Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Yelp with 2.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 50% positive. To compare, the company-average is 55.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 19 days to get hired, when considering 318 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Yelp overall takes an average of 18 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Yelp as a Software Engineer according to 318 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 46%
One on one interview: 18%
Skills test: 16%
Presentation: 9%
Background check: 4%
Personality test: 2%
Drug test: 2%
Other: 2%
Group panel interview: 1%
IQ intelligence test: 1%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Yelp in Jul 2014
Interview
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 why Yelp, about my background , etc. I was then given a coding challenge to be completed by the end of the day. Thankfully the coding challenge was really easy (FizzBizz) and I complete it a few minutes.
I was then moved on to a Skype interview with a 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 me I didn't know. Was again asked about why yelp etc, We moved on to a coding question about load balancing of servers and 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 a really basic interview though surprisingly I was passed over to the next round.
Next round was 2 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, but also many other typical behavioral questions. I was also asked about Yelp products,how I think I should improve them, etc. I thought I did pretty well in the final rounds so 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.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What issues do you Yelp has now?
What new products should Yelp come out with?
Leetcode style interview online via link, then a 1 on 1 technical interview with a lead developer also online where you can ask questions about the role and working at yelp, later more in depth technical tests and finally references and psicological tests.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Talk about the project you are the most proud of, why do you want to work at yelp
Very intense. 4 back to back 45 minute interviews. One behaviour and four technical interviews.
Nice people but got the vibe everyone was happy with the work as it wasn’t too challenging.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Yelp (Toronto, ON) in May 2025
Interview
Around 3 different rounds with a mix of behavioural and technical. Last round features on-site which lasts the whole day, where there are 2 dsa rounds, 1 system design round and 1 recruiter round to end the day.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Walk us through one project you have done, and some of the challenges you encountered while working on this project