Senior Principal Software Engineer Interview Experience - London, United Kingdom
Process
Summary: Unprofessional and disorganized interview process, misaligned with communicated expectations. Would not recommend pursuing opportunities here.
Process Overview:
Initial Contact & Screening
I was initially contacted by a recruiter and went through a Systems Design screening. This phase was reasonable; I was asked to design a web crawler and received fair feedback.
Coding Interview Mismatch
I received a preparation guide specifying the use of a local development environment with unit testing, debugging, and scaling. It was communicated that this would be an "open Internet" interview, showcasing problem-solving, resourcefulness, and scalability considerations.
- Reality: The interviewer disregarded the prep guidelines and insisted on CoderPad, where they had pre-typed the challenge.
- Challenge Details: The task was to implement an API rate limiter with specific constraints. I discussed various solutions (sliding window, tumbling window, token buckets, CRDT-based distributed options). The interviewer preferred a single-node solution, and I implemented a sliding window.
Execution Issues and Misunderstandings
- Mismatch in Terminology: The interviewer was confused between "sliding window" and "tumbling window" concepts, labeling my solution inaccurately.
- Trade-off in Precision: They insisted on an O(1) solution without clarification on acceptable trade-offs, creating unnecessary confusion.
Post-Interview Feedback & Outcome
I followed up with the recruiter, citing the lack of alignment between interview expectations and reality. The recruiter acknowledged this misalignment but shared that the interviewer’s feedback was negative.
Due to the disorganized approach and lack of professionalism, I withdrew from the process.
Conclusion: Following my experience and additional insights into current culture concerns at Atlassian, I opted to discontinue the interview process, feeling this opportunity was not a good fit.
Questions
[Screening - Systems Design] Design a Web Crawler.
[Interview Loop - Coding] Implement a Rate Limiter.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Atlassian Senior Principal Software Engineer role in London, United Kingdom.
Success Rate
Atlassian's interview process for their Senior Principal Software Engineer roles in London, the United Kingdom is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Atlassian's Senior Principal Software Engineer interview process in London, United Kingdom.
Atlassian Work Experiences
- 2.0Horrible company culture and clueless management.Principal Front End Engineer • Current EmployeeLondon, England, United KingdomNovember 26, 2024Pros: The pay is great, at least in Europe. Thanks to the RSUs, my compensation was double that of my previous job, which was already well-paid. The benefits are also top-notch.Cons: The company culture is horrible. Senior management is creating a highly competitive environment through stack ranking and toxic performance metrics, such as the number of PRs closed in a week. Also, they are adopting a PIP culture similar to Amazon, where a certain percentage of people is laid off every year and replaced by new hires. Nobody feels safe about their job. As a senior individual contributor, my performance was meant to be measured in terms of "impact", which is only vaguely defined. This translates into senior engineers launching all kinds of useless, or even harmful projects, just so they can claim they made such an impact. Unfortunately, I found myself with a clueless manager, who, three months into the job, told me I would have been let go because of "lack of impact". I wonder what kind of impact he expected in such a short time at a complex company like Atlassian, but he never clarified. I tried to prove myself in many ways, but it was never enough, or the right way. He never helped me understand how I could have been more effective. Instead, at every 1-1, he always expressed his disappointment, with no constructive feedback whatsoever. One of their core values is "Play, as a team", which is funny, because it should be "Everyone for themselves".
- 5.0Great Culture, No ConsData Engineer • Current EmployeeLondon, England, United KingdomSeptember 12, 2023Pros: Good culture and values organization.Cons: Nothing bad about the company.
- 1.0Wfh Only, Chaos & PoliticsPrincipal Software Engineer • Current EmployeeNovember 16, 2025Pros: Allows WFH. That's literally it.Cons: Clueless Directors and VPs. No strategy. Just ad hoc projects shoved down the throats of engineers with crazy deadlines. Extreme politics. Extreme favoritism. There are P70s and P60s who slack off and don't land any impact, but they are blessed every half for kissing behinds. APEX is the Hunger Games. Over hiring. No impactful work = dog eat dog. Zero product strategy. Zero customer focus. Horrible WLB. Chaos.
Atlassian Interview Questions
