Atlassian vs Expedia: Interview Question Comparison

Preparing for technical interviews requires understanding a company's specific focus. Atlassian and Expedia, while both major tech employers, present distinct profiles in their coding interview question libraries. Atlassian's list is larger and more difficult on average, while Expedia's is more weighted toward foundational problems. Your preparation strategy should differ accordingly.

Question Volume and Difficulty

Atlassian's library contains 62 questions, categorized as 43 Medium, 12 Hard, and 7 Easy. This distribution reveals a clear emphasis on challenging problem-solving. Nearly one in five questions (19%) is rated Hard, indicating you must be comfortable with complex algorithmic thinking and optimization. The high volume of Medium questions forms the core of their assessment.

Expedia's library is smaller at 54 questions, with a significantly different breakdown: 35 Medium, 6 Hard, and 13 Easy. The proportion of Hard questions is much lower (~11%), and there is a substantial pool of Easy questions (24%). This suggests Expedia's process may place greater initial weight on verifying solid coding fundamentals and clear communication before escalating to moderate complexity.

Key Takeaway: Atlassian's interview is likely to probe depth and advanced problem-solving more aggressively. Expedia's process appears more graduated, starting from a stronger base of fundamental competency.

Topic Overlap

Both companies heavily test core data structures. The top four topics are identical, just in a slightly different order of prevalence:

• Atlassian: Array, Hash Table, String, Sorting
• Expedia: Array, String, Hash Table, Greedy

The high frequency of Array and String problems for both indicates mastery of two-pointer techniques, sliding windows, and string manipulation is non-negotiable. Hash Table usage for efficient lookups is equally critical.

The primary divergence is in the fourth spot: Atlassian explicitly lists Sorting, while Expedia lists Greedy. This doesn't mean Atlassian ignores greedy algorithms or Expedia ignores sorting—both are common sub-components of problems. It does hint at a slight nuance in focus. Atlassian's mention of Sorting may point to a liking for problems involving rearrangement, merging intervals, or leveraging sorted order. Expedia's Greedy tag suggests attention to problems where a locally optimal choice leads to a global solution, often involving scheduling or partitioning.

Here is a typical array problem you might encounter at either company:

def two_sum(nums, target):
    seen = {}
    for i, num in enumerate(nums):
        complement = target - num
        if complement in seen:
            return [seen[complement], i]
        seen[num] = i
    return []

Which to Prepare for First

Your preparation priority should be guided by your timeline and the difficulty curve you want to tackle.

Prepare for Expedia first if: You are early in your interview preparation cycle or want to build confidence. Its larger set of Easy questions and lower proportion of Hards provides a more approachable foundation. Mastering Expedia's list will solidify your skills with arrays, strings, and hash tables, which are the absolute essentials for any interview, including Atlassian's. It's an efficient way to build core competency.

Prepare for Atlassian first if: You are already comfortable with standard medium-difficulty problems and your primary goal is to pass a challenging Atlassian loop. Diving directly into their larger set of Medium and Hard questions will force you to level up quickly. The skills you develop here will make Expedia's question set feel comparatively less daunting. However, this path assumes a stronger initial baseline.

The most strategic approach: Start with the common core. Drill problems involving Arrays, Hash Tables, and Strings until you are fluent. Then, branch based on your target: practice Sorting-intensive problems for Atlassian and Greedy scenarios for Expedia. Since Atlassian's list is broader and harder, mastering it will inherently cover most of what Expedia tests, but not perfectly the other way around.

For the complete question lists, visit the Atlassian and Expedia pages on CodeJeet.