Tripadvisor Software Engineer interview experience

I designed Minesweeper from scratch and wrote out the algorithm for playing the game, including thinking through how the logic would work.

They ultimately rejected me anyway, and the reason I was given was basically that I wasn’t fast enough with coding. It felt dismissive to me because the job wasn’t just about raw speed—it was also about problem solving, handling corner cases, and designing the solution holistically rather than racing to finish. Walking away without an offer still stung, but what I remember most was how narrowly the evaluation was framed.