Zipline interview notes, page 2 of 2

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Screna has 13 Zipline interview write-ups. The most reported round is the technical phone screen (6).

13 interview notes · updated Jul 2026

Zipline·Software Engineer·Onsite - System Design / Architecture

Jun 2026

System design round at Zipline for a software engineering role. The prompt was a railroad crossing control system, which sounds niche but actually covers a ton of ground: sensors, actuators, redundancy, failure modes. More depth required than I expected going in.

Design a safe and redundant control system for an at-grade railroad crossing, covering train detection, road user warnings, gate control, failure handling, and maintenance support.

“This one is deceptively wide.”

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Zipline·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Jun 2026

Interviewed at Zipline with a focus on past work and research experience, specifically the technical details of projects tied to the role. Pretty standard deep-dive format, nothing too surprising.

Walk me through your past work and research experience, focusing on the technical details of projects most relevant to this role.

“This was basically the whole interview.”

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Zipline·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen

Jul 2026

Zipline software engineer interview, got a data structures problem that looked straightforward but had a nasty twist with the popMax operation. Pretty much a pure coding round, no behavioral fluff.

Design a stack data structure that supports push, pop, top, peekMax, and popMax operations, where popMax removes the maximum value closest to the top if there are duplicates. Discuss the time complexity of each operation.

“The push/pop/top part I had down immediately.”

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