Vrbo's Interview Process (2026)

Blog / Vrbo's Interview Process (2026)
Vrbo Interview Process
The Vrbo software engineer interview process runs through the broader Expedia Group hiring pipeline and typically unfolds across four to five distinct stages. Most candidates report a mix of automated assessments, live coding rounds, and behavioral interviews, though the exact format can vary by team and level.
  • Recruiter Screen: A short introductory call, usually around 15 to 30 minutes, covering your background, interest in Vrbo, and logistical details like compensation and location.
  • Cappfinity Strength-Based Assessment: An automated situational judgment test, typically around 45 to 60 minutes, used to evaluate behavioral traits like curiosity, agility, and inclusion against Expedia Group's defined behaviors. This is a hard filter, so candidates who don't align with those traits often don't advance to the coding stages.
  • HackerRank Online Assessment: A timed technical test, generally around 60 to 90 minutes, that usually includes two coding problems at Easy to Medium difficulty, along with multiple-choice questions covering OOP, databases, and OS fundamentals.
  • Technical Phone Screen: A live, 60-minute video interview with an engineer that typically includes a project deep-dive and one coding problem, with an emphasis on explaining your reasoning and Big-O complexity.
  • Virtual Onsite: A series of three to four back-to-back video interviews, usually covering coding, system design, and a behavioral or hiring manager fit round. Senior candidates may also encounter a scenario-based incident investigation round.
To prepare effectively, focus your study plan on these key areas that Vrbo's interviewers consistently test:
  • Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA): LeetCode-style coding problems at Easy to Medium difficulty, covering arrays, strings, linked lists, and sliding window patterns.
  • System Design (High-Level Design): Architecture questions often framed around travel-domain systems like booking platforms, URL shorteners, and notification services.
  • Low-Level Design (Object-Oriented Design): Object-oriented design problems testing your ability to model real-world systems with clean, extensible code.
  • Behavioral: STAR-format questions tied to Expedia Group's core behaviors, with a strong focus on customer mindset and handling ambiguity.
  • CS Fundamentals: Multiple-choice and conceptual questions on OOP principles, operating systems, and database basics, primarily appearing in the HackerRank assessment.
1. Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)Vrbo's coding rounds focus on practical problem-solving rather than abstract puzzles. Candidates most often report Easy to Medium problems, with common patterns including sliding windows, prefix sums, string manipulation, and linked lists.Problems like Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, Subarray Sum Equals K, and Reverse Linked List are representative of what comes up. Brushing up on sliding window and linked list problems is a solid starting point.Interviewers want you to defend your choices, not just produce a working solution. Explaining why you picked a hash map over a nested loop, and what the memory trade-off is, matters as much as getting the right answer.For efficient coverage of the most commonly asked problems, work through our top 100 DSA questions to make sure you're not leaving gaps in your preparation.
2. System Design (High-Level Design)Vrbo's system design questions are often grounded in travel and marketplace concepts. Recent candidates report being asked to design components of a booking system, a notification service with priority routing, and a Tiny URL (URL Shortener).Familiarizing yourself with the Hotel Reservation System (Airbnb, Booking.com) design is particularly useful given Vrbo's domain. Review our High-Level Design questions and practice drawing out architectures that account for scale, fault tolerance, and trade-offs.Senior candidates may also face a scenario-based incident round where you walk through diagnosing a production outage and preventing recurrence. Think through your on-call and debugging experience before the interview and be ready to discuss mitigation steps clearly.
3. Low-Level Design (Object-Oriented Design)The onsite may include a low-level design round focused on modeling systems using clean object-oriented principles. Problems like Design LRU Cache and Parking Lot System are good examples of the format.Practice Low-Level Design practice problems that require you to identify classes, define interfaces, and handle extensibility. Interviewers are looking for code that is readable and maintainable, not just functional.
4. BehavioralVrbo's behavioral rounds carry significant weight, reportedly on par with the technical rounds. Questions follow the STAR format and map closely to Expedia Group's defined behaviors, such as Relentless Strive and Better Together.Prepare two to three strong stories for each behavior before your interview. Expect questions about conflict resolution, handling ambiguous requirements, and times you put the customer first, which Vrbo frames as the "Traveler First" mindset. Review the STAR principle to structure your answers clearly, and use the Behavioral Playbook to map your stories to the specific traits Expedia Group evaluates.Don't treat the Cappfinity assessment as a throwaway step either. Candidates who underestimate it often get filtered before they reach the coding rounds.
5. CS FundamentalsThe HackerRank assessment includes multiple-choice questions on core CS topics alongside the coding problems. Expect questions on OOP concepts, basic database theory, and operating systems fundamentals.Brush up on operating systems concepts and SQL theory to make sure you're not losing easy points on the automated filter. These questions are relatively straightforward but can trip you up if you haven't reviewed them recently.
ConclusionVrbo's process is thorough but very predictable once you understand its structure. Start with the behavioral preparation since it filters candidates earlier than most people expect, then build your technical skills from coding fundamentals up to system design. Follow the Vrbo Interview Roadmap for a structured, stage-by-stage plan to work through everything in the right order.

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