Event held September 9. 2025

All About Yelp’s Resume Review and Coding Challenge

Getting into a major tech company takes preparation, and knowing what to expect makes all the difference. This Cafecito with Yelp Engineering session brought together Yelp employees based in Mexico, members of the product and recruiting teams, to talk through the hiring process, what the culture is actually like, and how to put your best foot forward as a candidate.

Here are some highlights from the conversation.

Learn More About Yelp as a Company
This session opened with a look at what it's actually like to work at Yelp. Fernando Fernandez, a Yelp Senior Product Manager who has been at Yelp for nearly five years, spoke to what keeps him here: the people, the culture, and a team dynamic that pushes you to grow. He also leads Somos Yelp, Yelp's Latinx Employee Resource Group (ERG), which speaks to the kind of community Yelp actively builds beyond the day to day work.

Lucía Cantú-Miller, a Yelp Software Engineer based in Monterrey, shared what joining Yelp actually looked like for her. From day one she had a dedicated mentor, structured first tickets that helped her ease into the codebase, and trainings she still goes back to today. She was also candid about navigating the language barrier, and how that was never something that got in the way at Yelp. From there she got involved quickly, jumping into Hack weeks and flying out for her first IRL.

If Lucía's experience is any indication, the culture and support are there from day one. What came next in the session was just as valuable: a resume workshop and a deep dive into the coding challenge, two of the biggest hurdles in the process.

Resume and Application Tips
Your resume is your first impression, and understanding what a US tech company is actually looking for can make a big difference in whether you move forward in the process. Ellen Heirbaut, Yelp Technical Recruiting Manager, led an interactive resume workshop, complete with live audience polls and AI-generated resume examples, breaking down exactly how engineering resumes are reviewed at Yelp. Here’s what to keep in mind:

Highlight measurable results: Resumes are strongest when they show impact. Think "Improved system performance by 25% by optimizing database queries" or "Automated testing resulting in a 30% decrease in bugs."
Tailor your resume to the role: Pull language from Yelp's job descriptions, especially the "What You'll Do" and "What It Takes to Succeed" sections, and align your experience accordingly.
Keep formatting clear: Use chronological order, list technical skills and technologies, and consider adding a short summary at the top.
Know what to leave off: For U.S.standard resumes, stick to name, email, LinkedIn, and optionally a phone number. No need for marital status, full mailing address, or identification numbers.

Demystifying the Coding Challenge
The coding challenge is often the stage where candidates hesitate or drop off, and this part of the event was dedicated to changing that. Julio César Barrera Olivera, a Yelp Software Engineer based in Tijuana who studied mathematics at UNAM and computer engineering at Tec de Monterrey, knew this firsthand. He shared that coding challenges aren' t as common in Mexico's hiring landscape, but breaking into a major tech company means being ready for them, and that’s exactly what he came to share.

The REACTO Framework
What Julio made clear is that coding challenges aren't just about getting the right answer. Interviewers are also evaluating how you reason through a problem, communicate your thinking out loud, and respond to feedback. Practicing with a real person or an AI tool that simulates interviews was what built his confidence, and that's also how he came across REACTO, a structured framework he walked through live during the session. Here's the breakdown:

Restate the problem in your own words to confirm understanding and surface edge cases.
Examples. Walk through sample inputs and outputs before coding.
Approach. Think out loud, explain your reasoning, and discuss trade-offs.
Code. Translate your plan into code, narrating as you go.
Test. Run through test cases and check edge cases. If something fails, iterate.
Optimize. Discuss efficiency and mention potential improvements, even if you don't have time to fully implement them.

Resources Julio Recommended

Yelp's Interview Prep Resources (available on the careers page and shared by your recruiter)
HackerRank (the platform Yelp uses for coding challenges)
Advent of Code
Cracking the Coding Interview
LeetCode Interview Crash Course

Watch the Full Session

This blog captures the highlights, but the full session is worth your time. Watch the recording to see the resume workshop polls in action, Julio's live REACTO walkthrough with a real coding problem, and the Q&A where the speakers answered questions from the audience directly. If you're preparing to apply to Yelp or any major tech company, this one's a good resource to have in your back pocket.

¡Éxito! 🎉

About the Speakers

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