Get a Job at DoorDash: Interview Process and Top Questions

DoorDash is a well-known company, because of its popular food delivery service, but DoorDash is also a great place to work. DoorDash is committed to flexible work—offering onsite, hybrid, and remote opportunities. DoorDash also offers internships and entry-level roles in its San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles offices.

Interested in joining DoorDash to support its mission of empowering and growing local economies? Below, we break down the DoorDash interview process and top questions you should expect to answer.

What is the DoorDash interview process?

DoorDash has a standard interview process, very similar to other top tech companies. As a first step, expect a phone call with a recruiter, although this may be skipped for entry-level positions. Then, technical roles encounter an online assessment. Lastly, all candidates get a virtual final round, divided into 3–4 loops of varying interviews, depending on the domain. All roles end with a behavioral loop, assessing your fit with its culture—one of the most important rounds at DoorDash.

The DoorDash interview process typically takes about one month and involves:

• Recruiter phone screen, 
• Technical screen,
• Final round.

Recruiter phone screen

The first step of DoorDash’s interview process is a 30-minute phone screen with a DoorDash recruiter. This is a standard recruiter interview, similar to other companies of the industry. Prepare to talk through your resume and answer questions about your background as it pertains to the role requirements. Come prepared with a few questions of your own about the role, team, or company to demonstrate your excitement. Also, ask any questions you have about the rest of the interview process.

Technical screen

DoorDash’s technical screen is a one-hour coding challenge. The online assessment consists of two medium to hard-level coding questions—typically data structures and algorithms—on HackerRank. We list more specific coding topics that you can expect at DoorDash below, in the coding interview loop section. 

PMs get a 45-minute interview with a DoorDash PM or the hiring manager as their technical screen. This interview broadly gauges your product sense, problem-solving skills, product prioritization, and root cause analysis.

Final rounds

The final round at DoorDash is a virtual interview of 3–4 loops. Each round is 60–75 minutes, usually with at least 15-minute breaks in between. Expect to encounter a behavioral round and several rounds assessing domain knowledge for the role.

Top DoorDash Interview Questions

Behavioral

• Why do you want to work at DoorDash?
• Tell me about a recent program you worked on.
• Tell me about your biggest failure.
• Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it and what did you learn?

Coding

• Find the closest number in a sorted array.
• Build a calendar with user schedule dependencies.
• Build a feature in an iOS app.
• Write a feature that pulls from an API and displays a list.

System design

• Design a system to schedule jobs in a distributed environment.
• Design Doordash's Item Order review and rating system.
• Design Uber Eats.
• Design Google Maps for kids.

Machine learning

• Describe an ML project you worked on in the past.
• Describe linear regression.
• Explain “Training" and “Testing” data.
• Identify when a model needs refreshed.
• ML concepts

Data science

• How would you optimize the delivery app for drivers?
• How would you improve DoorDash's cold food problem?
• Write a query to get all of the top orders in LA.
• Food orders are down in LA. How would you diagnose this issue?

Product management 

• Tell me about how you brought a product to market.
• You're a PM at Ticketmaster. How would you identify and solve the biggest problem in the post-booking experience?
• How would you enhance the experience for Airbnb users after a negative booking?
• What's your favorite product and why?
• As a PM for Instacart, what potential issues do you foresee after a customer places an order?
• You're a PM for Spotify. How would you increase revenue 5x in the next five years?

DoorDash Interview Loops Explained

Behavioral

The behavioral round, usually with a hiring manager or senior team member, at DoorDash is an important one to prepare for. DoorDash is known for its culture and great working environment, so it wants new employees who will fit its culture and add to it. Prepare by getting to know DoorDash’s core values, and before your interview, write out or practice talking through examples from your past experiences that exemplify these values.

Two important parts of DoorDash’s culture to familiarize yourself with ahead of time are DoorDash’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Learn more about DoorDash’s effort toward belonging on DoorDash’s Belonging page. DoorDash also requires all employees to make four Dasher food deliveries per year, so all employees understand the product and company. 

Coding

Software engineering at DoorDash is essential to building and maintaining the company’s website and app. Most SWE roles work on the backend infrastructure of DoorDash’s three-sided marketplace, but there are also roles that work on mobile and web products, as well as with data and machine learning. Look into DoorDash’s engineering blog to learn more about its engineering teams and current ventures to prepare for interviews.

The coding round at DoorDash is similar to the tech screen online assessment. Interviewers assess your coding and problem-solving, as well as your communication. To prepare, practice medium and hard-level algorithms, data structures, and object-oriented questions.

Common coding topics include the following:

• Graphs
• Stacks and queues
• Lists
• Sets
• Arrays
• Hash maps
• Heaps
• Linked lists
• Recursion
• Search and sort

You may also get a domain knowledge round about your previous experience, where you walk the interviewer through a previous project and describe why it did, or didn’t, work out. DoorDash want candidates who learned from their past experiences, whether from failures or successes.

System design

The system design round at DoorDash is a standard system design interview. After receiving the problem, ask clarifying questions about the requirements to ensure you fully understand it. Then, using a whiteboard tool, start with a high-level outline and go through the components piece by piece. Interviewers expect candidates to develop a high-level design within the first 20-25 minutes. Consider addressing the following questions:

• How can you tell if the system is working?
• Are there any bottlenecks in the design?
• How do the components work together?
• How will the system scale?

Next, explain your justifications and your reasoning for this design, and discuss any trade-offs you considered. Remember, you can develop and change your design in real time. Lastly, describe your solution, and consider addressing the following:

• General operation patterns of the system,
• Reliability and scalability,
• Production quality concerns,
• What metrics would you monitor,
• How you would execute this design,
• Observability.

Remember to talk out loud to explain your decision-making process and demonstrate who you are as a candidate. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and make sure to leave time for the interviewers to ask you questions, too.

Machine learning

DoorDash’s machine learning round involves solving a case study about a practical business problem, as well as a deep dive into your past ML projects. The case study interview assesses your problem-solving skills, and your ability to build, test, and deploy ML models. To get ready for your ML interview at DoorDash, study ML coding questions, brush up on the ML interview loop, and research the details of DoorDash’s products, so you’re ready for real-world case studies.

Data science

The data science tech screen at DoorDash is two parts: 30 minutes spent on solving four SQL coding questions on CoderPad, and 30 minutes on a product case study about a real-world business challenge at DoorDash.

The data science final round is more product case interviews, assessing your product knowledge and product sense. Expect follow-up questions, and prepare by brushing up on your data science case studies skills. Also, familiarize yourself with DoorDash’s products, current business ventures, and challenges it faces.

Common data science topics: 

• SQL queries
• Window functions
• Business metrics
• Time-series analysis
• Temporary tables

Product management 

The product management round at DoorDash is a multi-part loop, of 30-45 minutes each. Research the team you're interviewing with to prepare for team-specific domain questions.

For your product sense loop, you get a case study ahead of time, where you're asked to discuss 1-3 products. Approach the problems methodically, state all your assumptions, and offer a few solutions, tying back to user problems, other products, and the broader company mission.

In the product prioritization loop, you get a problem statement, and you must prioritize the solutions to the problem based on input from the interviewer. This loop assesses your problem-solving skills, so understand the goal of the problem first, then prioritize the criteria based on a variety of factors, keeping that goal as your "north star" for the problem. Be methodical, and show that you make data-driven decisions.

For the retrospective loop, you need to share examples from your past experience to demonstrate your skills in product management and project execution. This is more of a behavioral round, so consider using the STAR framework, and make sure to tie your anecdotes back to DoorDash’s values.

DoorDash Interview Tips

DoorDash values culture fit. 

To get the job at DoorDash, you must prove you fit into its award-winning, caring culture. Make sure you align with DoorDash’s mission and values, then broadcast a signal of those same values in all of your interview rounds—show off your skills in leadership with anecdotes from past experiences, innovation in technical interviews, growth mindset with examples of ways you learned from mistakes in past roles, and commitment to belonging with how you help and care about teammates. 

DoorDash hires in six main career areas. 

Learn about DoorDash’s teams and division of work: DashMart, Design, Engineering, IT, Sales, Strategy & Operations on DoorDash’s Career Areas page before you apply or begin interviewing. By getting to know what different teams focus on, you can cater your application and interview answers to that specific team. 

Know DoorDash inside and out.

Familiarize yourself with DoorDash’s products and software ahead of your interview, so you can answer practical questions. DoorDash’s employee policy, which requires all employees to make four Dasher food deliveries per year, proves how serious it is about all of its employees fully understanding the product.

FAQs

How competitive are DoorDash interviews?

DoorDash’s interviews are competitive and challenging, especially for technical roles, which get medium to hard-level difficulty of questions in the technical screen, as well as the final rounds. DoorDash’s behavioral interviews are also competitive, because of its high standard for culture fit.

How should I prepare for my interview at DoorDash? 

• Familiarize yourself with interview questions asked at DoorDash.
• Study up on data structure and algorithm coding questions ahead of DoorDash’s medium to hard-level difficulty technical rounds.
• Practice system design questions. 
• Read about DoorDash’s mission and values and prepare answers that exemplify how you share similar values.
• Do a dry-run with peer mock interviews or coaching.

Does DoorDash hire students or new grads? 

Yes! DoorDash offers 12-week internships and entry-level opportunities for new grads based out of its offices in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles. Learn more about these opportunities and browse currently open internships and entry-level roles on DoorDash’s University Careers page. 

More DoorDash Interview Prep Resources

Exponent has extensive resources to prepare you to feel your best when it comes time for your interview at DoorDash:

💬 Brush up on interview questions asked at DoorDash

📖 Read through these role-specific DoorDash interview guides