Expedia · Primly Community

Just finished the Expedia onsite for iOS. here's the actual breakdown

mobile_mara · 5 replies

Did my onsite last month for a mid-level iOS role in the Vrbo vertical. Four rounds back to back over Zoom.

Round 1: Coding. Two problems: one string parsing (medium-ish), one on trees. Both in Swift, which they were cool about. Interviewer was pretty quiet but told me to narrate, so I did. Ran the whole time.

Round 2: iOS-specific design. Design a caching layer for offline hotel search. Not a generic system design, genuinely iOS-flavored. They asked about NSURLCache, custom disk caching, and how you handle eviction when storage gets tight. Pretty enjoyable actually.

Round 3: Behavioral. Four STAR questions. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a design decision and how you handled it. Tell me about a technical tradeoff you owned. They probed hard on the follow-ups. Not hostile, but definitely pushing to see if your answers are real.

Round 4: Hiring manager. Mostly career narrative and why Expedia. He brought up their tech migration off legacy systems and seemed to want someone who can handle ambiguity during transitions.

Offer came 8 days later. Process was clean. The iOS round was the most fun technical interview I've had in a while, honestly.

5 replies

jp_newgrad

this is so helpful. did they ask anything about SwiftUI vs UIKit specifically or was it just general iOS patterns? i'm stronger on UIKit and nervous about that

mobile_mara

they asked what I'd pick for a new greenfield component and why. i said UIKit for anything data-heavy with complex layout because i know it better, and they seemed fine with the honest answer. they're not going to fail you for UIKit in 2026.

sre_sol

the offline caching design question is interesting. expedia's apps have to work in spotty hotel wifi all the time, makes sense they care about it. good prep angle for anyone interviewing for mobile there.

returner_ren

eight days to offer is fast. did they give you any heads up or did it just land in your inbox? i always get anxious in that silent window after the loop

mobile_mara

recruiter pinged me on day 6 to say they were calibrating, offer letter came day 8. ask your recruiter for a timeline after the onsite. they were pretty responsive.