Top Airbnb Interview Questions

Michelle D. - "I'd tell the interviewer that I'd start off with clarifying the question to make sure I understand it correctly (see 1 below). Then, I'd tell the interviewer my approach to make sure they know what to expect as I talk through. Approach would start with discussing the mission and connecting a north star metric (NSM) to the mission, then discuss key product metrics that are inputs towards NSM. If there's time at the end and if the interviewer wants to go down this path, we should also talk about t"See full answer

Anonymous Crab - "Super helpful video on metrics and experimentation design! However, I did not see any discussion on the actual algorithm improvement ideas. So it left me with these questions: 1) How would you actually improve the algorithm? (e.g. sorting based on amenities preferences, miles from airport, etc.). Of course, totally makes sense that we would test how that improvement moved our chosen success metrics. 2) Should we be choosing one metric or one set of metrics we want to optimize for when we impro"See full answer

Ushita S. - "The back-of-the-envelope calculation is very well done!"See full answer

Hans - "Situation: Was given negative feedback about an aspect of my communications. The person said it made them worried because of the brevity and the format of some messages. (Their worry was that a longer negative message was coming) Task(s): Reflected on feedback about my communication style. Acknowledged the point. Assumed best intentions on the part of the person giving the feedback Saw things from the other person's point of view Action(s): In private - Apologised to the person wh"See full answer

Ross B. - "I most want to communicate a few principals of conflict resolution that I believe were integral in this situation, which are mutual respect, a results orientation, an unwavering focus on the user. To that end, here’s how I’d like to structure this answer: First, I’ll tell you about the project we were working on, to provide some background for you. Second, I’ll describe the disagreement. Third, I’ll describe how we arrived at a solution, and finally, I’ll discuss how those 3 conflict resolution"See full answer

Anna H. - "Great. I'm going to get started by asking clarification questions for (1) understanding of the gap by assessing current product features for bookings via platform?, (2) brainstorming possible solutions, (3) how to implement solutions, and (4) suggesting metrics to validate solutions towards an increase of bookings Clarification questions & Assumptions: What is customer segment (family/ group/ individual)? In which market? (individual & US market) Should I specifically focus on one of use ca"See full answer

BePostive - "Each team member is different, understand their needs, strengths, weakness areas. Motivate accordingly. Frequent 1:1 and help in their career growth. According to me micromanagement never wins, so don't even try it. Inform team high level picture in case if some work is not challenging."See full answer

Diamonde H. - "I'm interpreting this question as "what's the process you'd go through to launch a new product". I'd approach it this way, assuming we haven't yet made any determinations around the what/how: Step 1: Pick an industry of interest with Industry criteria based on Industry growth rate VC investments (pitchbook is a good resource) Step 2: Evaluate the various industry verticals and select the vertical with the most opportunity evaluated by Age of companies New entrants Existing -"See full answer

Catherine I. - "I always ask to clarify if this is a brand new team. If so, then I focus on bringing in people with strong technical aptitudes(since I'm hiring for software engineering), but also team members that have experience mentoring and good communication is a must. I look for people who have leadership qualities. I emphasize that building a brand new team isn't something I can do on my own, so the initial hires of that team are very important to help me expand it."See full answer

Raunak K. - "Colleague moved to a different role, so I decided to fill in and did outshine in showing results within the group."See full answer

P K. - "Clarifying questions: What are open homes and how does this model work? Open homes cater to provide free shelter for refugees; hosts list the property and partner NGOs based on the requirement book an appropriate property for the refugees. How long does a refugee stay at a property? Minimum 2 weeks Does the host provide meals? Up to the host, some do and some don't What does improve Open Homes mean? There is an imbalance in hosts - we need more hosts"See full answer

Ashley M. - "sliding window"See full answer

Exponent - "You should be able to identify this as a Strategy Question, which asks you to justify high-level business decisions and strategy. Here are some ideas for risks to Airbnb: Regulation > I believe the biggest risk to Airbnb is regulation, both from local and foreign governments. Already, Airbnb is subject to onerous laws in foreign countries. For example, homes in London can only be booked for a total of 90 days in London, and in Japan hosts must apply and register their listing with the gov"See full answer

Diamonde H. - "I'm assuming we're negotiating because we want the vendor to do something unique for us that's possible but they've never done it before or that they do often but we want some sort of preferential treatment or pricing deal. I'm also assuming we're not desperate and have the upper hand. Pre-Call with vendors Define our ideal state Define our BATNA Vet and speak to at least 3-5 vendors (depending on market concentration) Objectively know what is possible within industry and with the vendo"See full answer

D S. - "Clarification Question: First I would like to clarify my understanding of AirBnB. AirBnB is an online marketplace that lets people rent out their properties or spare rooms to guests. Airbnb takes 3% commission from hosts and around 6 to 12% from guests. Now, I believe payment collection experience is related to the host so they can visualize everything around their payments. Reason for designing this experience - to provide a better collection experience for hosts Marke"See full answer

Nicholas S. - "Definitely nice to think of this without memorization, but there is a well known algorithm for this problem, which is the Levenshtein Distance. Lev(a,b) = len(a) if len(b) == 0 = len(b) if len(a) == 0 = lev(a[1:], b[1:] if a[0] == b[0] = 1 + min (lev(a, b[1:]), lev(a[1:], b), lev(a[1:], b[1:])) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance I'm sure some optimizations could be made with heuristic."See full answer

Exponent - "This is a Measure Success question with a slight twist. The twist here is we need to consider a hypothetical product rather that one already built. This changes our formula slightly - specifically we may not be able to apply a UX flow to drive analysis since we're unsure of the implementation. Instead, we'll look at core behaviors that are indicative of success. Here's the modified formula: Ask clarifying questions State the goal of the feature **Apply a UX flow to drive a"See full answer

Exponent - "This is posed as a tricky question at first, but we can actually approach this very similarly to a Favorite Product question. It's always good to start with identifying what type of problem you're tackling. The problem we need to tackle is essentially a variation on a Favorite Product Question: Choose a product and briefly explain what it is Who are the users? What are their pain points? How did competitors solve it in the past? **How does this product addr"See full answer