandemic, Airbnb restructured to a lean hiring model. Their hiring model now focuses on the following:

• Operational efficiency
• Impactful, smaller workforce and fewer projects
• Cross-functional collaboration between teams

What does an Airbnb Data Engineer do?

At Airbnb, data engineers are referred to as software engineers and don't have a distinct role designation. The advantage for you is that it gives broader recognition of your unique skill set and more flexibility for future role assignments. The trade-off is a slight reduction in recognition of your specialization.

Several teams at Airbnb require data engineers as part of their business scope; for example:

• Trust Data Foundations
• Marketing Technology
• Communication and Connectivity
• Users, Listings, and Marketplace Data and AI
• BizTech

For example, consider a senior data engineer on the Marketing Data Engineering team who supports marketing and product teams by ensuring customer engagement through various channels, such as emails, third-party ad platforms, SMS, and more. A typical day for this role looks like architecting and optimizing batch and real-time data systems to ensure high performance and stability. A data engineer must collaborate with cross-functional teams to align on data requirements and contribute to long-term data strategies.

Compensation

For software engineers, which includes data engineers, the average total compensation is:

• G7 (entry-level) = $187K
• G8 (mid-level) = $312K
• G9 (senior) = $452K
• G10 (staff) = $613K

Before you apply

• Ensure you’re fully prepared with a comprehensive course on Data Engineering interviews.
• Study recent Airbnb interview questions.
• To maximize your odds, interview with multiple teams simultaneously.

Interview Process

There are some chances of variance, yet the typical interview process is:

• Recruiter screen, typically to assess your general fit
• Tech screen, similar to their later coding rounds
• Final round, comprised of 5–7 rounds (split between hiring manager, culture fit, leadership, 1-2 coding rounds, and 1-2 system design rounds)

Recruiter

Expect technical questions related to the tech stack you’ve worked with. One unique point about Airbnb recruiter calls is technical questions! These may be related to SQL query optimization or basic data types and structures in Python.

Sample questions include:

• Why Airbnb?
• What are you looking for in your next role?
• What data structure in Python do you think would be most suitable for handling real-time data in Airbnb’s context?
• What type of database would you recommend for storing large-scale data in the long term?
• Do you have a preferred DBMS that aligns well with Airbnb’s needs?

Tech screen (and later coding interviews)

Your first coding round is usually the tech screen, which is basically identical to the 1–2 coding rounds at the final stage. Expect 60-minute rounds on Coderpad, HackerRank, or sometimes a regular text editor. The difficulty level for these questions has changed from hard to medium-hard over the last few years.

In each round, they’ll provide function definitions and test methods. The final output expected from you is compilable code. The scoring of the coding interviews depends on multiple criteria, such as:

• One or more expected baselines within the code
• Relevant use of data structures, function control, etc.
• Exception handling
• Best coding practices
• Success with the test cases

Sample topics include:

• Recursion and Backtracking
• Graph Algorithms
• Sorting and Searching
• Trees and Binary Trees
• Arrays and Strings

Hiring Manager

Conduct a self-inquiry and thoroughly review your resume to be prepared for in-depth questions about your past projects, working style, and collaboration ability.

Sample questions include:

• Why are you looking to switch from your current position?
• Why do you want this position at Airbnb?
• How do you foster belonging and inclusivity in a team setting?
• Can you share an example of when you went above and beyond to deliver a great user or customer experience?
• Talk about a time when you navigated uncertainty or took a bold approach to solve a problem.
• Can you share details about an interesting project you've worked on and your experience with it?

Culture fit

At Airbnb, the culture fit round can be a very realistic dealbreaker. Candidates who meet the technical bar are commonly rejected because they are not a culture fit.

The core values of Airbnb focus on their mission of connectivity, belonging, uniqueness, and, above all, community. They’re interested in the unique flavor you’ll bring to the team.

Study and understand the core values of Airbnb:

• Champion the Mission
• Be a Host
• Embrace the Adventure
• Be a Cereal Entrepreneur

(No, Cereal is not a typo.)

System design

System design interviews are the key determinant of how Airbnb levels you. For a senior data engineer equivalent position, the questions are tailored to use cases that specifically involve your depth in understanding the data pipelines.

Expect questions related to the stage of the pipeline you primarily worked on. The questions may not be limited to Airbnb-specific topics. Here are a couple of other sample tasks that you may be asked to explain:

• Design a scalable data pipeline for tracking user reviews and ratings on Airbnb
• Design a data system to identify fraudulent listings on Airbnb

Leadership

Leadership interviews explore what defines a leader by evaluating your ability to guide a team of passionate and dedicated individuals, take ownership of the product, and drive results.

In the early days, these interviews were conducted directly by the founders, but as Airbnb has grown, they are now led by seasoned senior managers. These experienced leaders will assess whether you have the qualities they value in a leader, including vision, ownership, and the ability to inspire and empower your team.

Sample questions include:

• What are the most important skills you believe a leader needs to have?
• How do you deliver feedback?
• Explain how you would prioritize customer needs as you make product decisions.

Additional resources

• Airbnb’s engineering blog
• Engineering culture at Airbnb
• Top Airbnb interview questions
• Comprehensive interview course on data engineering interviews

FAQs

How long does an interview process last?

The length of the interview process ranges, but typically it spans 3 to 5 weeks.

Will the interview be remote or onsite?

Interviews are primarily conducted remotely. However, exceptions can arise where in-person interviews are preferred, mainly if the candidate is located in the same city as Airbnb’s tech teams directly involved in the process.

What are some perks and benefits offered at Airbnb?

Airbnb’s interview process is tough, but the company offers generous compensation packages to its employees. Additional benefits and perks are available here.

Should I prepare from the viewpoint of a software engineer or a data engineer?

The coding interviews focus on core coding skills, with a bias toward data-related topics. System design questions are largely geared toward data engineering roles. While maintaining a broad perspective, prioritize preparation for data engineering, even if technically the title is software engineer.