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ADOBE · STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Adobe staff engineer interview

The staff and principal software engineer level at Adobe is Principal Scientist and above, for staff, principal and senior staff engineers. The rounds at this level, how each one is scored, and the questions to practise first.

From public candidate reports and Adobe's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Adobe.

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Adobe titlePrincipal Scientist and above
ExperienceStaff, principal and senior staff engineers
Interviews after screeningAbout 4
System design roundYes

The Staff Software Engineer rounds, in order

  1. Phone / recruiter screen · 30 min

    A recruiter or HR call on your current role and next steps.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Frequently a hiring-manager conversation about scope and impact instead of pure coding.

  2. Coding (DSA) × 2 · 60 min

    DSA rounds with one or two medium-to-hard problems, plus DBMS, OS and sometimes SQL questions.

    At Staff Software Engineer: One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

  3. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    Senior loops alternate DSA and design rounds, e.g. a serverless media-processing service.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.

  4. Hiring manager · 70 min

    A managerial round mixing a project deep dive, concurrency and API questions, a design question, and usually one DSA problem.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Strategy, influence without authority and the biggest bets you have made.

What Adobe interviewers look for

Behavioral rounds are based on the Company values: Create the future, Own the outcome, Raise the bar, Be genuine. Questions for each one.

Coding questions to practise for Adobe Staff Software Engineer

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Difficulty
Topic
11 questions
  1. Longest Repeating Character Replacement Medium Arrays & Hashing also Uber
  2. Odd Even Linked List Medium Linked List also Apple
  3. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Netflix, Flipkart
  4. Diameter of Binary Tree Easy Trees & BST also Meta
  5. Next Greater Element I Easy Monotonic Stack also Oracle, Walmart Global Tech
  6. Kadane's Algorithm - Simple Medium Arrays & Hashing also LinkedIn
  7. Spiral Matrix Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  8. House Robber Medium Dynamic Programming also Flipkart
  9. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum Hard Trees & BST also Google, Amazon
  10. Median of Two Sorted Arrays Hard Binary Search also Microsoft
  11. Continuous Subarray Sum Medium Arrays & Hashing also Oracle

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Staff Software Engineer

MTS-1 loops mostly test DSA and fundamentals. MTS-2 and Computer Scientist loops add an LLD round on schema and modular code. Senior Computer Scientist and above alternate DSA with HLD rounds, often on media or cloud services.

All Adobe system design questions

Questions people ask

How many rounds are in the Adobe Staff Software Engineer interview?

About 4 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, coding (dsa), system design (hld), hiring manager.

Is there a system design round for Adobe Staff Software Engineer?

Yes. MTS-1 loops mostly test DSA and fundamentals. MTS-2 and Computer Scientist loops add an LLD round on schema and modular code. Senior Computer Scientist and above alternate DSA with HLD rounds, often on media or cloud services.

What coding questions does Adobe ask at Staff Software Engineer?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Longest Repeating Character Replacement, Odd Even Linked List, Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, Diameter of Binary Tree, Next Greater Element I.

What does Adobe expect in coding rounds at Staff Software Engineer?

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Staff Software Engineer interviews at other companies

Staff Software Engineer interview questions across all companies · Behavioral questions