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Palantir interview notes, page 2 of 3

Large Enterprises

Most of these Palantir write-ups come from Software Engineers (30). The most reported rounds are the technical phone screen (11), the behavioral / leadership round (5), the recruiter screen (4) and the hiring manager screen (3).

30 interview notes · updated Sep 2026

Palantir·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

May 2026
Went through the full Palantir software engineering loop in Denver and didn't get the offer. The process had some genuinely unusual rounds, especially the one where they introduce a new concept mid-interview and expect you to run with it, which I wasn't really prepared for mentally.
  • Given a coding problem in the medium-to-hard range, walk through your solution including trade-offs and edge cases while explaining your thinking out loud.
  • You're introduced to an unfamiliar technical concept during the interview itself. Ask questions to understand it, then apply it to solve follow-up problems on the spot.
  • Break down a large, ambiguous problem into smaller components. Identify requirements, handle edge cases, and communicate a structured approach.
  • Tell me about a challenging project or decision you made, and how you navigated it within a team environment.

“I think I spent too long in silence at the start trying to get the perfect approach before saying anything.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE interview with what sounds like a pretty light icebreaker question. Not much to report here.
  • What's the most fun thing you've done recently?

“Classic opener.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Hiring Manager Screen

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE interview, just the one question from what I can tell. Short and deceptively simple on the surface.
  • How would you explain what our company does to your grandmother?

“I fumbled this more than I expected.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Hiring Manager Screen

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE interview with what seems like a manager-facing question about self-assessment. Not much to go on here but it's the kind of thing that can trip you up if you're not expecting it.
  • How do you think your supervisor would rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 10?

“Awkward question to get blindsided by.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Onsite - Behavioral / Leadership

Jun 2026
One question from what looks like a Palantir SWE behavioral round. Not much to go on but it's the kind of question that sounds easy and then you realize you have no idea what you actually want to say.
  • What would you change about your experience at your current company?

“Tricky because it's basically asking you to criticize your employer without sounding bitter or disloyal.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Recruiter / HR Screen

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE interview, just one question about why I chose my college. Not much to report here.
  • Why did you choose to attend your college?

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Onsite - Behavioral / Leadership

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE behavioral round, just one question but it's a weird one that I didn't see coming.
  • Tell me about a time you predicted something correctly.

“Blanked for a second because it sounds so open-ended.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Onsite - Coding / Algorithms

Jun 2026
Palantir coding round where you pick two problems from a menu of topics and walk through the whole thing: assumptions, code, complexity, tests, alternatives. Felt more like a structured exercise than a free-form interview, which I kind of liked but also found weirdly rigid.
  • Pick a problem from an algorithms topic area (arrays, strings, hash maps, or graphs), state your assumptions upfront, implement a working solution, and walk through complexity analysis.
  • For the same problem you implemented, write tests covering edge cases and large inputs, then discuss at least one alternative approach and its trade-offs.

“The 'state your assumptions' part tripped me up more than the actual coding.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Jun 2026
Palantir SWE coding round, one problem the whole session. The question was algorithmic and a bit unusual, not your standard leetcode fare.
  • You're given a binary array. Each operation lets you cycle a row's elements left or right. What's the minimum number of operations to produce a column made entirely of 1s? Return 0 if it's impossible.

“Took me a minute to even figure out what 'possible' means here.”

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Palantir·Software Engineer·Recruiter / HR Screen

Jun 2026
Interviewed for a SWE role at Palantir, just one behavioral question about motivation for getting into software engineering.
  • What drew you to software engineering as a career?

“Pretty standard opener but I still fumbled it a bit.”

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