Palantir | FDSWE Intern | London | Nov [Reject]

I interviewed for a Forward Deployed Software Engineering Intern position at Palantir in London, UK in November . The interview process consisted of three technical interviews: debugging, coding, and system design. Each interview included a 15-minute discussion about the interviewer's experience and my background, followed by 40-45 minutes of technical questions.

The coding interview involved implementing the card game War with n players and 3 cards down during war. I performed adequately but did not complete all the helper functions.

The system design interview required building an app using ingredients to create and generate recipes, including a feature for booking cooks. I needed to code the main function for selecting possible recipes.

The debugging interview involved a broken Breadth-First Search (BFS) algorithm. The first part involved finding who owns offshore companies, and the second part involved determining the number of shares of each company. There was a bonus question about handling cycles.

After the three interviews, there was a company presentation, a product demonstration, and an office tour. I was then informed that there would be a surprise fourth interview with the hiring manager. The hiring manager and an HR representative joined me in a separate room.

The fourth interview involved a 20-minute discussion about the hiring manager's experience and a 5-minute discussion about my experience and expectations. The technical portion of the interview lasted approximately 30 minutes, and involved a question that required using three hash maps and two nested BFSs. I was able to understand the solution after the first hint, but I struggled to code it without further guidance. I believe this is where I made a mistake.

Overall, the interview process was a positive experience, although it was stressful due to the lack of breaks between the first three interviews. It was also challenging to refocus after being told the interviews were over for the day and then having another technical interview. Despite the challenges, I would still recommend applying to Palantir. It is important to note that there may be a surprise fourth interview.

The first three interviews were rated as strong-hire/hire, while the fourth interview resulted in a rejection. Therefore, the overall outcome was a rejection.