I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Databricks (Belgrade, Central Serbia) in Oct 2025
Interview
The first online test a Timed Programming Session (TPS). It’s a live or recorded coding challenge where you need to code quickly and accurately under strict time constraints. The problems test your ability to write clean, working solutions fast, often focusing on data structures, algorithms, and implementation detail (e.g., building a cache, parsing structured text, or designing an efficient API).
The key expectation is not only to get the correct output but to demonstrate strong coding discipline under pressure — clear logic, edge-case handling, and working code within a short time window (typically around 60–90 minutes).
If you pass that round, the next stage typically combines system design and live coding.
Positive experience
Easy interview
Application
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Databricks (Aarhus) in Nov 2025
Interview
I had my first recruiter screening interview yesterday. It was professional and pleasant. She first ask some questions from me and then answered my questions. She also introduced their teams in Aarhus office and projects that they are working on.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Recruiter kindly ask my background to get to know me better. Also ask my compensation and location expectation. Finally, ask why I choose Databricks to work.
I applied online. I interviewed at Databricks in Jul 2025
Interview
Sent in my CV through the open roles portal for a SWE (Backend) role. Sourcer reached out to schedule a 30 min recruiter call describing the role and giving me the opportunity to discuss my background (ML PhD, somewhat unrelated to the role), after which we scheduled a 1h technical screen (algorithms/data structures). Got notified same day that feedback was very positive and that they'd like to proceed to an onsite loop.
Onsite loop was scheduled about a week out, 2 1h interviews per day on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was behavioral with Directer of Engineering + algorithms/data structures, Tuesday coding + systems programming. Got notified on Wednesday that feedback was good again and that they'd like to proceed with reference checks.
Submitted references and synced with them about the process by Monday of the next week, and the calls were happened on Wednesday and Thursday. Due to how the hiring committee works, it took until Tuesday of the next week before I got the confirmation they would be extending an offer, after which it took a few more days to get a concrete offer, which I negotiated for about another week before signing.
The CoderPad platform was used for writing code and Google Meet for the call. Recruiters have access to a fairly complete list of recommended resources for the interviews, so make sure to ask if they don't send it over automatically.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Technical screen + algorithms round of onsite were reasonably traditional.
Without giving any specifics (signed NDA), expect questions to be more "applied" than traditional LeetCode, i.e. "we're trying to solve this concrete problem under the following constraints, how would you go about that?" In my case, these questions involved a lot of follow-ups, to the point where I don't think you can "finish" the question in the allotted time; they just keep making things more complicated until you get stuck or time runs out. In many cases, interviewers expect you to go beyond the best purely algorithmic solution and instead discuss tradeoffs like in my case, giving up resolution/granularity for improved speed. The question during the onsite was significantly more involved than the one during the technical screen.
Behavioral interview was also fairly standard.
This was a 1h chat with the hiring Director of Engineering about my background, asking typical behavioral questions. After each answer, the interviewer would either ask follow-ups or recap my answer in a few sentences before moving on to a different behavioral question.
The coding round of the onsite loop is similar to an algorithms question, but the focus is not necessarily on providing a solution with optimal runtime but more so on making sure you can clearly think through a solution, write understandable code.
The systems programming round involved a question combining elements of computer science fundamentals, multithreading, and a big systems design component.