Twilio · Primly Community

Twilio coding interview / online assessment, format and difficulty (just did it, 2026)

backend_bekah · 4 replies

Just cleared the Twilio OA last week so posting while it's fresh. Applying for a software engineer role, 2025 grad.

The online assessment: Two coding questions, 90 minutes total. Both were on HackerRank. The first one was a medium-level string/parsing problem, the kind where you have to handle edge cases carefully. Think: given a sequence of API webhook events, reconstruct the order of delivery and identify any duplicates. Very Twilio-flavored.

The second was closer to a medium-hard graph/BFS problem. Not textbook "find the shortest path" though. It had a real-world framing about message routing between nodes where some nodes have capacity limits.

Difficulty: both felt like LC medium. I didn't see anything LC hard. But the edge cases on the first problem caught me because I initially didn't handle empty strings properly.

Time distribution: I spent about 35 minutes on Q1, 45 on Q2, and the last 10 writing test cases. Submitting tests felt important because the problem statements mentioned they care about correctness over speed.

After the OA: Got a recruiter call 10 days later. They said they look at passing test cases and code quality (readability, not just correctness). So don't just smash it in, add comments.

Languages: I used Python. Saw in another post someone used Java, said it was fine. They list Python, Java, C++, JavaScript as accepted.

One thing I wasn't sure about: the OA doesn't have a proctoring webcam, at least mine didn't. Just the HackerRank environment.

If you're studying: I'd do 15-20 LC mediums with a focus on strings, graphs, and queue-based simulation. That should cover it. Good luck.

4 replies

jp_newgrad

Did they give you a heads-up on which topics the OA would cover, or was it completely surprise? I have mine scheduled and I'm not sure whether to drill trees or focus on string manipulation.

brand_ben

No heads-up. The email just said "two algorithm problems, 90 minutes." Based on mine I'd say strings and graphs cover the main patterns. Trees didn't show up but that's just one data point.

firsttime_mgr

The "reconstruct delivery order from events" type question is very real-world Twilio. That's basically debugging their own webhook delivery system. Nice that they make the problems actually relevant instead of the standard "reverse a linked list" timewaster.

quietquit_quincy

Passed a similar OA at Twilio about 18 months ago and can confirm the format hasn't changed much. Two mediums, HackerRank, code quality matters. Went on to get an offer. The live technical round afterward is a different vibe though, more conversational.