Palantir
Big data analytics company for defense, intelligence, and enterprise.
5 Rounds
~28 Days
Very Hard
The Interview Loop
Recruiter Screen (30 min)
Standard fit check, behavioral questions, and resume overview.
Technical Loop (3-4 Rounds)
Deep dive into domain knowledge, coding, and system design.
Interview Question Bank
Cloud Engineer
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Coding
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medium
Write a function to validate if a given JSON object matches a specific schema definition (e.g., checking required fields, data types, and nested structures).
#JSON
#Recursion
#Validation
Cloud Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function that takes a list of IPv4 CIDR blocks and merges any overlapping blocks into the smallest possible list of CIDRs.
#Networking
#Intervals
#Bit Manipulation
Cloud Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of services and their dependencies, write a function to determine a valid deployment order. If there is a circular dependency, throw an error.
#Graphs
#Topological Sort
#DFS
Data Engineer
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Coding
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hard
Write a Python function to deserialize a binary tree from a string representation and then serialize it back to a string.
#Trees
#Serialization
#DFS
#BFS
Data Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Write a query or script to calculate the median response time from a massive log of API requests. Note that the dataset is too large to sort in memory.
#Statistics
#Distributed Computing
#Approximation Algorithms
Data Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a massive log file of user activities, write a program to find the top K most frequent IP addresses. The file is too large to fit into memory.
#Streaming Algorithms
#Heaps
#MapReduce
Data Engineer
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Coding
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hard
Given a string containing a JSON object that might be malformed (missing closing brackets), write a parser that attempts to extract all valid key-value pairs where the key is 'entity_id'.
#String Manipulation
#Parsing
#Regular Expressions
Data Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a 2D grid representing a map where '1' is land and '0' is water, write a function to find the number of distinct islands. An island is surrounded by water and formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically.
#Graphs
#DFS
#BFS
#Matrix
Data Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of flight schedules represented as intervals (start_time, end_time), write a function to merge all overlapping flights to determine the total continuous time the airspace is occupied.
#Arrays
#Sorting
#Intervals
Data Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Palantir's Foundry maps data into an Ontology. Given a directed graph representing data lineage where nodes are datasets and edges are transformations, write a function to detect if there is a circular dependency.
#Graphs
#DFS
#Cycle Detection
DevOps Engineer
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Coding
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medium
Write a function to determine if a given IPv4 CIDR block overlaps with any CIDR block in a provided list.
#Python
#Networking
#Algorithms
DevOps Engineer
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Coding
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hard
Implement a rate limiter in Python. You can choose the algorithm (e.g., Token Bucket, Leaky Bucket).
#Python
#System Design
#Concurrency
DevOps Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given an array of server logs where each log has a timestamp and an error code, write an algorithm to find the 5-minute window with the highest number of errors.
#Algorithms
#Sliding Window
#Python
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Implement a drag-and-drop interface for a Kanban board using only native HTML5 Drag and Drop APIs, without external libraries.
#DOM APIs
#Event Handling
#React
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Implement a virtualized list component from scratch in React. It should take an array of items, a row height, and a viewport height, and only render the visible DOM nodes.
#React
#DOM Manipulation
#Math
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function to detect circular dependencies in a directed graph representing UI components and their data dependencies.
#Graphs
#DFS
#Algorithms
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Implement a memoized selector function (similar to Reselect) to efficiently compute derived state from a large Redux store.
#Memoization
#Functional Programming
#State Management
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Create a React component that renders a large canvas map and allows users to draw a bounding box with their mouse to select data points.
#Canvas
#Event Handling
#Math
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Write a utility to parse and evaluate a custom boolean search query string (e.g., 'status:active AND (role:admin OR role:user)') against an array of JavaScript objects.
#Parsing
#AST
#String Manipulation
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Implement a rate limiter in the browser to batch and throttle analytics events before sending them to the server. Ensure no events are lost if the user closes the tab.
#JavaScript
#Browser APIs
#Queues
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a flat array of ontology nodes with `id` and `parentId` properties, write a function to build a nested tree structure and render it as a collapsible file explorer in React.
#Trees
#Recursion
#React
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Implement a custom React hook `useDebounce` and use it in an autocomplete search input component that fetches data from a mock API.
#React Hooks
#Asynchronous JavaScript
#API Integration
Frontend Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function to deeply merge two complex JSON objects representing user configurations. If there are conflicts, resolve them based on a provided timestamp property.
#Recursion
#Data Structures
#JavaScript
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Implement a function to play the game of Battleship. Given a board with ships, write a function that takes a coordinate and returns 'Hit', 'Miss', or 'Sunk'.
#Matrix
#Simulation
#Object-Oriented Design
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of server logs containing timestamps, IP addresses, and login status (SUCCESS/FAILURE), write a function to find all IP addresses that had more than N failed login attempts within a rolling 5-minute window.
#Sliding Window
#Hash Map
#Log Parsing
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Palantir Apollo manages software deployments. Given a list of microservices and their dependencies, write an algorithm to determine a valid deployment order. If a circular dependency exists, return an error.
#Graphs
#Topological Sort
#DFS/BFS
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a 2D grid representing a map in Palantir Gotham where 0 is an open path, 1 is an obstacle, and 2 is a high-risk zone, find the shortest path from start to destination avoiding obstacles and minimizing travel through high-risk zones.
#Graphs
#Dijkstra's Algorithm
#BFS
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function to merge overlapping intervals. You are given a massive stream of telemetry data where each entry has a start and end timestamp. Output the consolidated periods of continuous activity.
#Sorting
#Arrays
#Intervals
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Design a Rate Limiter for a public-facing Palantir API. Implement the logic to allow a maximum of X requests per Y seconds per customer ID.
#Token Bucket
#Concurrency
#Hash Map
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a directed graph representing an ontology mapping in Palantir Foundry, write a function to detect if there is a cycle in the graph.
#Graphs
#DFS
#Cycle Detection
Full Stack Engineer
•
Coding
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hard
Implement a text justification algorithm. Given an array of words and a width maxWidth, format the text such that each line has exactly maxWidth characters and is fully (left and right) justified.
#Strings
#Simulation
#Greedy
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
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hard
Write a basic regular expression parser that supports '.' (matches any single character) and '*' (matches zero or more of the preceding element).
#Dynamic Programming
#Recursion
#Strings
Full Stack Engineer
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Coding
•
easy
Given an array of integers representing daily financial transactions, find the contiguous subarray with the maximum sum. This is used to identify periods of highest financial anomaly.
#Arrays
#Dynamic Programming
#Kadane's Algorithm
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
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hard
Write an algorithm to find the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), representing data lineage in Palantir Foundry.
#Graphs
#DAG
#BFS
#DFS
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
easy
Given a list of intervals representing periods where a server was under high load, merge overlapping intervals to find the total downtime.
#Arrays
#Sorting
#Intervals
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of data transformation jobs and their dependencies, write a function to determine if all jobs can be executed, or if there is a circular dependency.
#Graphs
#Topological Sort
#DFS
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of flight routes, determine if there is a route from city A to city B with at most K stops.
#Graphs
#BFS
#Shortest Path
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Given a stream of real-time sensor data, implement a sliding window maximum to keep track of the peak temperature over the last N seconds.
#Sliding Window
#Deque
#Queues
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Implement an algorithm to match a set of available ML models to a set of edge devices based on memory constraints and model sizes to maximize deployment.
#Greedy
#Bipartite Matching
#Sorting
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Given an undirected graph representing a network of bank accounts and transactions, find all isolated subgraphs to identify potential fraud rings.
#Graphs
#Connected Components
#Union Find
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Write a program to evaluate a boolean expression represented as a string, often used in our ontology access control checks.
#Stacks
#Parsing
#Strings
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
hard
Given an array of strings representing a sequence of user actions, find the longest repeating contiguous sequence to identify bot behavior.
#Dynamic Programming
#Suffix Arrays
#Strings
Machine Learning Engineer
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function to parse a highly nested JSON log file and extract specific error codes based on a dynamic set of rules.
#Tree Traversal
#Recursion
#String Parsing
Product Manager
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Coding
•
hard
Write an algorithm to detect cycles in a dependency graph of data pipelines to prevent infinite loops during execution.
#Graph Theory
#DFS
#Data Pipelines
Product Manager
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Coding
•
medium
Write a function to parse a deeply nested, unstructured JSON payload from a legacy government API and flatten it into a tabular format for analysis.
#Data Parsing
#Recursion
#JSON
Product Manager
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Coding
•
medium
Given a list of flight objects with start and end times, write an algorithm to find the minimum number of airport gates required to accommodate all flights.
#Sorting
#Greedy Algorithms
#Optimization
Difficulty Radar
Based on recent AI-sourced data.
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Senior EngineerFocuses on core competencies, system constraints, and clear communication.
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