Top 39
Prep plan
Updated weekly · Last refresh Sep 27

PayPal Backend Engineer Interview Questions

The questions to prepare for a PayPal Backend Engineer interview. Questions from real interview reports rank first. Updated daily.

39questions
~8htotal time
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1
CodingStart here. 16 questions · ~207 min
Dynamic Programming Grid TraversalHard
Practice

Use 3D dynamic programming to maximize rewards collected by two PayPal checkout agents moving through a grid.

Dynamic ProgrammingAlgorithmsPayPal
Palindrome Detection Follow-UpsHard
Practice

Normalize a string, detect palindromes, find the longest palindromic substring, and compute minimum insertions using two pointers and dynamic programming.

StringsPayPal
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2
System Design10 questions · ~129 min
Design Real-Time Fraud Risk ScoringHard
Recently asked

Design a real-time fraud scoring system for card transactions with strict latency, delayed labels, and high availability requirements.

Feature StoreFeature DriftModel ServingPayPal
Design a Payment SystemHard

Design Venmo's payment and request flow with ledger correctness, real-time ML risk scoring, and safe degradation.

distributed systemsauthorizationdesignPayPal
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3
Behavioral & Leadership9 questions · ~117 min
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4
More topics4 questions · ~52 min
Data Structures vs Operating SystemsHard

Explain how data structures and operating-system concepts solved a backend problem, including trade-offs, verification, and failure handling.

Data StructuresDebuggingOperating SystemsPayPal
Designing Database SchemasMedium

Tests data modeling skills, normalization, indexing, and performance considerations for production systems.

Trade-offsRisk AssessmentScope ManagementPayPal
Containerization ExperienceMedium

Tests your hands-on containerization knowledge and how you apply it in deployment workflows.

dockercontainerizationtechnical experiencePayPal
Optimizing Slow SQL QueriesMedium

Tests your ability to diagnose and improve SQL performance using query and indexing strategies.

Window FunctionsJoinsAggregationsPayPal
Hands-on SQL practiceWrite and run real queries in the editor. 3 drills · ~30 min
The finish line: interview-readyComplete all 39 questions plus 3 hands-on drills to finish this plan.