A friend’s Staff Engineer interview journey at Agoda (Bangkok 🇹🇭)

Here’s how his 5 rounds went:

R1: Online Assessment (HackerRank)
1 DSA (LC Hard)
1 API design → you really need to know plain vanilla HTTP client basics here. No Spring/abstract client magic available.

R2: Live DSA (HackerRank)
2 coding Qs (easy–medium)
• Variation of Stock Buy/Sell
• A DP one (similar to Jump Game)
You were expected to code, run, and pass all test cases live.

R3: Platform Round
Given a badly designed system → asked to improve it
Code review + DB/tech choices
Lots of “how / what / why / why not” grilling.

R4: System Design (HLD)
A hotel booking/search system similar to booking with an emphasis on proximity-based search.

R5: Hiring Manager
Behavioral + past experience
“Why Agoda?” + relocation motivation
Salary expectations 💰

The twist?
He cleared all technicals but got rejected in R5.
Not because of tech, but because:
He couldn’t defend his move from BLR to BKK with almost same CTC basis PPP.