LinkedIn vs PayPal Interview Questions
LinkedIn lists 141 LeetCode interview questions while PayPal lists 105. They share 25 problems — 18% of LinkedIn's bank and 24% of PayPal's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 116 LinkedIn-only and 80 PayPal-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 25 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both LinkedIn and PayPal.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add LinkedIn-specific problems like Max Stack, Nested List Weight Sum II, All O`one Data Structure and PayPal-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: LinkedIn skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
25 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both LinkedIn and PayPal.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | Medium |
| Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree | Hard |
| Kth Largest Element in an Array | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Palindromic Substrings | Medium |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Insert Interval | Medium |
| Valid Sudoku | Medium |
| Combination Sum | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Fizz Buzz | Easy |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Random Pick with Weight | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
Unique to LinkedIn (116)
Problems in LinkedIn's list that do not appear at PayPal.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Max Stack | Hard |
| Nested List Weight Sum II | Medium |
| All O`one Data Structure | Hard |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Find the Celebrity | Medium |
| Nested List Weight Sum | Medium |
| Design Authentication Manager | Medium |
| Find Leaves of Binary Tree | Medium |
| Shortest Word Distance II | Medium |
| Max Consecutive Ones III | Medium |
| Can Place Flowers | Easy |
| Pow(x, n) | Medium |
Unique to PayPal (80)
Problems in PayPal's list that do not appear at LinkedIn.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do LinkedIn and PayPal share?
LinkedIn and PayPal share 25 LeetCode interview questions. 116 problems appear only in LinkedIn's list and 80 appear only in PayPal's list.
What topics overlap most between LinkedIn and PayPal?
The most common shared topics between LinkedIn and PayPal are Array (18 shared questions), String (7 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), Binary Search (5 shared questions), Hash Table (4 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: LinkedIn or PayPal?
LinkedIn has 25 Easy, 90 Medium, and 26 Hard questions. PayPal has 19 Easy, 69 Medium, and 17 Hard questions. LinkedIn has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both LinkedIn and PayPal?
Start with the 25 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 LinkedIn-specific and 20 PayPal-specific questions to round out your prep.