The 15 Most Asked Questions in a Airbnb Interview
After COVID-19, when tourism almost ended, everybody thought it would be all downhill for Airbnb. Instead, it came out stronger and now has more than 150 billion users worldwide. Such big companies have challenging criteria for hiring. Especially if you’re prepping for Airbnb coding interview questions, they might not look like a piece of cake for you.
Interview preparation is the most crucial part of a software developer’s life. We’ve seen many talented engineers failing the interviews because they did not prepare well for them. But with the right guidance and path, you can definitely succeed in an Airbnb coding interview. Let’s start with some of the most common Airbnb interview questions to help you practice well.
Arrays
Arrays are fundamental data structures that allow for efficient storage and retrieval of elements in a sequential manner. The interviewee assesses the candidates on arrays to ensure they grasp core programming concepts. It also allows them to set their problem-solving skills, algorithmic thinking, and ability to manipulate and process data efficiently.
Move zeros to the left
Problem Statement
Given an integer array, move all elements that are equal to 0 to the left while maintaining the order of other elements in the array.
Merge overlapping intervals
Problem Statement
Given a list of intervals, merge all the overlapping intervals to produce a list that has only mutually exclusive intervals.
Linked Lists
If you’re going to give a coding interview in a product-based company (like Airbnb or Facebook), go through linked list concepts again because interviewers are more likely to ask questions about linked lists.
- To evaluate your problem-solving skills
- To demonstrate your ability to decompose complex tasks
- To assess how candidates will deal with empty lists, handle loops, and manage pointers.
They do so for the following reasons:
Add two integers
Problem Statement
Given the head pointers of two linked lists where each linked list represents an integer number (each node is a digit), add them and return the resulting linked list.
Merge two sorted linked lists
Problem Statement
Given two sorted linked lists, merge them so that the resulting linked list is also sorted.
Trees
Trees questions in Airbnb coding interviews help identify candidates with a strong foundation in data structures and algorithmic reasoning and help evaluate their ability to organize and traverse data efficiently. For that reason, look at the questions below to practice well for your Airbnb interview questions.
Convert binary tree to doubly linked list
Problem Statement
Convert a binary tree to a doubly linked list so that the order of the doubly linked list is the same as an in-order traversal of the binary tree. After conversion, the left pointer of the node should be pointing to the previous node in the doubly linked list, and the right pointer should be pointing to the next node in the doubly linked list.
Level order traversal of binary tree
Problem Statement
Given a binary tree and a number ‘S’, find all paths from root-to-leaf such that the sum of all the node values of each path equals ‘S’.
Strings
Just like arrays, strings are also one of the core programming concepts. It is crucial to have a strong grasp of strings to perform well in your Airbnb coding interview.
Some commonly asked questions that can help you prepare well are mentioned below.
Reverse words in a sentence
Problem Statement
Reverse the order of words in a given sentence (an array of characters).
String segmentation
Problem Statement
Given a dictionary of words and an input string tell whether the input string can be completely segmented into dictionary words.
Dynamic Programming
Dynamic programming is a powerful technique that helps solve complex problems, including overlapping subproblems. Big companies like Airbnb are looking for more than just expert programmers. They are focusing on efficient solution providers, and dynamic programming questions help them evaluate which candidate will be well-suited for the position.
Find maximum single sell profit
Problem Statement
Given a list of daily stock prices (integers for simplicity), return the buy and sell prices for making the maximum profit. We need to maximize the single buy/sell profit. If we can't make any profit, we'll try to minimize the loss.
Math and Stats
If you’re applying for a data scientist position, there are great chances you will face math and statistics questions in your Oracle coding interview. Mathematical and statistical knowledge is crucial for various data-driven tasks, including data analysis, modeling, and optimization. So it is important to get your hands dirty and practice well.
Calculate the power of a number
Problem Statement
Given a double, 'x', and an integer, 'n', write a function to calculate 'x' raised to the power 'n'.
Backtracking
Backtracking is another common topic when it comes to Airbnb coding interview questions. There are multiple types of backtracking questions, such as:
- Decision-making questions: Finding a feasible solution
- Optimization questions: Identifying the best solution
- Enumeration questions: Identifying all possible solutions to a problem
For practice, here’s a quick backtracking question for you.
Find all possible subsets
Problem Statement
You are given a set of integers and you have to find all the possible subsets of this set of integers.
Graphs
Graph questions are included in the coding interviews to assess the capabilities of solving real-world problems. Like all FAANG companies, Airbnb interview questions also have graph questions to evaluate the candidate’s capabilities.
Clone a directed graph
Problem Statement
There is a dictionary containing words from an alien language for which we don’t know the ordering of the characters. Write a method to find the correct order of characters in the alien language.
Design
The Oracle coding interview often asks design questions to check the candidate’s ability to design robust solutions and scalable systems. Design questions allow interviewers to assess your performance architecture and technical infrastructure abilities.
Serialize / deserialize binary tree
Problem Statement
Serialize a binary tree to a file and then deserialize it back to a tree so that the original and the deserialized trees are identical.
Sorting and Searching
Sorting and searching questions are asked to analyze a candidate’s understanding of different levels of sorting and searching. Some important topics that you must have a strong grasp on are:
- Merge sort
- Quick sort
- Binary Search and more
To practice your sorting and searching skills, solve the questions below:
Find the High and Low index
Problem Statement
Given a sorted array of integers, return the low and high index of the given key. Return -1 if not found. The array length can be in the millions with many duplicates.
Search rotated array
Problem Statement
Search for a given number in a sorted array that has been rotated by some arbitrary number.
