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Puneet Patwari has joined Atlassian as a Principal Software Engineer after completing over 60 interviews across 11 companies in three months. He discontinued 3 more interview processes, including Meta, after accepting the Atlassian offer. Puneet has shared comparisons of the interview procedures at major firms:
Puneet shared additional insights:
Amazon: The Amazon Hiring Manager round was exceptionally engaging, lasting 160 minutes instead of the planned 60, necessitating a break mid-way.
Atlassian: Leadership craft (LC) and values interviews were pivotal in being leveled as a Principal. The Systems Design interview was also influential, with Atlassian assigning significant importance to LC for Principal roles.
Salesforce: The system design round was closely tied to actual job requirements, centered on a migration problem to evaluate project ownership skills with customer focus.
Confluent: The interview was the most challenging, testing every skill through dual rounds: 2x data structures and algorithms, 2x System Design, 2x behavioral interviews.
Behavioral interviews at Staff+ levels are critical. Excellence in these interviews often determined success in receiving Staff and Principal-level offers. While coding and systems design performance was necessary, strong behavioral interview skills were crucial for offers and leveling.
Key points from Puneet’s interview experiences at major tech companies:
- Algorithmical coding interviews are universal. Succeeding in these, especially complex topics like dynamic programming, is essential for senior+ positions. Guidance on excelling in these is discussed in the article, How experienced engineers get unstuck in coding interviews.
- Interviews demand time and effort. Even post-offer, Puneet continued with the full process without any reductions. He withdrew from 3 more processes, including Meta, as he had already accepted Atlassian’s offer.
- Top candidates are still in demand even