Booking.com Backend Engineer interview experience

After the initial steps, the interviews lined up as system design first, then live coding, and then a fit/behavioral discussion.

In system design, I worked through a problem tied to an existing feature on Booking.com. The live coding round involved solving an internal-style problem and included optimization questions, so I wasn’t just trying to get something working—I had to think about improving it as I went. The behavioral round then focused on my current role, how I handle conflict, and how I work day to day.

What stood out to me most was that the format felt coherent from round to