Prepare for Groupon with a focused mix of coding, design, and communication. Start with your job description and confirm the interview loop with your recruiter.
01 / MAKE YOUR NEXT SESSION COUNT
Return a binary tree in level order. Compare an iterative queue with recursion and test an empty tree and a long chain.
A correct traversal, bounded auxiliary memory, and a clear explanation of the trade-off.
Merge two sorted arrays. Then adapt your solution when one array has enough unused space to hold both. Explain how you avoid overwriting unread values.
A maintained invariant, correct boundary handling, and justified complexity.
Describe a technical decision you changed after receiving feedback. Explain your contribution and the outcome.
Specific actions, honest reflection, and measurable impact.
BEFORE YOU PRACTICE
Get the details that a generic company guide cannot know.
Company-linked challenges and related lessons from our library. Not a prediction of your interview.
Aggregated from candidate submissions and public sources.
Historical figures from existing records; date and location may be unspecified. Verify current ranges on Levels.fyi.
SDE 1
Not Available
SDE 2
$164,583
$130,000 base · $20,583 stock · $14,000 bonus
SDE 3
$182,200
$142,800 base · $22,000 stock · $17,400 bonus
SDE 4
Not Available
SDE 5
Not Available
Reviews originally posted on Glassdoor.
Work life balance is good, my immediate manager gives me room to do what I need to do. Some of the technical problems are interesting challenges, when we have time to work on them.
The CTO has created a toxic environment where everyone is afraid for their job, and no disagreement with him is allowed without fear of repercussions. Cost cutting has led teams to only be able to keep the lights on, with no time for actually improving the software. Layoffs are being done with a goal of creating attrition due to uncertainty, instead of doing them and then moving forward. People as a result are unable to focus on their work and create momentum. Take pro-active steps to retain the remaining technical talent that you have left. Do not treat engineers like disposable commodities, or you will have no-one left capable of fixing a SEV1 caused by brain drain and new sub-standard engineers.
In general, people are really friendly and well intentioned. Everyone I've met within HR, benefits, support and other engineering groups have all been really helpful, standup people. Even a few really interesting characters. The selection of technologies in use, in my opinion, is questionable. I can't get into detail but the choices being made do not make me think that Groupon is investing money and talent into the right places. The unusual bits of culture within the company. "Inclusion" groups and the like, to me, are extremely weird and creepy. None of it has been mandatory, but it's never the less extremely odd to me. Sensitivity to terminology could not be more understated. Be cautious if you have an advanced vocabulary. People here have the propensity to Google words and take the first definition without context and react with vigor. Personally I find this behavior pretentious, but it is the way of the younger crowds. Speak carefully with small words.
Friendly and smart people, great and diverse company culture, nice office and amenities. They seem to be focused on gauging and improving employee satisfaction, maybe due to past turnover. I love my manager and I like the people I’ve met up the chain too. They’re very involved and helpful, and I like having the weekly manager one on one. Lots of people have stuck around 5+ years. Challenging problems to work on at scale. Good benefits too. Not great base compensation for engineers. There have been some high profile departures recently. Poor stock performance. Some startup tech baggage and slow evolution. Uncertainty about long term company prospects, lack of growth. Weak hiring pipeline.
One of the strengths of Groupon as an employer is its great work culture. Very supportive and collaborative work environment. The benefits are pretty good. Unlimited PTO policy is really amazing, especially at times when you have unexpected need for time off. They have standard health / Dental and Vision. High attrition across the company and also at the leadership levels. This leads to frequent re-orgs, sometimes change in direction and focus.