Senior Staff Software QA Engineer Interview Experience - Santa Clara, California
Process
A recruiter arranged the telephonic technical screening interview. It went well.
I was invited for the first onsite interview, which included four engineers. Everyone was professional, and one of the interviewers from the hiring team mentioned I had all the necessary experience for this particular role. I got excited.
I was thrilled to hear I was selected for the second level onsite interview. The second onsite finally happened after three weeks. The attitude in the second round onsite, which was interviewed by other groups including the VP and Director, was completely downbeat and unwelcoming.
I finally failed with one interviewer who seemed to be a director. He started asking questions about ether type values and how to deep dive into a packet to see decimal values. I told him it wasn't at the top of my head, and then he was rude and started asking what Chrome or macOS version number I was using. Even the hiring manager was asking questions more related to the role.
It seems they had already pre-decided not to select me, based on their attitude and the questions they asked.
Questions
Hexadecimal to decimal
EtherType values
How TTL is used in DNS
Radius
Port mirroring
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Palo Alto Networks Senior Staff Software QA Engineer role in Santa Clara, California.
Success Rate
Palo Alto Networks's interview process for their Senior Staff Software QA Engineer roles in Santa Clara, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Palo Alto Networks's Senior Staff Software QA Engineer interview process in Santa Clara, California.
Palo Alto Networks Work Experiences
- 5.0Great company to build your careerSr Principal Software Engineer • Current EmployeeSanta Clara, California, United StatesJuly 26, 2024Pros: Knowledgeable colleagues, cutting-edge technology.Cons: Political maneuvers, as is common in any large company.
- 2.0Good Colleagues, Questionable EthicsEngineer • Former EmployeeSanta Clara, California, United StatesOctober 3, 2025Pros: - Good colleagues - Solid benefit packageCons: - Poor ethics, especially among foreign executives. - AI washing a lot of non-AI products.
- 2.0Average ASIC development team: there are better places in the valley than this groupASIC Engineer • Current EmployeeSanta Clara, California, United StatesNovember 24, 2022Pros: Total comp and benefits are similar to big companies like Cisco, Juniper, and Intel. Hybrid work-from-home policy. A few tech gurus on the architecture side.Cons: High turnover rate (+15%): there are good people leaving the team every year. Top-down command and control management style. Senior management are not technically hands-on people; they function as bureaucrats, take inputs from engineers, rehash them as their own ideas, and use it to drive project execution. Lack of innovation and quality designs. Most of the main chips used in the products come from outside vendors. Only 1K matching for 401k. There is not a whole lot of trust within the team. Passive-aggressive, toxic environment. Don't recommend working here.
Palo Alto Networks Interview Questions
