Software Engineer Interview Experience - Palo Alto, California
Process
Palantir was present at an on-campus college fair, where I approached them.
After they described the two parts of their company, they took my resume and asked some preliminary technical questions.
About a week later, they contacted me via e-mail and scheduled a first phone interview, which I completed two weeks later.
A few days after that, they e-mailed requesting a second phone interview.
On the same day as the second interview, they e-mailed me to say there were no available positions for me.
Questions
Given a string of integers of null length, how would you choose an element uniformly at random using only a constant amount of space?
How would you prove that your algorithm is correct?
Given a list of positive and/or negative integers, how would you determine if any 3 elements sum to 0?
What is the runtime?
How about for $k$ elements summing to 0?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 47 interview experiences for the Palantir Software Engineer role in Palo Alto, California.
Success Rate
Palantir's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Palo Alto, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Palantir's Software Engineer interview process in Palo Alto, California.
Palantir Work Experiences
- 3.0Smart People, Find Good LeadSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeePalo Alto, California, United StatesOctober 14, 2013Pros: Very smart people can learn a lot and get to work on interesting projects.Cons: Tough work/life balance. Expectations are not always communicated effectively. You need to really devote all your time to the company to feel appreciated.
- 1.0Hire and FireSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeePalo Alto, California, United StatesAugust 22, 2023Pros: All the food is free.Cons: Very young staff, aggressive micro-management style.
- 5.0Strong growth opportunities, high impact, work with the smartest peopleSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeePalo Alto, California, United StatesNovember 18, 2014Pros: I joined Palantir from industry. I previously worked as a software engineer at a popular, large Silicon Valley tech company. I've learned more here at Palantir in a few months than I had in over a year at my previous job, and this is even after years of software engineering experience. I attribute this to the high caliber of people that I work with at Palantir, and the tremendous challenges we have to tackle. The level of impact I can have on the projects is extremely high. Not only are my contributions meaningful and make a significant difference on whether our product ships successfully or not, but also I have a pretty big level of exposure to how we deploy and sell our product out in the world. Combine that with the fact that our products have a tremendous impact on the real world in a very real manner, and you get an awesome environment that I think is very difficult to find anywhere else.Cons: The high hiring bar means we have a hard time hiring folks, which means our teams can be strapped for people. You may wear multiple technical hats as a software engineer and be challenged in ways that will make you grow. This may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Palantir Interview Questions
