T E C H N O L O G Y TEAM

Interview Prep Guide

 INTERVIEW PREP GUIDE

Overview
Agoda is an online travel booking platform for accommodations,
flights, and more. We build and deploy cutting-edge technology 4M+ 75
that connects travelers with more than 4 million Hotel and Offices
home partners worldwide
accommodations globally.

Based in Asia and part of Booking Holdings, our 7,000+ employ-

ees representing 90+ nationalities foster a work environment 98 7,000
Nationalities Agodans
rich in diversity, creativity, and collaboration. We innovate globally
through a culture of experimentation and ownership,enhancing
the ability of our customers to experience the world.

Engineering culture at Agoda Tech

Our engineering team works on cutting-edge technologies and innovative engineering
culture to ensure we create a seamless experience for our users. We now serve over a million
customers daily, offering the best deals on our inventory of 4M+ properties! We are loved by
our users with a rating of 4.6/4.7 and have been awarded the Editor’s Choice in the Google
Play store.

At Agoda, we emphasize data-driven & agile development approaches. We believe technical

excellence is the core agility across the company, which is why we continuously invest in the
best engineering practices.

Agoda Core Values

Do things the Move fast and Be a scientist, Take ownership Be direct and
right way be efficient experiment and make a respectful
and measure difference
 INTERVIEW PREP GUIDE

How We Hire: Staff & Lead Software Engineer

At Agoda, we seek Staff and Lead Software
Engineers who excel in driving architectural
changes and leading development. Architecting at Cross-teams
Scale Impact
They demonstrate strong ownership, design
new systems, and enhance team productivity.
These engineers provide technical direction,
write key components, and understand
business impacts. Technical Masterful
Leader Coder
They possess exemplary communication
skills, build relationships, and lead cross-team
initiatives. Culturally, they show ownership
beyond their team, improve technology and Influential Stakeholder
people, and serve as role models. They scale
expertise, impact multiple teams, and drive
Communicator Management
strategic initiatives with strong leadership.

Interview Preparation Summary

Stage 1: Stage 2: Stage 3: Stage 4:

Coding Platform Architecture Culture Fit

1 Preparing for Stage 1 Coding

Your 1st round of Interview will center around your knowledge with DSA and Design
Patterns. At a Staff or Lead level, you are expected to provide technical leadership in
architecture and system design, but also spend a portion of time with Coding when
required. We will assess on how you utilize your choice of programming language to
address logical questions, ranging from Medium to Hard Difficulty.
 INTERVIEW PREP GUIDE

Interview Topics
• Scale, reusability, and testing are critical to Agoda. Do make sure that any problems
posed should also keep this in mind on your solution.
• Excellent problem-solving skills by providing a clear and logical coding solution.
• Knowledge of Data Structures, Algorithms, Time and Space Complexity, and
optimization of solutions
• Agoda mainly uses these tech stacks:
- FE: Javascript, Typescript, ReactJS
- FS: FE + .NET, C#, Java, Kotlin, Scala

Question tips
• Ask plenty of questions to get a sense of your goal, scope, and requirements.

Note: Explore these resources from Leetcode to prepare you better for your interview

• https://leetcode.com/studyplan/top-interview-150/

• https://leetcode.com/studyplan/leetcode-75/

2 Preparing for Stage 2 Platform

Agoda’s 2nd Round of Interview will revolve around your knowledge and practical
expertise in key web development areas, providing both HLD and LLD. As a Staff or
Lead Software Engineer (FS/FE) at Agoda, you are expected to have leadership
experience by leading technical projects, providing up-to-date technical expertise,
drive decision-making and impact beyond your team, problem-solving,
communication and stakeholder management.

Interview Topics
• System Design knowledge of building a complex platform from scratch.
• Knowledge and expertise in web development.
• Scale and testing are important to Agoda.
• Expertise in either FE or FS (depending on the role you applied for) key concepts.
• End-to-end with high coverage of unit tests, providing comparisons between
different levels of testing.

Question tips
• Clarify the goal, ensuring you ask plenty of questions to get a sense of your scope and
defining the requirements.
• Using diagrams, charts would help and aid you in explaining your thought process to
the interviewer.
• Explain not only the surface level application, but also your understanding of the
underlying workings of the technologies you are using.
• Communicate clearly in a structured and concise manner.
 INTERVIEW PREP GUIDE

3 Preparing for Stage 3 Architecture

The 3rd round: Architecture is a critical part of your interview process. You will
be expected work with HLD and LLD – where you could justify both high and
detailed level of your approach. The goal is to showcase your understanding of
how different parts of a system or application influence each other.

A Staff and Tech Lead at Agoda are to lead both the Architecture and System
Design, with high level of complexity and scope. As a Staff Engineer, you are
expected to lead and drive impact not only to your team, but across different
teams and is regarded as a technological subject-matter expert. At the Tech
Lead level, you are expected to lead and drive impact across different
departments.

Interview Topics
• Scalability and testing are critical to Agoda’s software design.
• Designing and improving of system efficiency through architecture,
• System design knowledge and applying it to your software design.
• Optimalization, trade-offs, and defining success.
• Cross-team or departments, or company-wide impact.

Question tips
• Reconfirm goal of your system, ask questions understand your scope and define
requirements.
• Make use of diagrams, charts in articulating your thought process to the interviewer.
• Explain reasoning and thought process in a structured manner.

4 Final Interview Culture Fit

The discussion will center around how you would be a fit to the role, Agoda’s core
values and our Engineering Culture.

As a Staff and Tech Lead at Agoda, you are part of the technical leaderships at Agoda.
Your leadership, communication, problem-solving, and technical expertise would be
part of your interview considerations.
 INTERVIEW PREP GUIDE

Interview Topics
• Examples where you drove decision-making which impacts across different teams or
even company-wide. Particularly, where you are the leader in complex projects.
• Technical leadership and conflict management.
• Complex distributed systems and platform-level architecture
understanding/concepts.
• Advocating for new technologies for the company and leading successful
implementation.
• Driving discussions and convincing stakeholders.

Question tips
• Ask plenty of questions to understand the goal, scope and defining the requirements.
• Charts, diagrams are vital in aiding your explanation.
• A good approach for behavioral questions is by structuring your answer (STAR
Framework is one of them).

Flexibility is advised, as changes or additional rounds may be required

Learn more from our Interviewers!

Before the Interview

The interviews will be conducted via HackerRank (a HackerRank link will be embedded in your interview
invitation to be sent by our coordinator). You will be required to turn on your camera and share your screen
during the interview.

Guideline on using HackerRank - Here is what to expect when you are invited to participate in an interview via
HackerRank.

Click the interview link that has been shared with you. You will be prompted to enter as a Candidate. Or click

here Being Interviewed in HackerRank

Using HackerRank's virtual whiteboard - This article provides an overview of HackerRank’s virtual whiteboard and

how it can be leveraged during Architecture/System design interviews.

Using HackerRank’s Virtual Whiteboard

Learn More about
Tech at Agoda!
How we build travel for
the world, collaborations
among field experts, and
our work culture that
fosters growth at all levels.

Watch Now

Agoda’s Engineering Blog:

Learn more about how products are developed at Agoda,
what is being done under the hood.

https://medium.com/agoda-engineering

Explore More About Agoda!

Life in Bangkok l Careers at Agoda l Engineering Blog
Good Luck!