Dropbox was founded in 2007 to simplify file sharing, but its mission today, "to design a more enlightened way of working," communicates its broader vision and range of products.
Dropbox is now focused on simplifying and increasing productivity with products that include productivity tools, content collaboration, file sharing, and cloud storage.
Dropbox is an attractive place to work.
Its supportive culture, empowering management style, high salaries, and remote-first culture make it a great workplace.
Dropbox also offers opportunities for students, new grads, and those from non-traditional backgrounds or who are making a career shift.
Below, we summarize the Dropbox interview process and the questions you should expect to answer.
- Dropbox interview questions
- Dropbox role-specific interview guides
- Dropbox interview coaches
What is the Dropbox interview process?
Dropbox's interview process is pretty straightforward compared to other top tech companies.
The Dropbox interview process typically takes about one month and involves:
- Recruiter phone screen,
- Technical screen or hiring manager screen,
- Final round.
Learn more about the—slightly different—interview process for internship, new grad, and apprenticeship programs on Dropbox's Emerging Talent page.
Recruiter phone screen
The first screening is a typical recruiter phone call.
You can expect to talk to a recruiter for about half an hour, review your resume and past experience, and answer a few behavioral questions.
Research beforehand to align your behavioral answers to Dropbox's core values.
Technical screen
The technical screen at Dropbox comes right after the recruiter call.
Technical roles will receive a coding challenge on CodeSignal. Expect 1-2 challenges, and be prepared for Dropbox to assess your code structure and flexibility.
Hiring manager screen
Non-technical roles, like strategy and operations, get a hiring manager screen instead of a technical challenge.
Expect a phone or video call with behavioral questions and more in-depth questions about your experience and technical abilities.
Practice explaining big past projects you've worked on, and try to anticipate follow-up questions.
Prepare a few questions about organizational structure, culture, and the role.
Final rounds
Dropbox's final round of interviews usually takes place virtually. It lasts 1–2 days and consists of 4–5 rounds, each about one hour.
The specific rounds vary greatly depending on the type of role, but no matter the role, each candidate has a behavioral round to check cultural fit.
Dropbox recommends preparing for your interviews by reflecting on past experiences beforehand.
We suggest creating your personal story bank so you can come into the interview with clear examples to support your statements.
Brainstorm stories with traits you think your interviewer might ask about.
Top Dropbox Interview Questions
These interview questions are based on actual questions candidates have received during Dropbox interviews.
Behavioral
- Tell me about yourself.
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn?
- Tell me about the project you're most proud of.
- Tell me about a technical challenge that you've overcome.
- Tell me about a time when you solved a problem innovatively.
Coding
- Minimum Window Substring.
- Find duplicate files in a file system.
- You have the value of a stock for the next n days. Given that you can only buy or sell at most 1 share each day, maximize your profit after n days.
System design
- Design Dropbox.
- Design a file-sharing system.
- Design an API.
Machine learning
- Design a recommender system feature for Dropbox that suggests files to users when they open the app on their phone.
- Given a large dataset of Dropbox user activity, how would you design an algorithm to identify similar users based on file behavior?
- Describe a situation where your machine learning model under-performed.
- How did you diagnose the issue and iterate on the model to improve its performance?
- Tell us about when you encountered a complex dataset while building a machine learning model. How did you clean and prepare the data for optimal results?
- Describe the process of hyperparameter tuning and the common techniques used for it.
Data science
- Design an A/B test for a new feature.
- SQL and Python data manipulation
Data engineering
- How would you build a data model for Dropbox?
Product management
- Estimate Airbnb's revenue.
- Design an educational product for Meta (Facebook).
- How would you design an experiment to validate the success of a new landing page?
- What are some common biases that might invalidate an experiment?
- Estimate the total storage used by Dropbox.
Program management
Dropbox Interview Loops Explained
Behavioral
Every candidate at Dropbox gets a behavioral final round, which checks culture fit.
Expect a focus on how you collaborate and communicate within a team, overcome challenges, problem-solve, and adapt to change. You'll probably be assessed on leadership and growth, too, even if you aren't interviewing for a leadership or management role.
Dropbox wants all candidates to demonstrate that they want to learn and take ownership of tasks.
Coding
The final rounds at Dropbox include a coding challenge similar to the tech screen but with medium- and sometimes hard-level questions.
Roles such as software engineers typically have two coding final rounds back-to-back, resulting in a two-hour session. Interviewers will be looking for efficient problem-solving.
Be sure to talk through each question as you solve it so the interviewers understand your thought process and optimize your code if asked.
Topics usually covered are data structures, algorithms, arrays, dynamic programming, and practical problems that you'd work on day-to-day at Dropbox, like file-sharing architecture, content delivery, and file metadata optimization.
System design
Dropbox's system design final round is relatively typical compared to other big tech companies.
Be prepared to discuss how you'd design a large-scale system, discuss trade-offs, and address scalability and fault tolerance in your design.
Your design will likely involve cloud storage, file synchronization, and content delivery, all essential to Dropbox's products.
System design topics to expect:
Machine learning
ML is integral to Dropbox products.
ML engineering work at Dropbox includes developing models that personalize and analyze user experience, designing algorithms for data optimization, and automating features.
Check out Dropbox's machine learning blog.
ML topics to expect:
- ML concepts
- Model building and deployment
- Data preparation
- Data processing
- Model evaluation
- System scalability
Data science
Data science final rounds at Dropbox will assess your ability to do data-driven problem-solving for real-world problems.
Expect to be tested on your knowledge of basic data science concepts—like A/B testing, SQL manipulation, and Python manipulation, as well as business knowledge—like product metrics and product sense, and to get a case study that involves work you would do in a typical day as a data engineer at Dropbox.
Communicate thoroughly in each part of the interview so the interviewer can understand your thought process and decision-making.
Product management
The PM interview at Dropbox is divided into three categories:
- program sense,
- deep dive,
- and technical (depending on whether you're interviewing for a PM or TPM role), with overlap between each.
The program sense interview tests your general PM capabilities, such as your ability to manage risks, deadlines, changes, and requirements.
Answer these questions with specific examples from your previous experiences as a PM.
The STAR method could also be beneficial.
The PM deep-dive interview is more of a conversation style, where you'll discuss in depth how you solved technical problems in the past.
Highlight times when you made tough technical decisions or had to work cross-functionally with other team members.
TPMs will meet with engineering managers and technical leads in your technical interview.
Expect questions testing your technical knowledge, which involve system design concepts.
More specifically, they'll assess you on your ability to work on highly technical projects, your ability to make decisions about technical tradeoffs, and your ability to handle scenarios where you need to collect more information.
Dropbox Interview Tips
Know Dropbox inside and out.
Before your interviews, get to know all of the products Dropbox offers and is currently working on.
Check out Dropbox's product page so you can speak to their range of product offerings and answer practical questions with appropriate knowledge of the company.
Also, check out Dropbox's engineering blog to discover their current development.
Culture fit is important at Dropbox.
When hiring a new candidate at Dropbox, culture fit is compared to technical skills and domain knowledge.
Prepare for behavioral questions, which will be part of the recruiter call, hiring manager call (if you have one), and final round.
Consider Dropbox's mission statement, "to design a more enlightened way of working," core values, and how you could fit within their environment, emphasizing teamwork, initiative, and problem-solving under pressure.
And wherever you can in the interview process—not just behavioral questions—tie your past experience back to their mission and values.
Dropbox values innovation and collaboration.
In addition to aligning with Dropbox's mission and values, highlight your innovative and collaborative nature. Practice sharing anecdotes that showcase how you've demonstrated these skills in past roles and experiences.
FAQs
How competitive are Dropbox interviews?
Dropbox is a sought-after, top company in tech to work at, so their interviews reflect this.
Dropbox interviews, especially the final rounds, are challenging. Coding challenges, in particular, are known to be about medium-level difficulty, sometimes hard.
Prepare, prepare, prepare: tailor your resume to the specific role when you apply, prepare answers to behavioral and past experience questions in advance, and practice technical skills before your technical rounds.
Does Dropbox offer remote work?
Yes. Dropbox operates using a virtual-first, remote-first work environment, which allows employees to work from anywhere.
Dropbox also runs its internships remotely. Learn more about Dropbox's remote work environment and the intentions behind it.
Does Dropbox hire students or new grads?
Yes! Dropbox has a 12-week remote-first summer internship program for current undergrad students. It also runs a 5-month apprenticeship program for people coming from non-traditional backgrounds or making a career shift.
The apprenticeship program runs twice a year, from April to August and September to January. Learn more about Dropbox's internship, new grad, apprenticeship programs (as well as interview prep) on Dropbox's Emerging Talent page.
More Dropbox Interview Prep Resources
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