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How Zillow Interviews in 2026: Process, Sample Questions & What They Score

The complete process, sample questions, and what interviewers score.

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Zillow / Interview snapshot

9

stages from
application to offer

46

reported questions

75

public sources

Last verifiedOct 2026
HOW TO READ THIS PLAYBOOK

Independent: SupaCV is not affiliated with or endorsed by Zillow. This is one well-documented shape of Zillow's interviews, not a script: processes change and vary by role, team, level, and region, so confirm specifics with your recruiter.

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On this page

01 / For every Zillow candidate

The process, start to finish.

Zillow (Zillow Group) runs a large US consumer real estate marketplace. Its best-known hiring track is software engineering, based in Seattle, remote across the US, and in engineering hubs in Mexico (the careers site also lists India, which this playbook does not cover in detail). This playbook covers that track. Product, data and sales loops are different and are not covered here.

Candidate reports describe a 30-minute recruiter screen and a 60-minute live-coding technical screen, usually on HackerRank, CodeSignal or CoderPad. Some candidates then had a recruiter prep call or team matching. The loop ends in a virtual onsite of four to five interviews of about an hour each, 4 to 5 hours in all, sometimes split over two days.

The onsite commonly has two coding rounds, a system design round on a real estate topic such as property search, and behavioral or hiring manager time. Several reports say the coding rounds also include behavioral questions; one gives 10 to 15 minutes per session and two tie the questions to Zillow's core values. Zillow's own interview prep page names four engineering formats: STAR behavioral, system design, greenfield coding and refactoring code.

It says greenfield coding imitates real-world problems rather than LeetCode-style questions, but it does not say every candidate gets all four. Refactoring and legacy-code rounds show up most often in reports from the Mexico hubs, which also supply many of the 2024 and 2025 reports. That makes about 6 to 7 rounds in total. Reported timelines run from about three weeks to six weeks in the US, though one US candidate described about two months of scheduling problems.

Some Mexico candidates waited two to three months. Zillow publishes six core values and five leadership principles on its careers site. It does not publish an interview scoring rubric or say how the values are used to score candidates, so this playbook lists no evaluation framework.

Stage 1:

Recruiter screen

about 30 minutes

Covers your background, interest in Zillow, the role and process, and sometimes compensation expectations. Several candidates were first contacted by recruiters on LinkedIn or Hired.

Stage 2:

Technical phone screen

about 60 minutes

Live coding with one or two engineers on HackerRank, CodeSignal or CoderPad. Usually one or two LeetCode easy-to-medium problems, though one report describes a hard problem. A short intro, sometimes brief behavioral questions on Zillow core values, and time for your questions are included. Some teams use domain-specific questions or a small practical coding task instead of LeetCode. One 2021 candidate instead got a 90-minute HackerRank-style test.

Stage 3:

Recruiter prep call and team matching

varies

Not every candidate gets this step, and it varies by team and level. Some candidates had a prep call in which the recruiter explained the onsite format. Others were matched to a team first so the final round could be run by that team or a sibling team. One report describes a team-matching interview with the hiring manager after the onsite instead. Reported gaps between the screen and the onsite range from a few days to a few weeks.

Stage 4:

Virtual onsite loop (overall)

4-5 hours total

Usually four to five interviews of about an hour each, over video, sometimes split across two days. The mix varies by team, level and hub: commonly two coding rounds, one system design round, and behavioral or hiring manager time. Some loops add a refactoring round, a craft deep dive or a product partner. One US report describes a shorter 2.5-hour final round.

Stage 5:

Onsite round: coding

about 45-60 minutes each

Usually two rounds of mostly LeetCode-medium data structures and algorithms problems, such as graphs, sliding window and arrays; some reports describe easier problems. Several candidates said interviewers gave hints. One principal-level candidate estimated each session at about 60 percent coding and 40 percent behavioral. Mobile and front-end candidates sometimes got platform tasks (React, Swift, Xcode) instead.

Stage 6:

Onsite round: greenfield or refactoring (legacy code) coding

varies

It varies by team and hub. In candidate reports, a separate refactoring or legacy-code round appears mostly for Mexico-hub candidates, who also supply many of the recent reports. Zillow's prep page describes greenfield coding as imitating real-world problems rather than LeetCode-style questions, and the page does not say every candidate gets this round. The refactoring round means working in unfamiliar code. Candidates describe changing and extending existing code to meet new requirements and explaining their design choices.

Stage 7:

Onsite round: system design

about 60 minutes

Prompts are often real estate problems, such as property search by location, saved-search or price-drop notifications, and home valuation. One guide says this round is more common for senior candidates. One principal-level loop had two design rounds.

Stage 8:

Onsite round: behavioral, hiring manager or craft deep dive

varies

Length varies by team. One report had a 30-minute hiring manager discussion. Expect STAR-format behavioral questions; Zillow's prep page has STAR videos, and candidates say the questions relate to its core values. Some loops add a culture-fit or product manager interview, or a craft deep dive on your specialty (frontend, backend or mobile).

Stage 9:

Hiring decision and offer

varies

One prep guide says 3 to 7 business days and describes a hiring committee review; no other source confirms either point. Candidate reports range from a decision the next day to an offer about two weeks after the final round. Many candidates say they got no detailed feedback after a rejection.

Candidate reports on communication are mixed. Several describe slow scheduling, being passed between recruiters, and getting no feedback or no reply after the final round; others describe quick decisions and clear next steps.

Reported interview time, one scale in minutes

Where the minutes go

  • Recruiter screen~30 min
  • Technical phone screen~60 min
  • Onsite round: coding~45 to 60 min
  • Onsite round: system design~60 min
Low end of what is reportedUp to the high end

Not drawn: Recruiter prep call and team matching, Virtual onsite loop, Onsite round: greenfield or refactoring coding, Onsite round: behavioral, hiring manager or craft deep dive and Hiring decision and offer, whose durations are not given in minutes.

02 / What Zillow scores

No publicly documented framework

03 / Coach's notes

Coach's tips.

The coach's tips are part of Interview Prep, which is included with Career.

04 / The research

Where this page comes from.

Compiled from public sources across 10 sites. Zillow's own page is among them: zillow.com/careers/interview-prep.

sites
10
coaching and prep guides
71
Zillow's own pages
2
candidate reports and forums
2

Source composition

Where the research comes from

Grouped by the kind of site that published each source: Zillow's own domain, candidate forums, and everything else.

  • Coaching and prep guides71
  • Zillow's own pages2
  • Candidate reports and forums2

05 / The questions

Sample questions, by category.

Roles in the full set

Roles are grouped by the category each question fits, not by the source. Switching roles is part of Interview Prep, included with Career. The counts show what each role holds in the full set.

  1. Sample question, Algorithmic coding

    Determine whether a string of parentheses is valid, with matching and properly nested opening and closing pairs (Valid Parentheses, sometimes a variant).

    Tests a stack to match nested delimiters in O(n) time, including empty and unbalanced input.

  2. Sample question, Practical coding

    Given a list of strings containing formatted results, process them and filter the list based on a set of criteria.

    Tests string parsing, predicate-based filtering and clean code structure on a practical problem.

  3. Sample question, Behavioral and motivation

    Describe a project on your resume.

Showing 3 of 46 reported questions. The rest are in Interview Prep.

Practice Zillow questions in Interview Prep

Interview Prep is included with Career. Add Zillow as a Target Role and it builds an 8-question practice session from Zillow's reported questions, scores your answers, and adds the coach's tips.

Start free: score your resume, no credit card. Prep for Zillow comes next, in Interview Prep on Career.

Score your resume, then prep for ZillowCompare plans

Common questions

Quick answers.

How many stages are in Zillow's interview process?

Zillow has 9 stages, set out in The process.

Does Zillow have an official interview framework?

Zillow has no publicly documented framework, as set out in What Zillow scores.

What kinds of questions does Zillow ask?

Zillow's questions fall into 6 categories, grouped in The questions.

How reliable is this Zillow interview playbook?

It is compiled from public sources, and the evidence is in The research.

Sources (75)

Every public source this page was compiled from. Links open in a new tab.

10 sites, by sources

  • jointaro.com62
  • cleverprep.com3
  • zillow.com2
  • teamblind.com2
  • techinterview.org1
  • techprep.app1
  • dice.com1
  • prachub.com1
  • orbytlabs.ai1
  • hrdive.com1
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  2. 02zillow.com/careers/our-values
  3. 03cleverprep.com/companies/zillow
  4. 04cleverprep.com/companies/zillow/software-engineer
  5. 05cleverprep.com/companies/zillow/product-manager
  6. 06techinterview.org/companies/zillow-interview-guide
  7. 07techprep.app/blog/zillow-interview-process
  8. 08dice.com/career-advice/how-to-land-a-job-at-zillow
  9. 09teamblind.com/post/zillow-interview-process-fvfvqmol
  10. 10teamblind.com/company/Zillow/posts/zillow-interview
  11. 11jointaro.com/interviews/companies/zillow/work-experiences/principal…
  12. 12prachub.com/resources/zillow-swe-intern-interview-2027-coding-asse…
  13. 13orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-jobs/interview-prep/zillow
  14. 14hrdive.com/news/how-zillows-culture-has-proven-to-be-a-key-succes…
  15. 15jointaro.com/interviews/companies/zillow/experiences/software-engin…
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