Sefism is free for learners. We are here to help you grow, one step at a time.Join for free
Sefism.
Logistics & mobilityProduct company

Airbnb

Runs an online marketplace where people book short stays and experiences hosted by others around the world.

Not known3 stage process documentedFounded 2008
Headquarters

San Francisco, California, United States

Headcount

5,000 and up

5,000 or more people
Work model

Not known

Hiring

Not known

Not enough signal to say. Check the careers page directly.
Where to apply

Ask for a referral to Airbnb

A referral only means something if the person giving it can actually speak to your work. I will refer you where I know someone on the inside and your profile genuinely fits the role, and I will tell you plainly when I cannot. Either way you get an answer, and a straight one.

  • I read every request. A reply takes a few days, sometimes longer.
  • I will not refer someone for a role their profile does not fit. It wastes your time and costs me the contact.
  • Where I cannot refer you, I will say why, and point you at the way in that does work.
  • Nothing you send here is shared with anyone without you agreeing to it first.

If you found the opening, paste it. It tells me which team you mean.

A Drive, Dropbox or personal-site link is fine. Make sure it opens without a request for access, or I cannot read it.

At least a short paragraph. This is what I would be putting my name behind, so specifics beat adjectives.

Comma separated, up to six. Things you would be happy to be tested on.

How they hire

Airbnb says it gets around 15,000 applications a month and that the process may include a test, a video or an event. Candidates report feedback within about a week of the onsite.

  1. 1

    Recruiter screen, 30 minutes

    Reported
    Recruiter screen30 minutesRemote

    Background, motivation for Airbnb and light behavioural questions.

  2. 2

    Technical coding interview, 45 minutes

    Reported
    Live coding45 minutesRemote

    A data structures and algorithms problem. Pseudocode is not accepted.

  3. 3

    Onsite loop

    Reported +1
    Panel interview

    About five interviews in a day, including more coding, a system design session and a behavioural conversation, meeting several people from the team.

    CodingSystem designCore values

What comes up

Recurring themes from candidate accounts, not a question bank. Nobody is served by leaked question lists, least of all you in the interview.

  • Clean, working code

    Reported

    Candidates report solutions must run correctly and be tested, not sketched.

  • Core values

    Reported

    Behavioural rounds focus on how you work with others, handle ambiguity and take ownership.

Worth reading before you apply

From the Sefism resource library, matched to the rounds above.

Roadmap
Coding Interview Playbook

A structured learning path through coding interview preparation that brings together data structures and algorithms fundamentals, recursion and the pattern-based approach to coding questions in one order. It totals 77 chapters and 1,054 lessons, with quizzes, flashcards and a certificate. Use it when you have plenty of material but no clear plan for what to study first.

  • Job search
  • DSA
  • Career
Design Gurus · Interview Prep · 3 to 6 months
SubscriptionDetails
Roadmap
FAANG Coding Interview Roadmap

A bundle of five company-specific question courses covering the problems most often reported from Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Oracle coding rounds, each split into easy, medium and hard sets with worked solutions. It suits candidates who already know the core patterns and have a loop booked at one of these companies, and want to rehearse on the questions those interviewers are known to ask.

  • Job search
  • DSA
  • Career
Design Gurus · Interview Prep · 3 to 4 months · Advanced
SubscriptionDetails
Course
Grokking Tech Salary Negotiations

A practical course on negotiating compensation in tech, from preparing and building a strategy to specific tactics, the full package beyond base salary, handling multiple offers and asking for a raise. It has tailored sections for fresh graduates and experienced engineers. It suits anyone with an offer coming, and anyone who has ever accepted the first number out of discomfort.

  • Career
  • Job search
Design Gurus · Career Growth · 1 week
SubscriptionDetails
Roadmap
System Design Interview Playbook

A learning path that bundles five courses into one sequence for system design preparation: System Design Fundamentals, Grokking the System Design Interview, Advanced System Design Interview Volume II, Grokking Microservices Design Patterns and Grokking Design Patterns for Engineers and Managers. Together they add up to 76 chapters and 666 lessons. It suits engineers who want a complete, ordered curriculum instead of assembling one from scattered posts.

  • System design
  • Job search
  • Career
Design Gurus · System Design · 2 to 4 months
SubscriptionDetails
Cheat sheet
Sefism Job Search Cheat Sheet

A revision reference for every step of a software job search, in 8 chapters and 55 concepts: target role and level, resume and keyword mirroring, proof of work, referrals and reply rate, what technical and behavioural rounds look for, the parts of an offer (total compensation, RSUs, options, vesting and cliff) and polite negotiation. It suits anyone in an active search and follows the Sefism Job search roadmap chapter by chapter. Use it to revise after each stage and to read an offer properly before you reply.

  • Career
  • Job search
Sefism · Career Growth · Reference
Platform
Hacker101

Hacker101 is HackerOne's free web security training hub, combining video lessons with a hands-on capture-the-flag exercise, aimed at both programmers curious about bug bounty work and more experienced security professionals. It is entirely free with no account paywall, and pairs naturally with reading HackerOne's own vulnerability disclosure guidelines before attempting any real-world bug bounty programme. Bugcrowd runs a similarly free alternative, Bugcrowd University, worth knowing about even though this entry focuses on Hacker101.

  • Career
  • Job search
  • Testing
HackerOne · Other · Beginner
Browse the whole library

What it pays

Nothing collected for this company yet, and nothing worth guessing at. A made-up range is worse than no range because people negotiate against it.

Add to the Airbnb page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.


Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

Universities they recruit from

No sourced university links yet. A campus drive, a career fair appearance or an internship partnership is what puts a university here.

Add to the Airbnb page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.


Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

Sources

Whole profile last checked 2026-09-22.

Interviewed at Airbnb? Fill in what changed.

Processes change, rounds get added, tests get replaced. If what you went through was different from what is on this page, tell me and I will update it.

Want me to refer you here?

Send me the role, your CV and a few honest paragraphs on why you fit it. Where I know someone inside and your profile matches, I will make the introduction. Where I cannot, I will tell you why and point you at the route that does work. You get an answer either way.

Ask for a referral to Airbnb

A referral only means something if the person giving it can actually speak to your work. I will refer you where I know someone on the inside and your profile genuinely fits the role, and I will tell you plainly when I cannot. Either way you get an answer, and a straight one.

  • I read every request. A reply takes a few days, sometimes longer.
  • I will not refer someone for a role their profile does not fit. It wastes your time and costs me the contact.
  • Where I cannot refer you, I will say why, and point you at the way in that does work.
  • Nothing you send here is shared with anyone without you agreeing to it first.

If you found the opening, paste it. It tells me which team you mean.

A Drive, Dropbox or personal-site link is fine. Make sure it opens without a request for access, or I cannot read it.

At least a short paragraph. This is what I would be putting my name behind, so specifics beat adjectives.

Comma separated, up to six. Things you would be happy to be tested on.

Add to the Airbnb page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.


Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

Work with me

Stuck on something specific?

Writing only gets you so far. If you want an answer to your situation rather than the general case, book a session and we will work through it together. Sessions are free for approved Sefism members, and a few slots open each week.