Databrick’s Interview Process & Questions

The info below is based on conversations with Databrick engineers

Databricks's Interview Process for Software Engineers: 4 Steps

Mid to senior-level engineers interviewing at Databricks can expect the following process:

• Recruiter screen (30 minutes)
• Technical phone screen (1 hour)
• Hiring manager call (1 hour)
• Onsite (spread across 4-5 hours)

Databricks has a hybrid hiring process. Candidates are typically matched to a specific part of the organization early on, and you'll interview for a specific role, but your interviewers will not necessarily be people from your future team. There is also scope to switch roles after the onsite. According to our sources, about a quarter of candidates pivot to another team after completing their onsite interviews.

The entire process can take up to 8 weeks, making it one of the longer hiring processes in the industry. Recruiters are upfront about this timeline with candidates.

General tips:

• Study LeetCode questions, particularly those tagged for Databricks in the past 3 months, as some questions come directly from this pool. You’ll get LeetCode medium and hard level questions.
• Brush up on concurrency and multithreading concepts, which are essential for one of the coding rounds.
• Practice system design on Google Docs, as it is sometimes used for the system design round.
• Be prepared for graph algorithms and optimization problems, as these appear frequently in the coding rounds.
• Have impressive references ready—they're weighted heavily in the final decision process at Databricks.

Step 1: Recruiter Call

Databricks' recruiter screen lasts about 30 minutes, and it’s pretty standard fare.. They'll ask about your previous experience, your interest in Databricks, and go over the specific role you're applying for. At this stage, your profile (resume, referral information, location preferences) begins to be shared with engineering leads for potential team matching.

It’s really important, at this stage, to not reveal your salary expectations or where you are in the process with other companies. We’ve written a detailed post about salary negotiation that lays out exactly what to say if recruiters pressure you to name the first number.

Step 2: Technical Phone Screen

The technical phone screen lasts about 1 hour with an engineer. You'll use CoderPad or a similar online IDE with runnable code. Expect LeetCode-style questions, typically medium to hard difficulty. One engineer we spoke with, who had just gone through the process, told us:

The question was one of the LeetCode questions for Databricks. I was able to find it by searching for the common Databricks questions from the past 3 months.

Questions candidates have faced include a weighted paths problem (graph optimization) and the house robber problem, which builds in difficulty as time permits. After the technical screen, Databricks begins preliminary level mapping. For L4/L5 roles, the interview loops remain similar.

Step3: Hiring Manager Call

Most candidates, particularly for senior roles, will have a 1-hour call with a hiring manager for the role they have been mapped to initially. This interview is primarily behavioral, covering your background and experience, what you've worked on and enjoy working on, and questions you have about Databricks and the specific organization. If a hiring manager is unavailable, you might be interviewed by the Director of Engineering for the organization in question.

Step 4: Onsite Interviews

At this point, candidates interview for specific teams based on their background and interests. Onsite interview loops vary slightly depending on role (ML, frontend, backend, etc.) and seniority level, but the below is generally what you'll get:

• Coding 1: Algorithms (1 hour). This interview will be conducted in CoderPad or a similar online IDE with runnable code. For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Coding section below.
• Coding 2: (1 hour). For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Coding section below.
• Coding: Concurrency/Multithreading (1 hour). This round focuses on implementing programs that leverage multithreading for efficiency. For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Coding: Concurrency/Multithreading section below.
• System Design (1 hour). The system design interview is often conducted using Google Docs, which some candidates find unusual compared to whiteboarding or specialized diagramming tools. For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the System Design section below.
• Cross-functional/Behavioral (1 hour). For more detail about the kinds of questions to expect, see the Cross-functional/Behavioral section below.

Types of Interview Questions to Expect at Databricks

Databricks' technical questions tend to lean toward the difficult side. For coding interviews, expect LeetCode hard more than medium questions.

Coding

There are usually 3 coding rounds. Two will focus on Data Structures and Algorithms, and one might focus on concurrency and multithreading. The coding rounds that include algorithm questions are LeetCode medium or hard in terms of level. An example question we heard involved IAP to CIDR (checking if IP address ranges fit into CIDR notation). Another was a variable-sized tic-tac-toe game implementation question.

Candidates report these coding rounds tend to involve tricky optimizations—you can use a brute force solution to make progress, but you should be thinking of optimizations throughout.

In the Concurrency and Multithreading coding round, you might be asked to implement an efficient logger that processes messages in a queue. This round is considered particularly challenging by most candidates. One engineer we spoke to, who is familiar with the process, told us:

This question wasn’t on LeetCode, but preparing by solving the LeetCode questions on concurrency and multithreading will be a huge help.

Below are the technical topics you’re likely to encounter in Databricks interviews. To compile this list, we did two things. First, we spoke to some current and former Databricks engineers. Then we cross-referenced all the anecdotes we heard with Glassdoor data AND our own data-set of mock interviews:

System Design

Their system design questions are pretty standard, but they will expand on the initial question to dig deeper into your depth of knowledge. One example we heard involved designing a service that provides customers with the cheapest copy of a book they're searching for, which requires considering integration with different book distributors, search functionality, and purchase flows.

Be prepared to use Google Docs for these interviews rather than whiteboarding tools, which some candidates found unusual. This choice seems to be up to the individual interviewer, so don’t be caught off guard!

Check out our guide to system design interviews to help you prepare.

Cross-Functional/Behavioral

This interview is with the hiring manager and includes standard behavioral questions about your past experiences and projects. The recruiter may brief you on the hiring manager's style beforehand. You’ll be asked about your past projects and explore areas of conflict resolution and teamwork. Expect questions like "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker" and "Describe a project you're most proud of," with deep follow-up questions on specifics.

How Databricks Makes Hiring Decisions

After the onsite interviews, Databricks has a thorough evaluation process that consists of multiple layers of review.

Reference checks are an important part of the evaluation, typically involving 1 manager and 2 more senior team members. Databricks emphasizes having impressive references, as they're weighted heavily in the final decision.

Next comes the Hiring Committee review. Unlike the interview panel, this is a separate committee that reviews all aspects of your candidacy: interview feedback, background, career trajectory, and references. Our sources emphasize that the final decision is holistic, so having every aspect of your application as strong as possible is crucial.

Finally, the VP of Engineering reviews the complete candidate packet and has the final say on hiring decisions. One of our sources reported failing at this step despite positive feedback in earlier rounds, suggesting that the bar remains high throughout the entire process.

In some cases, candidates might be asked to complete an additional take-home assessment after the onsite. While this is rare, it might be used when the recruiter believes it could strengthen a candidate's application. These assessments can take around 5 hours to complete and may involve specialized problems such as database challenges.