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ORACLE · STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Oracle staff engineer interview

The staff and principal software engineer level at Oracle is IC5 Consulting MTS, IC6 Architect, 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 Oracle's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Oracle.

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Oracle titleIC5 Consulting MTS, IC6 Architect
ExperienceStaff, principal and senior staff engineers
Interviews after screeningAbout 5
System design roundYes

The Staff Software Engineer rounds, in order

  1. Phone / recruiter screen · 45 min

    A recruiter call on your work history and why Oracle, sometimes with light technical questions.

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

  2. Online assessment · 90 min

    An online or live screen with one or two DSA problems that must pass every test; sometimes a design-pattern task.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Almost never used.

  3. Coding (DSA) × 2 · 60 min

    Rounds that mix DSA with grilling on past projects and Java or REST deep dives.

    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.

  4. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    From IC3 up, an architecture round on your current system plus a standard design prompt.

    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.

  5. Hiring manager · 60 min

    Project architecture, behavioral questions and sometimes a design prompt.

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

  6. Bar raiser · 60 min

    Cloud infrastructure (OCI) loops often include a bar-raiser round by a senior engineer from another team.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Org-level impact and judgment.

What Oracle interviewers look for

Coding questions to practise for Oracle 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
14 questions
  1. Group Anagrams Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Meta
  2. Next Greater Element I Easy Monotonic Stack also Adobe, Walmart Global Tech
  3. Search a 2D Matrix II (Young Tableau) Medium Binary Search
  4. Shortest Path in Binary Matrix Medium Graphs
  5. Merge Intervals Medium Intervals also Netflix, LinkedIn, Atlassian
  6. Missing Number Easy Bit Manipulation
  7. LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Amazon, Microsoft, Apple +4
  8. Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree Hard Trees & BST also Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn
  9. Minimum Window Substring Hard Arrays & Hashing also Google, Meta, LinkedIn
  10. Course Schedule Medium Graphs also Google, Amazon, Netflix +1
  11. 01 Matrix Medium Graphs
  12. Linked List Cycle Easy Linked List
  13. Product of Array Except Self Medium Arrays & Hashing also Meta
  14. Continuous Subarray Sum Medium Arrays & Hashing also Adobe

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Staff Software Engineer

IC2 loops usually stop at LLD or schema design. From IC3 up, expect at least one HLD round plus an architecture walkthrough of your current project; at IC4, architecture matters more than puzzles.

All Oracle system design questions

Questions people ask

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

About 5 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, online assessment, coding (dsa), system design (hld), hiring manager, bar raiser.

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

Yes. IC2 loops usually stop at LLD or schema design. From IC3 up, expect at least one HLD round plus an architecture walkthrough of your current project; at IC4, architecture matters more than puzzles.

What coding questions does Oracle ask at Staff Software Engineer?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Group Anagrams, Next Greater Element I, Search a 2D Matrix II (Young Tableau), Shortest Path in Binary Matrix, Merge Intervals.

What does Oracle 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