Atlassian senior engineer interview

The Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3) rounds, in order

1. 1

   Phone / recruiter screen · 30 min

   A recruiter call about background, motivation, location and pay, where the target level gets set.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Often a coding problem plus questions about your past systems; some companies (Uber) use it to set your level.

2. 2

   Phone / recruiter screen · 60 min

   An outsourced interviewer (Karat) runs it: about 20 minutes of quick-fire design or fundamentals questions, then one or two easy-to-medium coding problems.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Often a coding problem plus questions about your past systems; some companies (Uber) use it to set your level.

3. 3

   Coding (DSA) · 60 min

   The 'Data Structures' half of the coding interview: an algorithm problem with follow-ups, scored on clean code, naming and testing your own work without being asked.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Usually two rounds. Same difficulty, but interviewers expect quick, confident problem solving and production-quality code.

4. 4

   Low-level design / machine coding · 60 min

   The 'Code Design' half: build a small working component that can be extended, such as a popularity tracker, then handle new requirements, tie-breaks and concurrency.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Same as SDE 2 plus concurrency (two users booking the same seat) and a clean extension story.

5. 5

   System design (HLD) · 60 min

   A systems design discussion with no coding, where the interviewer adjusts the follow-ups to see how you adapt to new trade-offs.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): One or two rounds that set your level. Expected to lead, size the system and go deep on two or three hard parts.

6. 6

   Hiring manager · 60 min

   One past project in depth, ownership, mentoring and how you collaborate.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Technical leadership, mentoring, and how you choose what to work on.

7. 7

   Behavioral · 45 min

   The values interview, usually led by someone outside engineering, with roughly one question per value and probing follow-ups.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Expected scope: projects across quarters, influencing other teams, mentoring.

8. 8

   Hiring committee

   An independent committee reviews all the feedback and the CV and makes the final call.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Down-leveling to SDE 2 is the most common surprise outcome.

9. 9

   Team match · 30 min

   Approved candidates are sometimes placed on a team only afterwards, and some wait weeks for a match.

   At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Down-leveling to SDE 2 is the most common surprise outcome.

What Atlassian interviewers look for

• Readable, production-quality code rather than clever one-liners
• Testing your own code without being prompted
• Explaining trade-offs out loud
• Design that extends cleanly when new requirements arrive
• Owning a past project end to end and why it mattered
• Real examples, with humility, behind each value

Behavioral rounds are based on the Company values: Open company, no bullshit, Build with heart and balance, Don't #@!% the customer, Play, as a team, Be the change you seek. Questions for each one.

Coding questions to practise for Atlassian Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)

Usually two rounds. Same difficulty, but interviewers expect quick, confident problem solving and production-quality code.

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)

Every level gets a code design (LLD) round where you build and extend working code. P40 and above add an HLD round, usually framed around collaboration products like issue trackers and wikis. At P50 and P60 the bar shifts to deep trade-offs, scaling and cross-team impact.

• Rate limiter
• Notification system
• Google Docs
• Top K (trending)

All Atlassian system design questions

Questions people ask