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Atlassian · Software engineer · P40-P50 IC

Systems Design Interview

A 60-minute spoken conversation with no coding

What they actually ask

The question shapes this round uses. Larpy does not read these out. It builds each one from your own resume, because the generic version is the one you have already rehearsed.

  • “Design a shared tagging system usable across all Atlassian products (tag a Jira issue, a Confluence page, etc.) as a common service; follow-up: scale it to ~100M tag operations per day.”
  • “Design an API rate limiter (framed around Bitbucket/API requests): fixed vs sliding window, fairness, and distributed enforcement.”
  • “Design storage and retrieval of a user's favorite colors (max 3 per user): data model, API, then scaling, caching, and replication.”
  • “Design a YouTube-style view counter or a web crawler: how would you keep counts accurate at scale, and what trade-offs between reliability and cost would you make?”
  • “Which questions would you ask to clarify requirements, and who would you partner with to build this?”

What this round is judged on

  • Requirements clarification · what questions you ask
  • Trade-offs · reliability versus cost
  • Thinking on your feet · adapting to new constraints as they ladder
  • Data model & API design · core entities and interfaces
  • Collaboration · who you'd partner with

Where this round sits

Atlassian’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.

  1. 01
    Recruiter / TA Screen
  2. 02
    Online Coding Assessment
  3. 03
    Coding Interview, Data Structures
  4. 04
    Coding Interview, Code Design
  5. 05
    Systems Design Interviewthis round
  6. 06
    Manager Interview
  7. 07
    Values Interview
  8. 08
    Hiring Committee
What happens in each stage›
Recruiter / TA Screen
~25-30 min phone call on background, recent projects, why Atlassian, and level fit. Not a technical grill.
Online Coding Assessment
Required online coding test before the loop (community reports it is run through third-party vendor HackerRank). Roughly two coding problems plus short verbal scaling/situational questions.
Coding Interview, Data Structures
Live coding with an Atlassian engineer, candidate's choice of language. Practically-themed algorithm/data-structure problem, often with a base-case-then-scale-up twist.
Coding Interview, Code Design
Second live coding session leaning toward clean structure, OOP, and extensibility rather than pure algorithm tricks. Officially the coding interview is 'two parts: Data Structures and Code Design'; candidates often experience it as two separate rounds.
Systems Design Interview
60-min spoken conversation, no code. Questions 'ladder' to your performance and 'there's no one right answer'; often narrows into concrete API design.
Manager Interview
~45-60 min behavioral/career conversation about who you are, your hardest projects, collaboration, and growth.
Values Interview
~45 min behavioral round mapped to Atlassian's five values, usually with someone outside the hiring team (Sales, HR/People, Customer Support).
Hiring Committee
Internal decision stage: a committee reviews consolidated debrief feedback and makes the final objective call. Not candidate-facing / not simulate-able.

Sources

Built from what Atlassian publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.

  • companyAtlassian Engineering Interview Guideatlassian.com

    Coding interview is two parts (Data Structures + Code Design), any language, 'how you think' rubric; 60-min laddering systems design with no one right answer; Manager interview; Values interview with an outside-team interviewer; Hiring Committee.

  • companyAtlassian Early Careers Interview Guideatlassian.com

    '3 to 4 interviews' for early-career SWE; required online coding test before the loop; leadership and values interviews.

  • companyAtlassian Core Valuesatlassian.com

    Verbatim five values and their taglines used in the Values interview.

  • companyAtlassian Company / Aboutatlassian.com

    Company background and products (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Trello, Loom) for the blurb.

  • datalevels.fyi, Atlassian Software Engineerlevels.fyi

    Atlassian IC ladder: P30 (entry), P40 (Engineer), P50 (Senior), P60 (Principal).

Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.

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