I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Tripadvisor (Newton, MA) in Jul 2010
Interview
This company has put me through the worst hiring process I ever experienced. The process dragged on for weeks. They did a phone screen and two rounds of face to face. Throughout the whole process I was forced to solve brainteasers and white-board problems for EVERY person I spoke with. Furthermore, some puzzles had no solution (according to the interviewer), others had nothing to do with software development.
Throughout the entire process I was constantly reminded what a great company they were, how many brilliant people worked there, and what a huge favor they were doing me by letting my talentless self interview there.
After going through 7 or 8 interviewers over the course of two sessions, I got an offer, which was far lower than what I asked for. When I politely declined, their head of technical recruiting (not going to name him but there is only one) proceeded to insult me and try to strong-arm me into taking their offer - incredibly unprofessional. Needless to say I still declined. That was 2010.
I have recently talked to them again - a face-to-face with a hiring manager. While he was fully aware of the offer they have given me in the past, he still proceeded to give me a whiteboard problem and after I solved it, proceeded to tell me that I would have to go through the whole interview process from scratch again and that my added experience didn't matter and they will still only consider me for the same position as they had 2 years earlier. After that, I had a brief chat with the same technical recruiter, who insulted me the last time and who apparently still works there. He proceeded to project the same smug attitude and I left with a bad taste in my mouth. Needless to say, I will not have anything to do with this company ever again. Your mileage may vary, but I did not get an impression that they have a good idea about how to attract quality engineers and I would not want to work there.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Write a program that given 4 coin denominations and a dollar amount finds the best way to express that amount using the coins given.
I.e. you have coins with denominations of 1c, 7c, 13c,19c and you have to express $2.12 with the least number of coins.
There is always a 1c coin but the other 3 are arbitrary.
I applied online. I interviewed at Tripadvisor in Feb 2026
Interview
Good, although, sometimes struggling in providing you information about when interview will be leaving you wondering. Technical interview was good, I went into in uncertain as I wasn't sure about if I could solve a challenge. Recruiter was very nice and informative as well. Gutted to not progress onto next stages but they layout whole process for you and provide with you with feedback even if you fail the technical interview.
I hope to re-apply soon when I become more confident with approaching technical assessments cause these do not correlate with your day to day duties as SE.
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. As our company continues to grow, we are appreciative of comments that highlight our strengths as well as areas we can improve upon.
A few rounds of technical interviews and hr was done . A technical test was sent to me and an online live coding session was also set . The overall process was good
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. As our company continues to grow, we are appreciative of employee comments that highlight our strengths as well as areas we can improve upon.
Looks like a demanding process. I didn’t get through the initial stage interview due to not having great answers for the screening questions so I can’t tell much on what comes later
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. As our company continues to grow, we are appreciative of employee comments that highlight our strengths as well as areas we can improve upon.