LinkedIn engineering hiring runs on an interview process, not a single written exam — a recruiter/technical screen, then a loop of rounds mixing coding, design, and behavioral/values interviews. The exact rounds vary by level (IC2 vs Senior vs Staff), team, and location — the outline below is the pattern that shows up most consistently across recent (2025–2026) candidate reports.
Typical LinkedIn engineering interview process
| Stage | What it tests | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter Screen / Phone Screen | Background, motivation, and often 1 DSA question | 30–45 min |
| Coding rounds (1–3) | DSA — strings, sliding window, trees, graphs and heaps show up often, with a push toward optimized (not just correct) solutions | 45–60 min each |
| Design round(s) | LLD (class design and design patterns) and/or HLD (system design), scaling in depth with seniority | 45–60 min each |
| Craftsmanship / Behavioral | Scenario questions on code quality, mentorship, collaboration and legacy-system improvement, mapped to LinkedIn's stated culture and values | 45 min |
| Hiring Manager round | Project deep dive, leadership/collaboration discussion, sometimes a short closing design question | 45–60 min |
Behavioral and values questions show up throughout the loop, not just in a single dedicated round — candidates consistently report culture questions woven into design and hiring-manager rounds too. See the Behavioral & Culture-Fit Questions section to prepare for these directly.
Process varies by level, team and geography. IC2/SDE loops lean more heavily on DSA; Senior and Staff loops regularly add a dedicated LLD and/or HLD round, plus a separate craftsmanship or leadership round. Treat this table as the common pattern, not a guarantee of your exact loop.
Prepare each track on its own terms: DSA, LLD, System Design (HLD), and Behavioral & Culture-Fit.