10 Deliveroo Software Engineer (New Grad, London) Interview Questions (2026)
Deliveroo's new-grad SWE loop in London in 2026 is a recruiter screen, a HackerRank or take-home coding task, a technical phone interview, and a four round virtual onsite covering coding, system design, behavioral, and a cross-functional collaboration round. Deliveroo emphasizes practical, domain-aware problem solving over leetcode tricks; expect questions framed around food delivery logistics.
By Sam K., Founder, InterviewChamp.AI · Last verified
Loop overview
London new-grad timelines run 5-8 weeks in 2026. Flow: recruiter → HackerRank OA or take-home (3-5 hours) → 45-min technical phone screen → four virtual onsite rounds. Onsite is one coding round, one system design conversation, one behavioral, and one cross-functional round with a product manager or designer.
Behavioral (3)
Tell me about a time you balanced multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities.
Frequently askedOutline
Deliveroo has three sides: customers, riders, restaurants. Pick a real example where you had to reconcile competing needs. Show: stakeholders, conflict, how you decided, outcome. Cross-functional collaboration is a real interview round at Deliveroo.
Why Deliveroo? What about food delivery or the operations side interests you?
Frequently askedOutline
Deliveroo's edge is logistics and operations: high-density urban delivery, restaurant partnerships, rider experience. Tie one element to a personal interest. Generic 'I want to work in food tech' answers underperform; operations curiosity wins.
Tell me about a time a project was harder than you expected. What did you do?
Frequently askedOutline
Show adaptability. Pick a real example: hidden complexity, scope creep, technical surprise. Walk through how you replanned, communicated, and adjusted. Avoid stories where you 'just pushed through' — show structured response.
Coding (LeetCode patterns) (4)
Implement a function that returns the minimum number of riders needed to deliver N orders given a max-orders-per-rider constraint.
Frequently askedOutline
Simple division with ceiling: ceil(N / max). Then extend: what if orders have different prep times or delivery deadlines? Walk through the natural extension to bin-packing. Time O(n) for the basic case.
Implement a function that returns true if two ordered sequences of restaurant menu items can be merged into one menu without conflicts.
Frequently askedOutline
Two-pointer merge with conflict check (same name, different price). Time O(n+m), space O(n+m). Walk through edge cases: empty sequences, all-conflict, no overlap.
Given an array of restaurant ratings, return the top 10 restaurants in O(n) time.
Occasionally askedOutline
Quickselect or a min-heap of size 10. Discuss when each is preferred. O(n) average with quickselect, O(n log 10) with heap (still O(n)). Walk through with a small example.
Implement a function that counts inversions in an array (pairs where i < j and a[i] > a[j]).
Occasionally askedOutline
Merge-sort-based: count cross-inversions during the merge step. O(n log n) time. Brute force is O(n^2). Walk through the merge-counting carefully — this trips candidates up.
Technical (2)
Given a list of delivery riders and a list of orders, assign each order to the nearest available rider.
Frequently askedOutline
Brute force: for each order, scan all riders, pick closest. O(n*m). Better: spatial index (quadtree, geohash) for O(log m) per query. Discuss real-time updates (rider locations change) and how to maintain the index efficiently. Walk through one assignment scenario.
How would you investigate a region where orders are taking 30% longer than expected?
Occasionally askedOutline
Segment by stage: restaurant prep, pickup wait, delivery time. Pull data and find which stage is slow. Check rider supply vs demand. Check restaurant performance. Talk to the operations team. Show structured root-cause analysis.
System / object-oriented design (1)
Design a system that estimates delivery time for an order given restaurant prep time, rider availability, and traffic.
Frequently askedOutline
Discuss: feature inputs (historical prep time, current queue depth, rider proximity, traffic API), prediction model (regression or simple heuristic for new-grad), confidence interval, and how to handle prediction errors. Walk through one order's ETA path. New-grads pass with framing, not ML depth.
Deliveroo interview tips
- Domain framing helps. Practice mapping algorithm problems to delivery logistics (assignment, routing, capacity).
- Cross-functional collaboration is a real interview round. Bring stories of working with PMs or designers.
- Ruby and Go dominate backend. Some Python in data services. Interviews are language-agnostic.
- London office is hybrid (2-3 days in-office). Visa sponsorship for non-UK candidates is supported.
- Deliveroo's three-sided market (customers, restaurants, riders) shows up in behavioral rounds. Bring multi-stakeholder stories.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Deliveroo's SWE new-grad interview process in London in 2026?
Most reports show 5-8 weeks from OA to offer.
Does Deliveroo London sponsor work visas?
Yes, including the UK Skilled Worker visa. Confirm specifics with your recruiter.
Does Deliveroo ask system design for new-grad SWE?
Yes, one round is a system design conversation, often delivery-logistics themed. New-grads pass with structured framing.
What languages does Deliveroo use?
Ruby and Go dominate. Some Python in data/ML. TypeScript for web. The interview accepts any language.
Is Deliveroo London remote-friendly?
Hybrid is the norm (2-3 days in-office). Some fully-remote roles within the UK. Confirm with your recruiter.