Staff Cybersecurity Engineer Interview Preparation Guide - Airbnb

Airbnb's interview process for staff-level engineering roles typically follows a structured pipeline consisting of an initial recruiter screening, followed by technical phone screens, and comprehensive onsite interviews. For staff-level security engineering, the process emphasizes both deep technical expertise in security architecture and systems design, as well as leadership capabilities, mentorship philosophy, and ability to influence security strategy across multiple teams. The interview assesses your hands-on security engineering skills, architectural thinking, ability to design and implement large-scale security systems, experience with advanced security technologies and automation, and your track record of driving security initiatives and mentoring junior engineers.