Scale Engineer

Software Engineer

Software EngineerSenior Software EngineerHard

This interview process is designed to assess candidates for a Senior Software Engineer position at Agoda. It evaluates technical skills, problem-solving abilities, system design capabilities, and cultural fit.

Rounds·3

Timeline·~14d

Experience·5 - 10 yrs

Comp band·US$100000 - US$150000

Interview time·150 min

Evaluation

What they measure.

  • Technical proficiency in relevant programming languages and frameworks.
  • Problem-solving skills and logical thinking.
  • Ability to design scalable and robust systems.
  • Understanding of software development best practices (testing, CI/CD, code reviews).
  • Communication skills and ability to articulate technical concepts.
  • Teamwork and collaboration skills.
  • Leadership potential and ability to mentor others.
  • Cultural fit with Agoda's values.

Preparation

How to prepare.

Tips

  1. Thoroughly review your resume and be prepared to discuss all projects and experiences in detail.
  2. Brush up on core computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, and operating systems.
  3. Practice coding problems, focusing on common patterns and edge cases.
  4. Study system design principles and common architectural patterns.
  5. Prepare behavioral examples using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
  6. Research Agoda's products, services, and company culture.
  7. Prepare thoughtful questions to ask the interviewers.

Study plan

Fig · Study plan — 04 phases

01 / 04
01

Phase 01 of 04

Data Structures & Algorithms

Weeks 1-2: DSA fundamentals and practice (Easy/Medium).

Weeks 1-2: Focus on Data Structures and Algorithms. Cover arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs, hash tables, sorting, searching, dynamic programming, and greedy algorithms. Practice problems on platforms like LeetCode (Easy to Medium).

Questions

Commonly asked.

  • Tell me about a challenging technical problem you solved and how you approached it.
  • Describe a time you had to work with a difficult team member. How did you handle it?
  • How would you design a system to handle millions of concurrent users?
  • What are your thoughts on test-driven development (TDD)?
  • Explain the concept of eventual consistency.
  • How do you stay updated with new technologies and trends?
  • What are your career aspirations for the next 5 years?
  • Design an API for a booking system.
  • How would you optimize the performance of a slow-running database query?
  • Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn from it?

Locations

Regional differences.

Fig · Regions — 02 locations

01 / 02

Location

Bangkok

Interview focus

Deep understanding of distributed systems and scalability.Experience with cloud-native architectures (AWS, GCP, Azure).Strong leadership and mentoring capabilities.Ability to drive technical decisions and influence teams.

Common questions

  • How would you design a real-time bidding system for online advertising?
  • Describe a complex system you designed and the trade-offs you made.
  • How do you handle large-scale data processing and storage?
  • Tell me about a time you had to mentor junior engineers. What was your approach?
  • What are your thoughts on the current state of cloud computing and its impact on Agoda's business?

Tips

  • Emphasize your experience with microservices and event-driven architectures.
  • Be prepared to discuss your contributions to open-source projects if applicable.
  • Highlight any experience with agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Showcase your ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly.

Rounds

Round-by-round.

Expand a step for evaluation criteria, sample questions, and prep notes.

Med

Technical Interview (Coding) · 45 min · Software Engineer (Peer)

This round focuses on your core programming skills. You will be asked to solve one or two coding problems, typically involving data structures and algorithms. The interviewer will assess your ability to write clean, efficient, and correct code, as well as your problem-solving approach and communication skills.

What they look for

Strong grasp of fundamental data structures and algorithms.Ability to translate a problem into clean, efficient code.Clear communication of their approach.Testing and debugging skills.

Evaluation

  • Correctness of the solution.
  • Efficiency of the algorithm (time and space complexity).
  • Code quality and readability.
  • Ability to handle edge cases.
  • Communication of the thought process.

Sample questions

  • Given an array of integers, find the contiguous subarray with the largest sum.

    ArrayDynamic Programming

  • Implement a function to reverse a linked list.

    Linked ListPointers

  • Find the kth smallest element in a binary search tree.

    TreeBinary Search TreeRecursion

Prep for this round

  1. 01Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, or AlgoExpert.
  2. 02Focus on understanding the time and space complexity of your solutions.
  3. 03Be prepared to explain your thought process clearly.
  4. 04Practice writing code on a whiteboard or in a shared editor.

Common rejection reasons

  • ×Inability to articulate thought process.
  • ×Lack of fundamental knowledge in data structures or algorithms.
  • ×Code with significant bugs or inefficiencies.
  • ×Poor problem-solving approach.

DSA

Coding questions at Agoda.

Frequently reported on Agoda loops

View all at Agoda

Other guides

More at Agoda.