One of US’s leading online food ordering and delivery platforms, DoorDash relies heavily on its technology platform for order placement and tracking. They utilize sophisticated algorithms to manage logistics, including matching orders with the nearest available delivery person, whom they call a “Dasher”.

DoorDash Interview Guide Overview for Software Engineer Position

About DoorDash

DoorDash is a fast-growing technology and logistics company that powers a three-sided marketplace comprising consumers, merchants, and Dashers. Known for its innovative approach to delivery services, DoorDash is redefining the logistics landscape, enabling seamless and reliable on-demand delivery.

About the Position

Applying for the Software Engineer position at DoorDash means stepping into a role that demands strong problem-solving and coding abilities. Candidates will undergo a series of coding assessments, system design questions, behavioral interviews, and technical screenings, facing challenges on par with top tech companies. The interviews typically include Leetcode-style questions and real-world problem-solving focused on optimizing delivery systems and enhancing the overall delivery experience.

If you're prepared for a dynamic, challenge-filled interview journey, this DoorDash guide will assist you in navigating through the process and gearing up for the questions you might encounter. Good luck!

Submitting Your Application

The first step is to submit a compelling application that reflects your technical skills and interest in joining DoorDash as a Software Engineer. Whether you were contacted by a DoorDash recruiter or have taken the initiative yourself, carefully review the job description and tailor your CV according to the prerequisites.

Tailoring your CV may include identifying specific keywords that the hiring manager might use to filter resumes and crafting a targeted cover letter. Furthermore, don’t forget to highlight relevant skills and mention your work experiences.

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV happens to be among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the DoorDash Talent Acquisition Team will make contact and verify key details like your experiences and skill level, and discuss comp expectations and your engineering interests. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.

In some cases, the DoorDash hiring manager stays present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also indulge in surface-level technical and behavioral discussions.

The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will present you with an invitation for the technical screening round. Technical screening for the DoorDash Software Engineer role usually is conducted through virtual means, including video conferences and screen sharing.

You will typically start with an Online Assessment (OA). The OA is critical to move forward, as candidates need to answer at least 3 out of 4 questions correctly. Subsequently, the interviewer may focus on technical questions typically sourced from LeetCode, with emphasis on medium to hard levels.

This 1-hour interview with a member of the engineering team assesses your problem-solving skills and coding proficiency. Expect to encounter questions involving data structures, dynamic programming, tree algorithms, recursion, and other advanced computational concepts.

Virtual Onsite Interview Rounds

Followed by a recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the virtual onsite interview loop. This series of interviews generally consists of:

• 1 hr Whiteboard Coding: Leetcode Medium to Hard level questions.
• System Design Interview (1.5 hrs): You might be asked to design and validate a system relative to DoorDash’s operational needs, such as an efficient delivery system or ML model for service extension.
• Project Talk (30 mins): A review of your past projects, discussing your contributions and learnings.
• Behavioral Interview (30 mins): Questions about your background, challenges faced in past roles, and how you fit into DoorDash’s culture.

Quick Tips For DoorDash Software Engineer Interviews

You should plan to brush up on any technical skills and try as many practice interview questions and mock interviews as possible. A few tips for acing your DoorDash interview include:

• Study Dynamic Programming & Trees: DoorDash questions often revolve around these topics. Leetcode problems tagged with DoorDash can give you a good idea of what to expect.
• System Design Practice: Be prepared to discuss and design complex systems. Reviewing system design problems and practicing whiteboarding can be particularly helpful.
• Behavioral Interview Readiness: Reflect on your accomplishments and be ready to discuss how you've handled professional challenges. Understanding DoorDash’s core values and mission will help you align your answers appropriately.

Software engineers at DoorDash work on projects ranging from developing Android applications architecture, to scaling test infrastructure, to creating intuitive user interfaces, all of which are aimed at improving the customer experience for food ordering and delivery. The interview process will test your knowledge and real-world implementation strategies of algorithms and systems design. Diversity and inclusion are major values at DoorDash, so prepare for the behavioral interview questions well.

Please note that the exact structure of the process will depend on the team and the function of the role. Always read the job description carefully while preparing your interview plan.

The process generally has multiple rounds spanning 2-3 weeks, and may take even longer in certain cases.

Step 1: Preliminary Chat With A Recruiter

A phone chat with a recruiter will be scheduled to get a sense of who you are, the projects you’ve executed on, and the accomplishments you’ve achieved. They may ask you a couple of Resume/CV-based questions, so prepare some canned responses to help you sail through this important screening round.

Step 2: Choice Between Take-home Assessment Or Phone Screening

You will be given a choice between a take-home project or a telephonic screening interview. The project is of easy to medium difficulty, and tests your ability to gather requirements, build APIs, and write clean and efficient code. The phone screening will test similar skills, the only difference being that you demonstrate your skills directly to an interviewer.

Step 3: Onsite Interviews

This usually consists of multiple rounds of technical interviews, including coding, systems design, data structures, and algorithms, as well as an additional round focusing on DoorDash’s values and culture. You’ll be assessed on your problem-solving skills, coding expertise, design thinking, and overall cultural fit. If you want to read more about DoorDash’s technical interview process, take a look at this informative overview on their website.

You may be asked to participate in another interview in the area of expertise required for the role you apply for, such as an architecture or domain knowledge round. You may also have a final round with someone at a director level, but this depends on the seniority of the role you’ve applied for.

• How would you set up an A/B test for button color and position changes? A team wants to A/B test multiple changes in a sign-up funnel, such as changing a button from red to blue and/or moving it from the top to the bottom of the page. How would you set up this test?

• How would you measure the success of a banner ad strategy for an online media company? An online media company wants to experiment with adding web banners in the middle of its reading content to monetize web traffic. How would you measure the success of this strategy?

• What metrics would you use to determine the value of each marketing channel for Mode? Mode, a company selling B2B analytics dashboards, has various marketing channels and their respective costs. What metrics would you use to determine the value of each marketing channel?

• How would you select Dashers for Doordash deliveries in NYC and Charlotte? Doordash is launching delivery services in New York City and Charlotte and needs a process for selecting dashers (delivery drivers). How would you decide which Dashers do these deliveries, and would the criteria be the same for both cities?

• How would you determine the success of a new payment structure for delivery drivers? A food delivery company wants to launch a new payment structure where drivers make 2.5% of each order and $50 after every fifth order. How would you determine the success of this new structure?

• Create a function most_tips to find the user that tipped the most. Given two nonempty lists of user_ids and tips, write a function most_tips to find the user that tipped the most.

• Write a function to find how many friends each person has. You are given a list of lists where each group represents a friendship. Write a function to find how many friends each person has.

• Write a function max_profit to find the maximum profit from stock prices with at most two transactions. Write a Python function called max_profit that takes a list of integers, where the i-th integer represents the price of a given stock on day i, and returns the maximum profit you can achieve by buying and selling the stock. You may complete, at most, two complete buy/sell transactions to maximize profits on a stock.

• Determine the full path of a robot navigating a 4x4 matrix. A robot navigates a 4x4 matrix by moving forward or turning right when blocked. Its starting position is (0,0) and the final destination is (3,3). Determine the full path of the robot before it hits the final destination or starts repeating the path.

• How would you determine which search engine performed better? Which metrics would you track? You built a new search engine for Google and want to compare its performance with the existing one. How would you determine which search engine performed better, and which metrics would you track?

• How would you determine if the new delivery time estimate model predicts better than the old model? You want to build a new delivery time estimate model for food delivery. How would you determine if the new model predicts delivery times better than the old model?

• How would you build a model to predict which merchants DoorDash should acquire in a new market? As a data scientist at DoorDash, how would you build a model to predict which merchants the company should target for acquisition when entering a new market?

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand? Discuss the benefits of dynamic pricing and explain how you can estimate supply and demand in this context.

• How would you design a machine learning system to minimize missing or wrong orders on DoorDash? As a data scientist at DoorDash, you need to build a machine learning system to minimize missing or wrong orders placed on the app. How would you go about designing this system?

• Can you determine if an unbalanced AB test will result in bias towards the smaller group? You have an AB test with one variant having 50K users and the other 200K users. Analyze if the unbalanced sample sizes will cause bias towards the smaller group.

• What is an unbiased estimator? Can you provide a layman example? Explain what an unbiased estimator is and give a simple example that a layman can understand.

• Will the metric increase by ~5% after applying a new UI to all users? You tested a new UI to increase conversion rates, and the test variant won by 5%. Predict if the metric will go up by ~5%, more, or less when applied to all users, assuming no novelty effect.

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing and how to estimate supply and demand? Discuss the advantages of dynamic pricing and methods to estimate supply and demand in this context.

• How would you analyze a non-normal distribution in an AB test for Uber Fleet? Uber Fleet has low data for experimentation, and the AB test distribution is not normal. Describe the type of analysis you would run and how to measure which variant won.

Here are tips to help you ace your interview at DoorDash for a software engineer position:

Understand the Role and Responsibilities

Research the specific software engineer role at DoorDash you’re applying for. Understand the key responsibilities and skills required.

Explore the specific role at DoorDash through our Learning Paths to gain a comprehensive understanding of how your skills align with the requirements of this position.

Brush Up on Technical Skills

Revisit algorithms (graphs, trees, and sorts), data structures, system design principles, and coding practices. Practice writing efficient, clean, and well-documented code. Depending on the role, you may expect questions on database management and API design as well.

Familiarize Yourself with DoorDash’s Business Model

Gain a deep understanding of DoorDash’s services, market challenges, and technology stack. Consider how your role might impact the business and think of ways you could contribute to solving real-world problems DoorDash faces.

Practice Problem-Solving and Behavioral Questions

Prepare for behavioral questions using the STAR method. Reflect on your past experiences and practice articulating them in a concise, impactful manner.

You can familiarize yourself with behavioral questions by visiting our Interview Questions section. It offers a wide range of practice questions to help you structure your responses effectively using the STAR method.

Mock Interviews

Engage in mock interviews to simulate the real interview experience. Seek feedback to improve your responses, technical knowledge, and problem-solving approach.

Participate in Mock Interviews to practice and showcase your teamwork and communication skills.

Prepare Questions for the Interviewer

Prepare thoughtful questions to ask your interviewers about DoorDash’s work culture, challenges, and expectations. This shows your interest and eagerness to engage with the company’s ethos and future goals.

By following these preparation tips and revisiting the key points from our earlier discussions, you’ll be well-equipped to tackle the challenges of a software engineer interview at DoorDash.

What is the average salary for a Software Engineer at Doordash?

Q: What is the interview process for a Software Engineer position at DoorDash? The interview process typically involves an initial screening with a recruiter, followed by a coding assessment featuring LeetCode-style questions. If you pass, you'll proceed to a technical screen with an engineer, which may involve solving more complex problems. Finally, a virtual onsite with additional coding, system design, and behavioral interviews will complete the process.

Q: What sort of technical questions can I expect during the DoorDash interview? Expect a mix of LeetCode-style questions ranging from medium to hard difficulty, system design questions, and sometimes questions related to debugging and code quality. Problems may relate to real-life scenarios such as delivery optimizations or data structure manipulations.

Q: How should I prepare for a system design interview at DoorDash? You should be prepared to discuss scalable and efficient system architectures. Practice designing systems like delivery optimization engines or other logistics-related applications. Understand core concepts such as load balancing, data storage, and microservices.

Q: What is the work culture like at DoorDash? DoorDash emphasizes a fast-paced, innovative, and inclusive work culture. The company values diversity and collaboration, encouraging employees to bring fresh perspectives and solve complex challenges together.

Q: How does DoorDash support career growth for Software Engineers? DoorDash offers various opportunities for professional development including mentorship, cross-functional collaborations, and challenging projects that impact millions of users. The company also provides comprehensive benefits and equity grants to support employees' well-being and growth.

What is the average salary for a Software Engineer Role at DoorDash?

The average base salary for a Software Engineer at DoorDash is US$186,461, while the estimated average total compensation is US$274,117, making the remuneration highly attractive for prospective applicants.

If you want to explore additional information about Software Engineers’ salaries, be sure to check out our comprehensive Software Engineer Salary Guide. It covers not only DoorDash but also other companies, positions, and more.

Where can I read more discussion posts on DoorDash’s Interview Process here in Interview Query?

Explore our discussion posts for information on SE-related roles.

Are there job postings for DoorDash Software Engineer roles on Interview Query?

Yes! Interview Query does have job postings related to Doordash’s Software Engineer position. Look into it whenever you get the chance!

Navigating the interview journey with DoorDash as a Software Engineer is both challenging and fulfilling. The process is designed to assess your technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and fit within the company's dynamic culture. From initial coding assessments that push your limits to stimulating technical screens and thoughtful system design discussions, each step is an opportunity to showcase your expertise and passion for engineering.

By focusing on honing your coding proficiency, system design skills, and understanding of core engineering principles, you can stand out and excel in these rigorous evaluations. Leveraging insights from previous candidate experiences, such as preparing for Leetcode-style questions and dynamic programming challenges, will undoubtedly give you a competitive edge.

If you're determined to join a team committed to innovation, reliability, and excellence, DoorDash offers a vibrant environment where your contributions can drive significant impact. Dive deeper into their specific interview processes and align your preparation with their expectations to maximize your chances of success.

Good luck with your DoorDash interview, and remember—every step is a chance to learn, grow, and shine! If you need more insights or have any questions, feel free to reach out or join a community of fellow engineers preparing for similar roles. Your exciting journey in tech awaits!

To succeed in DoorDash software engineer interview questions, you’ll need not only a strong foundation in data structures and algorithms but also the expertise to apply them to real-world problems.

You can check out our main DoorDash interview guide, where we not only cover topics in more general terms but also dive deep into other roles that we cover, such as data analyst, engineer, scientist, business analyst, and product analyst. Take a look at these to understand how the many roles work together to power DoorDash’s success.

Also, consider exploring our Company Interview Guides if you’re planning to apply not only to DoorDash but also to companies such as Uber, PayPal, Adobe, and others. You’ll definitely find them helpful.

We hope that you find these tips useful and land your dream job very soon!