The interview process had 7 steps:

• Phone call with recruiter
• Two 1-hour coding interviews with a 15-minute break between them
• 1-hour System Design interview
• 1-hour Craft interview
• 45-minute Values interview
• 1-hour interview with the Engineering Manager of the team I was going to join

I know the number of steps might differ depending on the level you are applying for.

The recruiter was really great. He talked to me a lot and never left me without updates for weeks, as some people do. He usually sent me a message almost daily to keep me informed on how things were going. He was also very polite and friendly. Atlassian also has a nice preparation guide, giving you some time in advance to think about topics to share (no week-long unpaid homework).

The interviews themselves were great too. All the people I met were friendly, asked pretty good and relevant questions, and encouraged open discussion rather than an exam. There wasn't quite enough time to ask all the questions, but people were happy to stay a bit longer, which was much appreciated. I will add a bit more specificity about some steps below.

The coding interviews were not so much about coding itself (though some basic stuff was involved, for sure), but rather about teamwork, engineering practices, the ability to explain things, and to think about different edge cases, which I always value myself.

Both the System Design and Craft interviews are about an Engineering + Product mindset – how you think about the customer, performance, security, UX, etc., while building the product.

The Values interview was... well, more or less a classic values interview, covering conflicts, communication style, finding agreement, and getting buy-ins, etc.

The last interview was probably a mix of everything before (except coding), specific to the team you are planning to join.

To summarize some good things:

• Friendly people who make you feel relaxed.
• Pragmatic questions aligned with your daily responsibilities – nothing like, "Write this algorithm which you'll never going to use on paper from memory in 30 seconds."
• No attempts to push you or show that the interviewer is the smartest person in the room.
• Prompt communication and quick interview scheduling.
• No requests to send a CV (it's available on LinkedIn, but people still ask for it all the time), cover letter (hello 19th-century lovers), or reference letters.

A little thing to maybe improve: there are a lot of steps, and in quite a few places, they overlap with each other. Maybe it's worth checking if the process can be shortened a bit.

Q: You need to build a Jira board. Describe your approach, including edge cases.

Q: How do you deal with technical debt?