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
•
Behavioral
•
hard
Palantir values 'Outcome over Process'. Give an example of a time you bypassed standard procedures or processes to achieve a critical outcome.
#Decision Making
#Risk Management
#Palantir Values
Cloud Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you caused a production outage. What happened, how did you fix it, and what did you learn?
#Incident Management
#Accountability
#Post-mortems
Data Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Why Palantir? What specifically about our mission, products (Foundry/Gotham/AIP), or engineering culture makes you want to work here?
#Company Knowledge
#Motivation
#Mission Alignment
Data Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a senior engineer or architect on a technical decision. How did you handle the disagreement and what was the outcome?
#Conflict Resolution
#Communication
#Teamwork
Data Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you had to push back on a client or stakeholder's technical request because you knew it wasn't scalable or secure.
#Communication
#Stakeholder Management
#Engineering Standards
Data Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Palantir works with highly sensitive data. Tell me about a time you had to prioritize security, compliance, or data privacy over delivery speed.
#Security
#Ethics
#Prioritization
DevOps Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Describe a situation where you had to work with incomplete documentation or a highly ambiguous problem statement to deliver an infrastructure project.
#Ambiguity
#Problem Solving
#Autonomy
DevOps Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Why Palantir? How do you align with our mission of building software that protects privacy and civil liberties while enabling critical institutional operations?
#Mission Alignment
#Motivation
DevOps Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you had to push back on a software engineering team because of an infrastructure security or stability concern.
#Communication
#Security
#Conflict Resolution
DevOps Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
hard
Palantir often deploys to highly constrained, air-gapped government environments. Tell me about a time you had to solve a complex infrastructure problem without access to the internet or standard package managers.
#Air-gapped
#Problem Solving
#Adaptability
Frontend Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you had to push back on a product manager because a requested feature would compromise the application's performance.
#Communication
#Pushback
#Tradeoffs
Frontend Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Describe a situation where you had to dive into a completely unfamiliar, complex codebase to fix a critical bug under a tight deadline.
#Ambiguity
#Problem Solving
#Under Pressure
Frontend Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Why Palantir? How do you align with our mission of building software that solves the world's hardest problems?
#Motivation
#Company Values
Frontend Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Describe a project where you had to collaborate closely with backend engineers to redesign an API because the original design didn't support the frontend's performance requirements.
#Collaboration
#API Design
#Cross-functional
Frontend Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
hard
Palantir deals with highly sensitive data. Tell me about a time you identified and resolved a security vulnerability or privacy concern in your frontend code.
#Security
#Proactivity
#Ownership
Full Stack Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you failed to deliver on a commitment or caused a production outage. What happened, and what did you learn?
#Accountability
#Growth Mindset
#Post-mortems
Full Stack Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Palantir often works with sensitive government and defense contracts. Why do you want to work at Palantir, and how do you align with our mission?
#Motivation
#Company Values
#Ethics
Full Stack Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Describe a situation where you had to dive into a completely unfamiliar, poorly documented codebase and deliver a critical feature under a tight deadline.
#Adaptability
#Problem Solving
#Resilience
Full Stack Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
How do you handle working on projects with highly ambiguous requirements and shifting deadlines, which is common in our Forward Deployed engineering roles?
#Ambiguity
#Agile
#Client Management
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you had to dive deep into a complex, undocumented codebase or data silo to extract value for a project.
#Problem Solving
#Tenacity
#Code Comprehension
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you had to push back on a client's technical request because it was scientifically invalid or technically infeasible.
#Client Interaction
#Communication
#Pushback
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
hard
Describe a situation where you were deployed to a client site and had to build an ML solution with highly ambiguous or changing requirements.
#Ambiguity
#Adaptability
#Forward Deployed
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Why Palantir? What specifically draws you to our mission, our Forward Deployed model, and products like Foundry or Gotham?
#Motivation
#Company Knowledge
#Mission Alignment
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
medium
What is your approach to ensuring data privacy and security when building ML models on sensitive or classified datasets?
#Security
#Ethics
#Data Privacy
Machine Learning Engineer
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Describe a time you had to explain a complex ML concept, like model interpretability or false positive rates, to a non-technical stakeholder.
#Communication
#Stakeholder Management
#Empathy
Product Manager
•
Behavioral
•
easy
Why Palantir? What specific aspects of our mission, products, or engineering culture resonate with you compared to other big tech companies?
#Motivation
#Company Knowledge
#Mission Alignment
Product Manager
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Describe a time you had to learn a complex, highly technical domain (e.g., aerospace engineering, anti-money laundering) very quickly to deliver a product.
#Adaptability
#Learning Agility
#Domain Expertise
Product Manager
•
Behavioral
•
hard
Palantir's model often involves embedding Forward Deployed Engineers and PMs with clients. Tell me about a time you had to build trust with a highly skeptical or hostile stakeholder to ensure product adoption.
#Stakeholder Management
#Empathy
#Communication
Product Manager
•
Behavioral
•
medium
Tell me about a time you failed to deliver on a commitment to a customer. What happened, and how did you recover?
#Accountability
#Resilience
#Customer Success
Difficulty Radar
Based on recent AI-sourced data.
Meet Your Interviewers
The "Standard" Interviewer
Senior EngineerFocuses on core competencies, system constraints, and clear communication.
SimulateUnwritten Rules
Think Out Loud
Always explain your thought process before writing code or drawing architecture.