Yelp · Primly Community

Yelp behavioral interview questions and values, what the loop actually tests

mobile_mara · 5 replies

Interviewed at Yelp for a senior PM role and went through their behavioral rounds last quarter. I also know two engineers who went through the SWE loop around the same time, so this is a mix of perspectives.

First thing to know: Yelp leans heavily on their core values in the behavioral portion. They call them out explicitly and interviewers are literally calibrating you against them. So if you don't do some research on what those values are ahead of time, you're at a disadvantage.

The questions I got: "Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete data." (This was the most common one across my interviews, came up twice slightly reworded.) "Describe a conflict with a cross-functional partner and how you resolved it." "Tell me about a product decision you made that turned out to be wrong. What did you learn?" "Walk me through a time you had to influence without authority."

For the engineers I talked to, they got questions like "tell me about the most impactful technical decision you made" and "how do you handle disagreement with your tech lead."

What they're actually looking for: They want specificity. Every story should have a real outcome with a real number if possible. "We improved the experience" doesn't land. "We reduced drop-off by 18%" does. They also want to see that you reflect, not just that you executed.

One thing that surprised me: they asked a lot about failure and what you'd do differently. More than most companies I've interviewed at. My guess is they want people who don't over-polish their own narrative.

Prep framework that worked for me: four stories, each strong enough to answer any behavioral prompt. One conflict, one failure, one impact, one ambiguity. You can rotate them.

The vibe is fairly collaborative, not adversarial. The behavioral interviewer at PM level was someone I could have had a real conversation with, which I appreciated.

5 replies

growth_gabe

The failure question focus lines up with what I heard from a friend who interviewed there for growth PM. They said the interviewers would follow up multiple times if your answer sounded too polished.

content_cole

The incomplete-data question is basically at every company now but the fact that it came up twice in one loop means you should have at least two solid versions of that story. Good call-out.

brand_ben

I went through for a design role and can confirm the values calibration is real. The interviewer literally prefaced one question with "I want to understand how this connects to our value around [X]." It's more explicit than most companies.

consultant_cam

Exactly. I'd say 30 minutes reviewing their public values page the night before is worth more than another practice session.

nonprofit_nia

The four-story framework is underrated. I had six stories going in and the cognitive overhead of picking the right one mid-interview slowed me down. Four tight stories beats a bigger messy library.