Stripe coding interview
questions, leaked.
6 problems reported across recent Stripe interviews. Top patterns: string, array, breadth first search. The list below is what most reported candidates actually saw, plus the honest play if you can't grind all of it.
Stripe's assessment hits you with graph and string problems buried under dynamic programming and backtracking constraints. Six reported problems total, split 4 medium and 2 hard. You're looking at Evaluate Division, Cheapest Flights Within K Stops, and Optimal Account Balancing as the heavy hitters. These aren't easy warm-ups. Most candidates prep for trees and basic DP, then choke when they see graph shortest-path problems with state-space search. If you blank on a shortest-path variant mid-assessment, StealthCoder surfaces a working solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor, so you can move on and rack up points elsewhere.
Top problems at Stripe
| # | Problem | Diff | Frequency | Pass % | Patterns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Minimum Penalty for a Shop | MEDIUM | 100.0 | 68% | String · Prefix Sum |
| 02 | Evaluate Division | MEDIUM | 68.2 | 63% | Array · String · Depth-First Search |
| 03 | Cheapest Flights Within K Stops | MEDIUM | 56.4 | 40% | Dynamic Programming · Depth-First Search · Breadth-First Search |
| 04 | Optimal Account Balancing | HARD | 51.5 | 50% | Array · Dynamic Programming · Backtracking |
| 05 | Brace Expansion | MEDIUM | 51.5 | 67% | String · Backtracking · Breadth-First Search |
| 06 | Parallel Courses III | HARD | 44.6 | 67% | Array · Dynamic Programming · Graph |
Frequencies derived from public community-tagged interview reports. Click a row to view on LeetCode.
You have a week, maybe less. You can't out-grind the list above. StealthCoder runs invisibly during the actual Stripe OA. The proctor cannot see it. Screen share cannot detect it. Made for the engineer who has done the work but might still blank with a webcam pointed at him.
Get StealthCoder- string3 · 50%
- array3 · 50%
- breadth first search3 · 50%
- graph3 · 50%
- dynamic programming3 · 50%
- depth first search2 · 33%
- shortest path2 · 33%
- backtracking2 · 33%
- prefix sum1 · 17%
- union find1 · 17%
String and array problems show up three times each, but they're not straightforward. String work pairs with prefix-sum logic and backtracking, not simple parsing. Graph traversal dominates the pattern distribution. BFS, DFS, and shortest-path appear constantly across six problems. Dynamic programming is woven into half the set, often combined with backtracking or topological sorting. The two hardest problems lean on bit manipulation and bitmask state compression. That's a signal: you need to be fluent in graph construction from constraint descriptions, comfortable with DP state transitions under complex constraints, and able to spot when bitmask pruning wins. Most prep focuses on isolated topics. Stripe expects you to chain them. If you hit a wall on a hard graph-DP hybrid during the live assessment, StealthCoder is your safety net, feeding you a working approach while you keep your composure.
Companies with similar patterns
If you prepped for Stripe, these companies recycle ~60% of the same topics.
You've seen the list.
Now make sure you pass Stripe.
Memorizing every problem above in a week is a fantasy. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay that's invisible during screen share. It reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made for the engineer who has done the work but might still blank with a webcam pointed at him. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Stripe interview FAQ
How much BFS and DFS do I actually need for Stripe?+
Both appear in 3 out of 6 problems reported. You need to implement clean iterative BFS and recursive DFS from scratch. Evaluate Division and Cheapest Flights both use graph traversal as a core step. Brace Expansion adds a third. Drill both until you don't think about stack vs queue anymore.
Should I focus on dynamic programming or graphs first?+
Graph first. Five of six problems involve graph topics (BFS, DFS, shortest-path, topological sort). DP is the follow-up constraint layer, not the primary skill. Build your graph intuition, then layer DP state transitions on top. Cheapest Flights and Parallel Courses show this pattern.
Is bit manipulation really necessary?+
For medium problems, no. Optimal Account Balancing is hard and uses bitmask state compression explicitly. If you're confident on medium DP and backtracking, bitmask is a tiebreaker for one hard problem. Don't sacrifice BFS fluency to chase it.
What's the shortest-path problem angle here?+
Evaluate Division treats variable relationships as a graph and asks you to find a path. Cheapest Flights is explicit shortest-path with a stop constraint. You need to handle both graph construction from word problems and variants on Dijkstra or Bellman-Ford logic.
How many string problems should I drill before the assessment?+
Three string problems appear in reports. Two are medium. Minimum Penalty uses prefix-sum inside string logic. Brace Expansion mixes backtracking with string generation. Drill both patterns, then practice one more custom string-backtrack hybrid to build pattern recognition.