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 1 day. I interviewed at Yelp in May 2011
Interview
I got an email fairly quickly from yelp, wanting to set up a phone interview. I wanted to get into the mobile development section of their software engineering team. The interviewer was a female, and she said that even though I was applying for the mobile developer position (iphone/idevice) that they had already hired people for that position, but continued the interview anyways saying that I might fit into one of their other departments (like back end server). She was friendly, and seemed to know what she was talking about, if not she had a very thorough piece of paper in front of her.
She said that they are completely unix/linux environment, so know your unix commands (I didn't which is probably why I was declined) She also said that they code primarily in python, so i would guess be prepared to know that. Since I am mainly a mobile application developer, I don't have much experience in python. She asked how you would find the number of lines in a file, or how to find the processing power of a particular program. Another question asked about how a domain name gets mapped to a server on the internet (didn't know that one either). The only reason that I rated the interview as difficult is more than likely due to my low level of skill in topics that are outside mobile development.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
How many bytes in a 32 bit operating system architecture?
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