I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Booking.com (Amsterdam) in Jan 2021
Interview
The process is really seamless and organized. Your recruiter is your best friend. I applied via linkedIn and got hacker rank test link. It had 5 questions( 1 easy , 2 medium , 2 Hard ). followed by screening call, then one telephonic interview.
After that 3 on-site interviews - 1 DS/Algo , system design and managerial round.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Hacker Rank test - Questions were around DS usages
Telephonic round again DS question and one bug fix.
Onsite -
1) Classic dp travel the matrix from top left to bottom right in efficient way.
2) System design - Design a mailing system, which can send trillions of mail efficiently as per schedule
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Booking.com (Amsterdam) in Feb 2026
Interview
Consists of an initial logic programming test for gatekeeping followed by actual platform/techstack specific tests and technical questions. If you get through the initial test you get informed every step of the way whether you pass or not. The assignments are not terribly complicated but you will need to be prepared for the technical back and forth.
I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Booking.com (Hyderābād) in Apr 2022
Interview
The interview process was very smooth and well paced. The interaction with the recruiters, interviewers was very friendly, organic. They were very cooperative and helpful throughout the interview process. slot booking method was very good and they would also provide right resources to go through to prepare.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Interview was mostly about leaning about your thinking and approach towards a problem. How do you come up about handling a problem related to scale, are you able to modularize your components.
There were 3 rounds :
1) Round one was simple Java based question, not much about algorithms, data structures. It was more about coming up with right states as Enums, designing right processing flow, handling edge cases.
2) This was system design round about developing some component which may be used in booking.com. It was more about handling large scales, retries, failures, external system integration etc.
3) Third round was cultural fit round to evaluate how you handle pressure, failure, team etc.
The interview process was very smooth and productive. I was so relaxed during the whole process because the interviewers were so friendly. The interviewers were so precise but at the same time, they were always ready to help.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It consists of an online coding session then a system design question and at the end some behavioral and business questions.
Software Engineer, Backend applicants have rated the interview process at Booking.com with 3.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 75% positive. To compare, the company-average is 59% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer, Backend roles take an average of 27 days to get hired, when considering 8 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Booking.com overall takes an average of 25 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Booking.com as a Software Engineer, Backend according to 8 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 39%
One on one interview: 22%
Skills test: 17%
Presentation: 11%
Drug test: 6%
Background check: 6%
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