Airbnb Interview Process: What Software Engineers Should Expect

The Airbnb interview process, as its careers FAQ describes it, may involve taking a test, making a video or joining an event, depending on the position, and then meeting several people on the current team. Airbnb does not name its engineering rounds. Candidates report a recruiter call, a coding screen, then final rounds of coding, system design and core values interviews. You can rehearse them in an Airbnb mock interview.

Process at a glance

Checked November 2026. The first three rows are from Airbnb's careers FAQ, read on November 2, 2026. The last two are what candidates report, not Airbnb's own statement. Airbnb publishes no round lengths or total timeline.

What Airbnb says, and what it does not

Airbnb's FAQ gives the interview process one answer: "Just like working here, the interview process is both rigorous and fun!" It adds that you should have "every opportunity to ask the questions needed to make sure the position is right for you." We read its careers site and a current software engineering posting, searched its tech blog, and found no page that names the rounds or their lengths for engineers.

So the shape below comes from candidates and former employees. Candidates commonly describe a recruiter call and a coding screen, then a set of interviews mixing coding, system design and Airbnb's core values, and some also mention a code review round. Former employees have written about core values interviews as a separate part of the loop, though some of those accounts are several years old. Treat all of this as reported: it varies by team and level, and your recruiter can tell you what applies to you.

What each round tests

Core values

This is the part Airbnb does publish. Its careers site lists four core values, each with one line:

• → Champion the Mission: "We're united in partnership with our community to create connection, which enables belonging."
• → Be a Host: "We're caring, open, and encouraging to everyone we work with."
• → Embrace the Adventure: "We're driven by open curiosity, hopeful resilience, and the belief that every person can grow."
• → Be a Cereal Entrepreneur: "We're determined and creative in transforming our bold ambitions into reality."

Airbnb does not say how it assesses these. Have one true story for each, about something you personally did, and expect follow-up questions on why it mattered to you.

Coding

Candidates report live coding, which Airbnb does not describe. Its own writing does show what it cares about in code: a 2014 post on its tech blog says code review spread through its engineering team until "now it is just how we do development." That post is old, but the habit is worth showing anyway: name your variables well, test as you go, and read your own code back as if you were reviewing it.

System design

Candidates report a design round, which Airbnb does not describe. This part is our advice, not Airbnb's: its product is a two-sided marketplace where a night can be sold only once, so be ready to say how your design keeps inventory correct when two people try to book at once, and what you would cache without showing a guest stale availability.

Test, video or event

Airbnb says these depend on the position, without saying which positions. If you get one, ask your recruiter what it covers and how it feeds into the rest of the process.

What else Airbnb's FAQ tells you

• → You do not have to use the product, but it helps. Asked whether you must be a host or a guest, Airbnb answers "No. But it helps!" and encourages you to create a profile and spend time getting to know the site and its story.
• → Do not count on feedback. Because of the volume of applications, Airbnb says you likely won't receive personalized feedback. Get yours from practice instead.
• → Check your right to work. Airbnb says it mostly considers applicants already legally able to work in the job's country, and that visa sponsorship is very rare.
• → Watch for scams. Airbnb says its recruiters write only from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com addresses and will never ask you to pay a fee or share bank details.

How to prepare

• ✓ Read a listing as an engineer. Airbnb asks you to get to know the site. Notice the calendar, the price breakdown and the cancellation policy, because each hides a real engineering problem.
• ✓ Practice date ranges and overlaps. Availability, pricing and booking conflicts all reduce to them. The intervals guide covers the pattern.
• ✓ Design for correctness first. Work through what happens when a payment fails halfway through a booking. Data modeling is a good place to start, and a system design mock interview tests whether you can explain it.
• ✓ Write values stories, not slogans. Use the STAR method, and include one about someone you helped succeed, since Be a Host is about how you treat everyone you work with.
• ✓ Ask questions back. Airbnb says it wants you to have every opportunity to ask yours. Prepare some about the team you would join.
• ✓ Compare a similar marketplace. Uber is also a two-sided marketplace, and it publishes much more about its process; see the Uber interview process.

Practice with Devana

Devana's question bank holds 36 Airbnb questions as of November 2, 2026, written to reflect how Airbnb interviews: its products, its published values and the round types candidates describe. They are our questions, not leaked ones. How they divide up says a lot about where to spend your preparation.

18 of the 36 are rated hard. The topics that come up most often are Databases, Machine Learning, Systems Design, APIs, Scalability and Security. To see how this set compares with the rest, read what the whole question bank shows, counted.

Our Airbnb questions center on the booking problem: preventing two guests from booking the same nights, merging a host's availability rules, working out the total price of a stay and applying a cancellation policy. The design set covers reservations, map search and payments between guests and hosts, and the behavioral set asks about building for someone unlike you and caring about a detail nobody asked about.

Frequently asked questions