Company deep dives

Airbnb interviews

Practitioner methods · not candidate guidance · 2025–26

Method before polish

“The method is as much the product as the answer.”

Wren DoughertyAuthor, Airbnb Engineering & Data Science

Airbnb Engineering & Data Science · 2026-09-15

Keep the investigation inspectable

Can you defend the AI-generated prevalence figure?

Example

“improving the techniques used for each step of the process.”

Wren DoughertyAuthor, Airbnb Engineering & Data Science

Airbnb Engineering & Data Science · 2026-09-15

Choose what humans must check

What should you verify before using the estimate?

Example

Count added value

“we never observe the ground truth.”

Carlos Sanchez-Martinez, Sean O’Donnell, Lo-Hua Yuan and Yunshan ZhuCo-authors, Airbnb Engineering & Data Science

Airbnb Engineering & Data Science · 2025-04-01

Separate observed from incremental

Should a discount with more orders scale?

Example

“the transactions made by one listing might come at the expense of another listing’s transactions.”

Carlos Sanchez-Martinez, Sean O’Donnell, Lo-Hua Yuan and Yunshan ZhuCo-authors, Airbnb Engineering & Data Science

Airbnb Engineering & Data Science · 2025-04-01

Check displaced demand

Did volume grow or move?

Example

Last reviewed