I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at SmarterTravel in Oct 2025
Interview
HR reached out to me. I did one on-site around which consisted of coding, system with a senior engineer; followed up by behavioral questions from another tech lead. This lasted 2 hours
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They heavily hinted at their salary range — which I pressed I wanted the top end. After that, they rejected me saying headcount was full yet still reached out to me again a few months later asking if I want to do the process all over again. No negotiations from their side
2 hours with lead software engineer and VP of engineering of the company. Discussing the fundamental of how the modern web works, the internet, system design, and light leet coding.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
From the start what happens when a user visit a website by domain name on the browser?
I had 4 long rounds of interviews before they decided to tell me that they needed to pause on the hiring and work on their internal processes, which is a lame excuse. I found out that, to no surprise, they were still desperately trying to fill the role not too shortly afterwards. Was a shame as I had fantastic conversations with each team member but they sounded like they were going to try to finally try to get it together after separating from TripAdvisor and being idle for the longest time.