Table of contents
1.
Introduction🤓
2.
About the role🔎
3.
Salary and Perks of SDE at Expedia💸💸
4.
Skills and Experience required🤹‍♂️
5.
Job Expectations/Responsibilities🙋‍♂️ 
6.
Roadmap🛣️
6.1.
Master the right skills😎
6.2.
General advice😊
6.3.
Create a resume📜
6.4.
Build Foundation⚒️
6.5.
Practice for interviews📖 
6.6.
Get ready for Interviews👩‍💼
6.7.
Start Revision📘
6.8.
Mock interviews🙊
7.
Career Map🗺
7.1.
SDE at Expedia  (SDE I)😊
7.2.
SDE at Expedia (SDE II)😊
7.3.
SDE at Expedia (SDE III)😊
8.
Frequently Asked Questions🤔❓
8.1.
What is a Software Developer?
8.2.
Is SDE the same as a software engineer?
8.3.
How long does it take to learn DSA?
8.4.
How do I start learning DSA?
8.5.
What is the most essential skill for a software developer?
9.
Conclusion🏁
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

SDE at Expedia

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Introduction🤓

Are you playing to the full strength of your algorithms and data structures? Those who aim to optimize and simplify how technology works are software development engineers. And if you're hunting for an opportunity to be one, SDE at Expedia might be your thing! 

Written software development enginees

Expedia Group is an American online travel shopping company for consumer and small business travel. We connect partners large and small to the world of travelers, giving them access to data, tools, and technology to unlock their full potential and build their businesses.

About the role🔎

SDE at Expedia is responsible for creating cross-platform applications and software systems, applying the principles of computer science, information technology, computer engineering, and analysis to help organizations and individuals make informed decisions.

Written about the role

SDE helps solve complex problems during debugging. Software development engineers do not program blindly. It also designs everyday tasks such as how the application works, how to reduce time complexity, space complexity, etc.

Salary and Perks of SDE at Expedia💸💸

Written salary and perks
        Salary                             Amount
Base Pay Average ₹2,24,154 - ₹37,00,000 per year
Additional Pay Average  ₹15,95,480 per year🤑

**Salary is subject to change according to the company.

When you work as  SDE at Expedia, you'll discover that the benefits go beyond money. You'll have access to fantastic benefits like working with brilliant colleagues with a wealth of Experience.

✨Salary continuance insurance

✨Paid parental leave 

✨Education assistance

✨Salary packaging

✨The ability to purchase additional leave

✨Discounts on entertainment

✨Financial and wellbeing services

✨Travel and shopping

Skills and Experience required🤹‍♂️

written skills and experience

Skills Required to Become an SDE at Expedia

➡️Deep understanding and grip of Algorithms and Data Structures

➡️Proficiency in one language, C++ or Java

➡️Object-Oriented Programming

➡️Good understanding of concepts in Computer Science

➡️Good Analytical and Problem Solving Skills Requirements

➡️Deep proficiency in, at a minimum, one programming language, and technical stack

➡️Extensive experience in building complex and scalable solutions

➡️Be able to objectify and develop a prototype quickly

➡️Hands-on working with databases and other technologies

➡️Experience with UNIX/Linux-based environment

➡️Ability to work in fuzzy environments and complex environments

➡️Tremendous and in-depth knowledge of Algorithms and Data Structures

➡️Experience in coding competitions could be a bonus

➡️Good in Mathematics and Logic building

Job Expectations/Responsibilities🙋‍♂️ 

Written Job Expectation & Responsibilities

SDE at Expedia is responsible for creating cross-platform applications and software systems, applying the principles of computer science, information technology, computer engineering, and analytics to help organizations and individuals make informed decisions. We will support you in doing so. They are involved in making all modifications of various software according to customer requirements and optimizing applications for better performance.

Software Development Engineers will be responsible for the delivery, development, design & support required by multi-tiered, large-scale, distributed software applications and tools. You need to have a passion for technology.

Additionally, you will need the ability to deploy new and novel technologies in environments often low on humans and capital. From solving complex algorithm problems, software development engineers also develop complex algorithms to solve real-life crises. They are involved in the system design of several applications and thus contribute to their technical architecture.

Roadmap🛣️

Written Road map

Starting from scratch for preparations can be daunting, and we understand that. Hence we have created a roadmap for you to look into that will aid you in understanding the steps involved in getting the job. Below are a few articles and guides that will help you get started!

How to get better at DSA for Beginners

How to build a solid career in Software Development

Interview Experiences at Expedia Group

Master DSA

Aptitude preparation guide for interviews 

Guide to Web Technologies

Learn Java

Learn C 

Learn Python

Competitive coding

Mobile Technologies

Master the right skills😎

Getting proficient is the stepping stone to acing interviews. DSA, OOPs, DBMS and OS are the key concepts you need to be thorough with. Here is how you can master these skills.

DSA💯

The best way to gain comprehensive knowledge of Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) is to enroll yourself with an institute that offers you the required information with features that helps you understand the course stuff in the best way possible.

Furthermore, while learning DSA, you can refer to a few books that focus solely on interview questions. While gaining the required knowledge, you will also be able to study and accustom yourself to the different questions you could ask in an interview.

A few books that you could refer to for DSA interview questions are -

  • Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
     
  • The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven S. Skiena
     
  • Elements of Programming Interviews by Adnan Aziz, Tsung Hsien Lee, and Amit Prakash.
     
  • Programming Interviews Exposed by Noah Suojanen Kindler
     
  • Refer to our guide on How to get better at DSA for Beginners to get started!😉


DBMS🗃️

Read Database System Concepts by Silberschatz front to back. It is a beautiful book for beginners. It has everything right, from defining a database to transactions and protocols.

Then work on any project. MySQL is good to start with. Try getting your hands dirty on different databases like MySQL, Postgres, and any other open-source database. Understand the fundamental working of each and the differences between them. Practice SQL hard- It is impossible to work with databases without knowing the elegant style of SQL.

Refer to the guide on Introduction to DBMS to get a better understanding.


OS💻

A deep understanding of operating systems is helpful in any career in technology. For example, say you want to become a web developer. You can expect your operating system knowledge to come up if you host your site on a server.

It takes two to three months to master the principles of a modern operating system. If you plan to create your own or use existing themes to create complex scripts, expect to spend more time learning the operating system.

You should understand basic computer science concepts to learn the fundamentals of operating systems. Learning the basic theory will only take a few weeks if this is the case.

The basics include knowing the operating system's different parts, the kernel's role, and the differences between top operating systems.

Expect a much longer learning curve when creating an operating system project. For example, creating a bootloader can take a month or two. This is a typical project in operating system research.

If you study for an hour or two a day, it will take you two months to become proficient with the latest operating systems. This includes learning the basics of Linux and Windows. However, you may want to narrow your research and focus on a single operating system. This reduces the time it takes to learn how to use the operating system.


General advice😊

✨Do not fall into the tutorial hell.

✨Supplement (reading/watching) good tutorials with implementation.

✨The number of tutorials you go through is not correlated to your learning.

✨Avoid skimming through solutions to past interview questions

✨Focus on using your problem-solving skills to solve and code problems related to DSA.

✨Relying on past interview problems without having a solid foundation and good problem-solving skills is one of the biggest reasons for failures in interviews.

✨Don't look at solutions before putting much effort

✨While solving problems, avoid going through the solution before spending a lot of time solving it yourself.

✨If it belongs to a new topic, then go through it and return to the problem.

✨Write readable code

✨Use meaningful variable names and make your code modular wherever possible.

✨This would help significantly during both PS/DS interviews and the machine coding round.

✨You may go through "How to prepare for Machine Coding Round?" to understand how to write readable code.

✨Know your projects well

✨If you've done projects (self-projects/jobs/internships/college projects), you should be able to explain everything about your projects.

Create a resume📜

Follow resume best practices

➡️Use a suitable resume format

➡️Keep updating your resume based on your performance in competitive programming, the addition of new projects/internships, open-source contributions, etc.

Build Foundation⚒️

❇️Learn to code in any language of your choice with a strong focus on foundations

❇️I think starting with C is a good idea and then moving to any high-level language of your choice (C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, etc.).

❇️Have a firm grasp of Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA)

❇️The most common data structures you should master are Array, Linked List, Stack, Queue, HashMap, Tree, Graph, and Heap.

❇️Learn Object-Oriented Programming (OOP, commonly known as OOPs)

❇️Learn the standard OOP features (Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism)

❇️Have strong foundations in other CS subjects (DBMS, OS, Networking, etc.)

❇️Try to understand the concepts instead of just memorizing stuff.

❇️Make sure to create notes of all the essential concepts for each subject. Those would be extremely helpful closer to the interviews.

Practice for interviews📖 

👉Solve Problem-Solving, Data Structures & Algorithms problems

👉Focus on solving data structures, algorithms, and problem-solving problems.

👉Try to have 100% coverage for all the topics.

Get ready for Interviews👩‍💼

👉Confidence in Problem-Solving, Data Structures & Algorithms (PS/DS)

👉Focus on topics where you're facing difficulties.

👉Work on strengthening your foundations of those topics.

👉After that, solve problems related to those.

Start Revision📘

👉Try to solve some problems from each of the DSA topics

👉Start with the common questions and questions that you've previously faced difficulty solving.

👉Go through the notes you've created for all the CS subjects.

👉Go through details about your projects in-depth.

👉Make sure you can map situational questions to real stories from your projects off the top of your head.

Mock interviews🙊

👉Try to have around 10-15 mock interview sessions to check your preparation.

👉Try to identify your strengths and weaknesses and make sure to fix your faults and all common interview mistakes through mock interviews.

Career Map🗺

Written Career Map

SDE at Expedia is usually at five levels: SDE I, SDE II, SDE III, Architect, and Principal Architect. It's usually the company's policy to keep salary ranges for each level separate and the bar. The bar indicates the candidate's status according to various evaluations the company wants and how well the candidate can think.

Next-level knowledge can be acquired by working with "Senior" folks in the team. 

SDE at Expedia  (SDE I)😊

When you learn the basics of Computer Science and graduate with some interest in programming, you usually get into an SDE-I role. If you have 2-3 years of Experience in another company, you would be primarily considered for SDE I only.

Engineers usually start with bug fixes and write test cases during this phase. You are looking at classes or functions and are probably confused about why the classes are organized in a highly meaningless way.

One of the strengths should be Problem Solving. When a bug is reported, able to reproduce the bug, identify the bug with the help of log messages or tools and understand what has caused it, and work with a team member to fix it.

To grow to the next level requires a lot of hard work, understanding domain knowledge, identifying problems, writing solutions, and understanding design to an extent.

SDE at Expedia (SDE II)😊

Within a company, you get opportunities to solve problems, contribute to showcase yourself, and grow your knowledge. It may take up to 1-3 years to move from SDE I to SDE II.

Coding

They see how you write code given a problem. They would slightly tweak the requirements to determine how you'd modify the existing code. Here is where your knowledge of Design Patterns comes in. All the rest of the clean code, test cases, separation of concerns, DRY(don't repeat yourself), abstractions, and assumptions. People usually do wrong in an interview because they start coding immediately. It would be best to clarify anything you feel is amiss in the requirement.

 

Problem Solving

You were given a problem; you need to understand what may fail. This is part of the code you write above, but when at SDE-II, you also need to think about Non Functional Requirements(NFR). You need to think about identifying bottlenecks, identify what caused an outage in your codebase, what caused the blackout, and pinpoint the code region (at the least).

 

Breadth of Knowledge

Usually, a bread of knowledge is required in your code and other libraries, maybe in the infrastructure components your team uses.

SDE at Expedia (SDE III)😊

This is a very tricky level to be interviewed for, and this is where engineers are supposed to be mature in taking decisions since usually it takes 5-10 years to get to that stage of maturity, knowledge, depth, and breadth in your understanding of applying solutions, dealing with NFRs, problem-solving, dealing with components other than your code.

Showcasing patience at this level is essential since you are the decision maker and have to deal with other SDE-Is and SDE-IIs in your team when they come in for advice.

There is system design, low-level design, gathering requirements, understanding things you did not know existing or cared about the previous week like saving costs by changing hardware, identifying resource wastage, building systems which all teams in your company may use, able to present your opinion in the right way to showcase The Good, The Bad and The Evil of approaches, respecting lines, understanding positives, and negatives of a framework, ability to differentiate between various programming languages, anticipating problems which you may hit and distinguish between short-term and long-term.

Frequently Asked Questions🤔❓

What is a Software Developer?

Software Developers are experts in computer science who use their knowledge of engineering concepts and programming languages to develop software products, produce computer games, and manage network control systems.

Is SDE the same as a software engineer?

Software Development is a solitary activity, while Software Engineering involves team efforts. Software Developers develop apps with readily available tools, while Software Engineers create tools to build software. Software Developers write programs. Software Engineers work with other components of the hardware system.

How long does it take to learn DSA?

DSA requires a significant investment of time and effort. It can take anywhere from 4-8 months to truly master it. The important thing is to put in the time and effort.

How do I start learning DSA?

To start learning DSA, master a programming language of your choice and then begin with understanding the basic concepts while simultaneously implementing them in the form of codes. Opt for a course or free resources online to get a structured path.

What is the most essential skill for a software developer?

Data structure and algorithms, Programming languages, Operating systems, Databases, Networking, and cryptography are a few.

Conclusion🏁

In this article, we have discussed most of the vital things you need to know about a Software Development Engineer at Expedia, along with a brief idea about Expedia, the most required skills, a quick roadmap, and how we will help you on this journey.

These articles will help you to explore more about technical roles at Expedia:

Refer to our Test Seriesproblems listsproblems, participate in contests, and take a look at our courses that will help you become proficient in DSA in PythonC++Java, and Competitive programmingThese Interview experiences will give you a heads-up on what you must prepare for!

Happy Learning!

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