The Lyft software engineer interview process is one of the most challenging interview processes. Lyft always looks for great additions to their teams who can constantly work through challenges of scale, optimize their network of passengers and drivers and make complicated products intuitive and easy to understand for their customers. To crack the Lyft interview process, you must be interested in building the future of transportation. Through the interview, Lyft looks at your skills and tests your knowledge of various computer science concepts.
Lyft is one of the top tech companies and growing rapidly. So, software engineers at Lyft get a tremendous opportunity to work with various complex and highly technical systems that have a radical to intermediate impact on millions worldwide. Read on to learn about the Lyft software interview process, the most anticipated questions in your technical interview, and tips on how to crack the interview.
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Here's what we'll cover in this article:
- Eligibility criteria to apply for the Lyft software engineer position
- Lyft software engineer interview process
- Lyft software engineer interview questions
- Lyft APM interview process
- Lyft APM interview questions
- Tips to crack the Lyft interview process
- FAQs on the Lyft software interview process
Eligibility Criteria to Apply for the Lyft Software Engineer Position
Tech experts at Lyft look for software engineers beyond technical talent. They look for people who are excited about Lyft's values and missions. They thoroughly screen the candidate by checking whether they'll code solutions neatly and efficiently or not.
Lyft looks for an entry-level programming gig to write codes for everything from cloud infrastructure to customer-service efficiency. You should have a computer science degree (bachelor's, master's, or Ph.D.) to be eligible for the Lyft software engineer role. Along with the degree, you must have experience with object-oriented programming.
After the Lyft software interview process, the final score is based on the communication skills, i.e., how well they had described their thought process, coding and problem-solving abilities, and knowledge about computer science, particularly what comes from data structures.
Lyft Software Engineer Interview Process
There are four stages to the software engineer Lyft interview process. They are:
Recruiter Screen
This is the first stage of your Lyft software interview processes. The recruiter will put direct questions mostly based on your resume and fit for the software engineer role. The interviewer might ask about your past experiences, interests, and why you choose to work at Lyft.
Your resume speaks a lot about yourself and will help you get shortlisted for a software engineer role at Lyft. Check out here to learn how to write a professional resume.
Technical Phone Screen
You will be spending an hour or so with the tech expert at Lyft during this stage of your interview process. They'll ask technical questions, both basic and experienced ones, and cover various computer science categories. This round and after that will be conducted over Coderpad.
On-site Interview
After you have cleared your technical phone interview, you'll be invited for an on-site interview. The on-site Lyft software interview consists of four rounds:
- System design interview
- CS fundamentals interview
- Laptop programming test
- Behavioral interview
You should have a crisp in-depth understanding of the basics in various programming languages, experience as a software engineer, and great communication skills to crack your on-site interview at Lyft.
Team Matching
This is the last stage of your Lyft software engineer interview process. If you make it to this round, the tech experts at Lyft will match you with potential teams where you'll have explanatory calls with the managers on those teams. These calls are more like conversations rather than interviews. Here you can get to know the team and determine the mutual fit for the role at Lyft.
Lyft Software Engineer Interview Questions
At your Lyft interview, you can expect questions based on system design. The software engineer at Lyft will ask you to design a large relevant to Lyft's operation using Google Draw. Here are a few sample Lyft software engineer interview questions, both technical and behavioral, for your reference that you must practice creating a solid impression on the interviewer:
- How would you design an AI data product?
- Design a reservation and payment system for a parking garage.
- Implement a Binary Search Tree.
- What are your priorities for the product backlog?
- What do you think are some of the key growth areas for Lyft?
- Have you overseen the creation of a product from its conception to its release?
- Who are Lyft's biggest rivals?
- Do you know about DynamoDB? What is it?
Recommended reading: Top Lyft Interview Questions for Software Engineers and Developers
Lyft APM Interview Process
The Lyft APM interview process also consists of four stages; however, the levels of each stage are different from that of a software engineer. The four stages are:
Recruiter Screen
This stage is based on your resume. If you have mentioned excellent skills in the resume, the chances are you'll be shortlisted for the next stage. For a product manager at Lyft, you must have excellent communication, prior experience working as a product manager, and a keen interest in working with Lyft and improving their services. You must show them that you are fit for the product manager role to qualify for the next round.
Execution Phone Screen
This stage of the Lyft APM interview process is very analytical, KPI, and metric-focused. Being a data-driven company, Lyft expects product managers to look at data to make decisions. At this point, you will be asked how to identify and prioritize opportunities and execute them to build products. They will also ask to adapt and troubleshoot problems with new information. They will also focus on analyzing a set of constraints and coming up with the right set of metrics successfully.
On-site Interview
This round is conducted in three stages:
- Product sense
- Product execution
- Leadership and experience
The results of this round usually take about a week.
Team Matching
This round is the same as the Lyft software engineer interview process. Here you will be matched with the potential teams consisting of product managers, get to know them, and determine the mutual fit for the role.
Lyft APM Interview Questions
Below are a few Lyft associate product manager (APM) interview questions that will help you boost your interview prep:
- How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?
- What is it about the product manager role at Lyft that excites you the most?
- Tell us about a time when you had to convince people to work on a thing they were not interested in.
- How would you price Lyft's rides at primetime?
- To reach 1 billion people, how would you expand Lyft?
- Describe a project that you are extremely proud of.
- You are a PM at Lyft. Devise strategies to improve revenue.
- Design dynamic pricing for Lyft.
- As a product manager, how will you reduce cancellations on Lyft?
- There's a sharp drop in rider cancellations. How will you investigate this?
Recommended reading: How to Crack a System Design Interview.
Tips to Crack the Lyft Interview Process
Take a look at some tips that can help you crack the Lyft interview process:
- At a Lyft interview, you will be asked to get involved in designing a way for your systems to communicate, modeling database tables, and proposing an API. For this, you must understand the different types of storage systems, SQL vs. NoSQL, in a distributed setting.
- During the technical interview, Lyft will look for a systematic approach. So, you must brush up on your technical fundamentals and skills.
- The interviewer at Lyft will look at whether you cover all important requirements or not. So, make sure that you explain every answer in detail and with pure technicality.
- Lyft product managers look for candidates whose answers are practical and can be implemented. So, it would help if you practice system design questions to be comfortable with drawing them on Google Draw and explaining concepts visually using this tool.
- During your Lyft software interview process, a software engineer will present you with a problem, and you'll devise a solution with an algorithm and function. So, you need to uplevel your knowledge of data structures, algorithms, and problem-solving.
- Practicing beforehand in front of a mirror or having a video call with a friend/family explaining the answers will help you build confidence and sharpen your communication skills.
- Iterate on your solution — you should not start with the correct answer. Rather, start small and expand from there to complete the assignment.
- You must prepare to interact with standard input and output in the programming language of your choice.
- Focus on correctness and clarity rather than performance.
- The key to cracking execution questions at a Lyft APM interview process is to start at a high level with the product goals and then dive deeper into metrics and actions.
Recommended reading: 10 Tips for Radical Interview Preparation.
FAQs on the Lyft Software Interview Process
1. How to crack the Lyft software engineer interview process in one attempt?
While taking an interview, software engineers at Lyft look for 45% correctness, 35% clean code, and 20% performance. So to crack your Lyft interview, you must check whether your solution works, if the code is clean and efficient, and comment where appropriate.
2. What is unique about the Lyft software engineer interview process?
Lyft's most unique software engineer interview process aspect is its laptop programming test. It is a 90-minute interview where the software interviewer will give you a situation, and you'll solve that problem using the internet and a coding language of your choice. To crack these questions, you must learn how to code efficiently.
3. Why does the Lyft software interview process consist of behavioral questions?
The PMs and software engineers at Lyft want to check your background, experiences, and interests. Therefore, they'll conduct a 45-minute behavioral interview with an engineering manager. There they will check your expertise, ownership, collaboration, learning, values, and impact while you answer the questions.
4. How to crack the Lyft over-the-phone interview?
You must research Lyft's values and missions. Use their products to determine their potential. Investigate in-depth what compels you to work there, what resonates about the company to you, and how you will improve the product experience. Giving the answers based on your experiences with a few examples in mind and tied into Lyft values will help you nail the Lyft over-the-phone interview.
5. What are product-based questions asked during the Lyft APM interview process?
The interviewer will check your focus on product knowledge, instincts, creativity, and awareness while asking product-based questions. Your interviewer will guide you through the way; however, you should lead the conversation. You can expect questions like why it's a great product, what you'd do if you were a CEO or APM at the company, how you would've evolved the existing product, and other related questions.
Recommended reading: Lyft Software Engineer and Developer Salary — All Levels.
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