Etsy Software Engineer Interview Questions + Guide in 2024

Etsy is a leading global marketplace for unique and creative goods. As an Etsy Inc. employee, you’ll work with a passionate team on impactful projects that support millions of entrepreneurs and buyers worldwide, ensuring the essence of “Keeping Commerce Human.”

The Software Engineer position at Etsy involves tackling large-scale, meaningful challenges across various domains, including algorithms, system design, front-end development, and debugging. The interview process typically includes initial phone screens, technical and behavioral rounds, and multiple on-site rounds focusing on problem-solving, design, and implementation skills.

In this guide, Interview Query will walk you through everything you need to know about the interview process, from the types of Etsy software engineer interview questions you might encounter to valuable tips for success. Let’s dive in and get you prepared for your next big opportunity at Etsy!

The interview process usually depends on the role and seniority; however, you can expect the following on an Etsy software engineer interview:

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV is among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the Etsy Talent Acquisition Team will contact you and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions, such as “Why do you want to work at Etsy?” may also be part of the screening process.

Sometimes, the Etsy 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 Phone Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will invite you to the technical phone interview. This stage is typically 1-hour long and conducted virtually via video conference with screen sharing. Questions in this technical screening round often revolve around basic algorithmic problems such as array manipulation, string parsing, and basic front-end questions.

You may also encounter tasks like debugging a Flask app or performing simple operations on data structures like priority queues or linked lists. Ensure you are thoroughly familiar with JavaScript, Python, or other languages commonly used at Etsy.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Followed by a second recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. This usually consists of multiple rounds spanning over 4-5 hours, often including 4-5 different interviews:

1. Coding Interview: Hands-on coding tasks using a shared platform. Expect problems centered around algorithms and data structures.
2. System Design Interview: Discuss and design scalable and efficient systems.
3. Pair Programming Session: Work collaboratively on a coding task, often extending a simple problem into more complexity as you go.
4. Behavioral Questions: Questions about past projects and scenarios regarding teamwork, conflicts, and project management.

For the onsite interviews, you may also encounter rounds dedicated to feedback on specific applications, such as the Etsy mobile app, scenario-based questions on system improvements, and reviews of your problem-solving approach.

Typically, interviews at Etsy vary by role and team, but commonly, Software Engineer interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

1. How would you set up an A/B test for button color and position changes in a sign-up funnel?

A team wants to A/B test 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?

2. Where and how could you promote Instagram through Facebook?

You work on the growth team at Facebook and are tasked with promoting Instagram from within the Facebook app. Where and how could you promote Instagram through Facebook?

3. What metrics, graphs, or models would you use to analyze churn behavior for different pricing plans?

You work for a company like Netflix, which has two pricing plans: $15/month or $100/year. An executive wants you to analyze the churn behavior of users subscribing to either plan. What kinds of metrics, graphs, or models would you build to provide an overarching view of subscription performance?

4. What analysis would you run for an A/B test with non-normal distribution at Uber Fleet?

Uber Fleet has low data for experimentation, and an A/B test shows a non-normal distribution. What kind of analysis would you run, and how would you measure which variant won?

5. What retention rate is required to surpass revenue from a non-subscription price?

You sell an e-commerce product for $29 with a 50% per unit margin. You want to offer a monthly subscription at a 20% discount on the retail price. What retention rate would be required to surpass the revenue from the non-subscription price?

6. Write a program to determine each term’s term frequency (TF) values in a document.

Given a text document as a string, write a program to determine the term frequency (TF) values for each term in the document, round the term frequency to 2 decimal points.

7. Create a function get_ngrams to return a dictionary of n-grams and their frequency in a string.

Write a function get_ngrams to take in a word (string) and return a dictionary of n-grams and their frequency in the given string.

8. Write a function to return the sum of the elements in a matrix.

Given a matrix of integers, write a function that returns the sum of the elements in the matrix. The function should handle both positive and negative integers and return the sum as an integer.

9. Develop a function to find the nearest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree.

Given a binary tree of unique positive numbers and two nodes as input, write a function to return the value of the nearest parent node to both nodes. If one of the nodes doesn’t exist in the tree, return -1.

10. Write a function to add together all combinations of adjacent integers in a string of integers.

Given a string of integers named int_str, write a function that adds together all combinations of adjacent integers in the string.

11. How would you build a restaurant recommender on Facebook?

Start by explaining how you would gather the necessary data. Then, describe the process of building the recommender system. Finally, discuss potential downfalls or concerns about adding this feature to Facebook.

12. How would you create a recommendation engine for a rental listing website?

You have user demographic information, interests, and data on houses and apartments, including amenities, price, reviews, location, and other metadata. Explain how you would use this data to create a recommendation engine for users looking for new rental units.

13. How would you explain a p-value to someone who is not technical?

Explain the concept of a p-value in simple terms to a non-technical person, focusing on its role in determining the significance of results in hypothesis testing.

14. What could cause the decrease in overall capital approval rates?

Analyze why the overall capital approval rate dropped from 85% to 82% despite individual product approval rates staying flat or increasing. Consider potential factors such as changes in the mix of products or external influences.

15. What is the probability that both flips result in the same side with one fair and one biased coin?

Calculate the probability that both flips result in the same side when selecting a fair or biased coin (with a ³⁄₄ probability of heads) at random and flipping it twice.

16. What is the percentage chance a review is actually fake when the algorithm detects it as fake?

Given that 98% of reviews are legitimate, and 2% are fake, and the machine learning algorithm’s accuracy rates, calculate the probability that a review is fake when the algorithm identifies it as fake.

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 Etsy interview include:

1. Know Etsy’s Products: Etsy’s questions often rely heavily on situational scenarios with their products. Study Etsy’s marketplace and understand how you would personally improve or test it.

2. Be Customer-Centric: Etsy’s core value focuses on keeping commerce human. Frame your technical and behavioral answers from the perspective of customer impact and user experience.

3. Be Prepared for Debugging Tasks: Debugging existing applications (like Flask apps or Node.js projects) is a part of their interview process. Make sure you practice these as a part of your technical preparation.

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

According to Glassdoor, software engineers at Etsy earn between $116K to $253K per year, with an average of $203K per year.

What skills are required to work at Etsy as a Software Engineer?

To work as a Software Engineer at Etsy, you should have strong technical skills, be it front-end, back-end, or full-stack development. Proficiency in languages such as Python, JavaScript, or Scala and experience with cloud platforms, distributed systems, and machine learning are beneficial. You should also have excellent communication skills, a user-centric approach, and the ability to write maintainable and scalable code.

If you’re excited about joining a team that values creativity, human-centric commerce, and continuous learning, Etsy could be the perfect place for you.

For more insights about the company, check out our main Etsy Interview Guide, where we have covered many interview questions that might be asked. We’ve also created interview guides for other roles, such as software engineer and data-related positions, where you can learn more about Etsy’s interview process for different positions.

You can also check out all our company interview guides for better preparation, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Good luck with your interview!