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ycombinator(YC) interview questions

[WHAT]

  1. ] this is a listing of the actual questions asked of startup founders in ycombinators interview process
  2. ] the questions were sourced from a number of articles where interviewees reported on their ycombinator interview experience
  3. ] I prefaced each question, with a category heading for the type of question,
    1. x] example - [PRODUCT] What are you building?
  4. ] there are currently only 4 categories/types of questions 
    1. ] FOUNDER/TEAM, PRODUCT/IDEA, MARKET, BUSINESS

[WHY]

  1. ] practice for your combinator interview
    1. ] chances are your not going to get a ycombinator interview
  2. ] MORE IMPORTANTLY if your going to do a startup, you NEED to be able to answer everyone of these questions
    1. ] quickly -
    2. ] concisely -
    3. ] honestly -

[WHERE]

  1. ] accelorator-applicaton/ycombinator-interview-questions
    1. ] each question in an individual record -

[WHEN]

  1. ]

[EXAMPLE - list 1 - YC - interview questions]

  1. PRODUCT] So you guys are making a ____?
    1. ] re:
    2. ] What are going to do?
  2. PRODUCT] Like ___
    1. ] re:
    2. ] YC Partner q1 re: product
      1. ]
    3. ] YC Partner q2 re: product
      1. ]
  3. BUSINESS] Do you have customers?
    1. ] re:
  4. PRODUCT] How far along are you?
    1. ] re:
  5. PRODUCT] YC So what would be an example use case?
    1. ] re:
  6. PRODUCT BUSINESS] Who’s the biggest user?
    1. ]
  7. PRODUCT] have they been successfull with it? 
    1. ]
  8. PRODUCT] Let’s check it out, see what it looks like.
    1. ] re: demo use case of project
    2. ] Where have they been showing the links
  9. BUSINESS] That’s pretty good. So what’s the plan for this?
    1. ] re:
  10. BUSINESS] Is this a durable business?
    1. ] re:
  11. BUSINESS] Do you think it’ll be easy for someone to clone what you’ve done?
    1. ] re:
  12. BUSINESS] But if [COMPETITOR] added this tomorrow…
    1. ] re:
  13. BUSINESS] Why is it difficult for new comers?
    1. ]
  14. BUSINESS] What’s the revenue model?
    1. ] re:
  15. BUSINESS] Do you think the sites will mind that you’re doing this?
    1. ] re:
  16. TEAM] How excited are you about working on ____ for a significant chunk of your life?
    1. ] re:
  17. BUSINESS] Is this growing virally?
    1. ] re:
  18. BUSINESS] How many users did you say?
    1. ] re:
  19. BUSINESS] And how fast are you growing?
    1. ] re:
  20. TEAM] How long have you all worked together?
    1. ] re:
  21. TEAM]  Who does what in the team?
    1. ] re:
  22. TEAM] Is it an equal split among the 3 of you?
    1. ] re:

 

[WHAT - list 2 - YC - interview questions]

  1. ] What are going to do?
    1. ] CR# 1
  2. ] Potential Users?
    1. ]
  3. ] Obstacles in your path?
    1. ]
  4. ] What’s wrong with existing options?
    1. ]
  5. ] How you’ll overcame the barriers that allow existing options to stay bad?
    1. ]
  6. ] Who needs what you’re making?
    1. ]
  7. ] How do you know they need it?
    1. ] CR# #
  8. ] What are they doing now?
    1. ] CR# #
  9. ] What makes you different from existing options?
    1. ]
  10. ] Why isn’t someone already doing this?
    1. ]
  11. ] What obstacles will you face and how will you overcame them?
    1. ]
  12. ] How will customers/users find out about you?
    1. ]
  13. ] What resistance will they have to trying you?
    1. ]
  14. ] How will you overcome that resistance?
    1. ]
  15. ] What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
    1. ]
  16. ] What part of your project are you going to build first?
    1. ]
  17. ] Who is going to be your first paying customers?
    1. ]
  18. ] If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
    1. ]
  19. ] Why did you choose this idea?
    1. ]
  20. ] What have you learned so far from working on it?
    1. ]
  21. ] Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
    1. ]

[HOW-TO]

  1. ] how to prepare for the interview
    1. ] by Paul Graham - founder @ycombinator.com -

[REFERENCE]

  1. 2014-04-24] EXAMPLE - https://medium.com/p/187312cd2cf5 
    1. 2014-04-30] EXAMPLE - http://alchemist.svbtle.com/our-yc-interviews - src=hn comments
  2. [2015-03-dd] SOURCE LIST 2= my yc experience by creos 
    1. CC] #3027 our yc interview experience - 
  3. ]

 

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ID: 2919

NAME: ycombinator-interview-questions

DESCRIPTION: A list of the '10 minute interview' questions that may be asked of your if your invited to interview for entry into one of yCombinators batches

AUTHOR: article.author/s

EDITOR: article.editor/s

PUBLISHER: article.publisher/s

STATUS: Write

PRIORITY: 0

OWNER ID: 75

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