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Databricks · Software engineer · IC SWE (L3-L5)

Behavioral / Values (Hiring Manager)

45-60 min with a hiring manager

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.

  • “Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside your defined responsibilities.”
  • “Describe a cross-functional conflict and how you resolved it. What was the outcome for the customer or business?”
  • “Give an example of a hard technical decision you drove. What were the tradeoffs?”
  • “Tell me about a time you worked through significant ambiguity.”
  • “Why Databricks?”

What this round is judged on

  • Ownership · taking a problem beyond your defined scope and driving it
  • Ambiguity · operating and deciding without full information
  • Collaboration · cross-functional work and resolving conflict
  • Impact · concrete outcomes tied to customer/business results
  • Truth-seeking · candid, evidence-based reasoning about tradeoffs

Where this round sits

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

  1. 01
    Recruiter / Talent Acquisition Screen
  2. 02
    Online Assessment (OA)
  3. 03
    Technical Phone Screen
  4. 04
    Virtual Onsite ('Loop')this round
  5. 05
    Reference Checks
  6. 06
    Hiring Committee + VP of Engineering sign-off
What happens in each stage›
Recruiter / Talent Acquisition Screen
~30 min, non-technical. Background, motivation, and target team/level fit. Confirmed by Databricks' own 'Connecting with Talent Acquisition' stage.
Online Assessment (OA)
~70-min proctored coding test (CodeSignal/HackerRank), typically ~4 questions mixing standard data-structure work with a data-manipulation twist. Common for new-grad/many IC pipelines; some experienced candidates skip straight to the phone screen. Async, so simulated by the phone-screen coding round. Corresponds to Databricks' 'Skill assessments' stage.
Technical Phone Screen
~60 min live coding in a shared runnable editor (CoderPad-style). Medium-to-hard algorithmic problems; graph traversal recurs. Code is expected to compile, run, and pass tests.
Virtual Onsite ('Loop')
5-6 interviews, fully virtual over Google Meet (confirmed on Databricks' own prep page). Stable core: 2 coding rounds (one with a data-processing slant), 1 dedicated concurrency/multithreading round, 1 system design, 1 behavioral/values with a hiring manager.
Reference Checks
Explicitly listed as stage 6 of Databricks' published 7-stage process.
Hiring Committee + VP of Engineering sign-off
Decision made by committee from the full packet rather than round-by-round, which is why turnaround feels slow. Committee/VP specifics are candidate-reported, not officially published.

Sources

Built from what Databricks 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.

  • companyDatabricks official interview-prep guidedatabricks.com

    7-stage process, Google Meet as the interview tool, exact behavioral question stems, and an engineering-specific prep guide.

  • companyDatabricks careers overviewdatabricks.com

    Culture language ('innovators, builders and truthseekers'), early-career/engineering hiring context. Note: does NOT publish a verbatim six-value list.

  • companyDatabricks about-usdatabricks.com

    Factual company description: unified data-and-AI lakehouse platform; creators of Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, Unity Catalog.

  • companyDatabricks Field Engineering interview-prep PDF (April 2025)databricks.com

    Confirms role-specific prep guides exist. Adjacent role (field engineering), not SWE, so used only as corroboration that prep material is published.

  • datalevels.fyi Databrickslevels.fyi

    Leveling and compensation context only; comp figures are informational and single-sourced. Not used for round mechanics.

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

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