Finished a Dropbox onsite in late spring 2026. They call it virtual onsite now, it's a full day of back-to-back Zoom sessions. Here's how it was structured.
Five rounds total: Coding A (algorithm-focused, 45 min) Coding B (more systems/practical, 45 min) System design (50 min) Behavioral / hiring manager (45 min) Cross-functional / culture (30 min)
There's a 30-min lunch break in the middle, which they actually encourage you to take. I did. The afternoon went better for it.
The two coding rounds are described above in another post. What I want to add: pacing matters a lot. In Coding A I got stuck for about 8 minutes on an optimization I hadn't seen, and I talked through it out loud the whole time. The interviewer later said (after I got the offer) that the thinking-out-loud mattered because it showed I wasn't just pattern-matching.
System design: detailed in another thread. For onsite at L5 they want you driving fully, not just answering prompts.
Hiring manager round was mostly behavioral but also got into team fit and current projects. She asked me what kinds of engineering problems I found most interesting and whether I had opinions about distributed consistency models. That was unexpected but fun.
Cross-functional round was lighter, more culture and working style. A few questions about how I handle ambiguity and how I collaborate with PMs and designers.
Debrief took about 10 days from my onsite to offer call. Recruiter checked in at the one-week mark.
One practical note: I got asked in the HM round whether I had other offers I was considering. Yes, I did (one real one, one in progress). Naming them by company definitely helped set a timeline.