Atlassian

The process, round by round

Reported by candidates and, where we found one, the company itself. Each round shows how well it is reported. Processes change by team, level and year.

1. 1

   Recruiter screen

   Recruiter or phone screen30 min

   Prep guides

   A call about your background, interest in Atlassian and logistics such as pay expectations and location. The recruiter also confirms which seniority level (P-level) you are being considered for.

   • motivation
   • role and level fit
   • logistics

   What can be asked in a recruiter or phone screen round

   A short call that decides whether you move on. Part resume and motivation, sometimes one easy coding or fundamentals question in a shared editor.

   • Walk me through your resume and your best project

     Give a two minute spine, not a life story: who you are now, the one or two projects that matter most, and why this role is the next step. Pick the best project and state the problem, your part, the technology and one measurable result. Keep every claim something you can defend if the next question digs in. You could open with: I am a backend engineer, and the project I am proudest of is the one where I cut checkout latency.

     Screening call chapter →
   • Why this company and why now

     The listener wants to know whether your reason is specific and sincere, not flattery. Name one or two real things about the product, the engineering problems or the team that you have looked at, then connect them to something you have done or want to learn. Why now should be about your growth, not escaping your current job. An opening could be: I have used the product, and the scaling problem it describes is the kind I want to work on.

     Screening call chapter →
   • Notice period, location and compensation expectations

     Give the facts that are true and keep the negotiation for later. State your notice period exactly as your contract says, and mention whether it can be shortened or bought out only if that is real. For compensation, say you would like to understand the role and level first, or give a researched range rather than a single anchor. Never invent a current figure. If you are asked directly, answer honestly and calmly.

     HR and the number chapter →
   • One easy or medium coding question, or a language fundamentals question

     Treat it as a short version of the full coding round. Repeat the problem back, ask about input size and edge cases, state a plan before typing, and talk while you code. For a language question, such as what a closure is or how a hash map handles collisions, give a one line definition and a tiny example. A good line is: first I will do the simple approach so we have something correct, then improve it.

     Tech phone screen chapter →

   Prepare with: Book · Screening callBook · Tech phone screen

   1 source for this round

   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
2. 2

   Online assessment / technical screen

   Online assessment

   One report

   An early coding screen before the main loop. Intern reports describe a timed LeetCode-style problem or a short live coding call. One guide says a third-party interviewer from Karat runs it, with quick fundamentals questions then one or two problems, and a retake is possible.

   • networking and OS fundamentals (one guide)
   • working code under time

   Varies: The Karat detail comes from one guide only; the candidate reports I could read are intern and US/Australia based. Not every India report mentions a screen.

   What can be asked in a online assessment round

   A timed test on a coding platform, taken alone. Usually two or three coding problems, sometimes with multiple-choice questions on CS basics, aptitude or SQL.

   • Array and string problems that need a hash map, two pointers or a sliding window

     Read the constraints first, because they point to the technique. If n is 100,000, an O(n^2) scan will time out, so look for a hash map, two pointers on a sorted array, or a window that moves forward only. Sketch the brute force, find the repeated work, then remove it. For two-sum style pairs you might say: I store each value's index as I scan, so the complement lookup is O(1) and the whole pass is O(n).

     DSA course →
   • Greedy and sorting problems with a catch in the constraints

     Greedy problems hide behind a sort. Ask what ordering makes the locally best choice safe, then try to argue why swapping two adjacent choices never helps. Interval scheduling is the classic case: sort by end time and take every interval that starts after the last chosen one. Check the catch in the constraints, such as overflow, ties or equal values, and test a tiny case by hand before submitting.

     DSA course →
   • A medium dynamic programming or graph-on-a-grid problem

     Decide whether the problem is a graph walk or a recurrence. On a grid, a shortest path with equal step cost is breadth-first search from the start, with a visited set so each cell is processed once, giving O(rows x cols). For dynamic programming, define the state in one sentence, write the transition, set the base cases, then see if only the previous row is needed to save space.

     DSA course →
   • SQL queries with joins and group by

     Start from the table that holds the thing being counted, join the others on their keys, filter rows with WHERE, group, then filter groups with HAVING. Remember that WHERE runs before grouping and HAVING after. Use LEFT JOIN when rows with no match must still appear, and COUNT of a column rather than star when nulls matter. Example: customers with more than three orders is GROUP BY customer_id HAVING COUNT(*) > 3.

     Databases →
   • Multiple-choice questions on OOP, operating systems, databases and networks

     These reward quick, accurate recall rather than long reasoning, so revise the short list of definitions that recur. Know the difference between a process and a thread, the four ACID properties, what an index trades for faster reads, TCP against UDP, and the four pillars of OOP. Eliminate two wrong options first, then choose. Do not spend more than a minute on any single question, and flag it to return to if time remains.

     Mock interviews →

   Prepare with: Book · Online assessmentDSA course

   2 sources for this round

   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2024Jointaro: Atlassian software engineer intern experiences ↗
3. 3

   Coding: data structures

   Data structures and algorithms60 min (one guide)

   Several reports

   Live coding in the language of your choice. The official page splits the coding interview into data structures and code design, and says trade-offs such as verbosity versus optimisation matter. One guide says interviewers look at code quality, naming and whether you test your own code.

   • problem solving
   • readable code
   • testing your own solution
   • trade-offs

   Varies: The official page lists frontend, backend, fullstack and SRE tracks.

   Practise for this round

   • CodingDesign Snake GameMedium · O(1) per move→
   • CodingLongest Consecutive SequenceMedium · O(n) average→
   • CodingWord Search, right and down moves onlyMedium · O(m · n · L)→

   What can be asked in a data structures and algorithms round

   A live coding round of 45 to 60 minutes with one or two problems. You are judged on how you clarify, reason, code, test and state the complexity, not on the answer alone.

   • Arrays, strings and hashing: pairs, windows, frequency counts, prefix sums

     Name the pattern from the shape of the question. Pairs with a target use a hash map of seen values. A contiguous range with a condition uses a sliding window that grows on the right and shrinks on the left, so each element enters and leaves once, giving O(n). Range sums over many queries use a prefix sum array so each query is O(1) after O(n) setup. Count characters with a fixed-size array or map.

     DSA course →
   • Linked lists, stacks and queues, including design-a-structure problems such as an LRU cache

     For an LRU cache, combine a hash map from key to node with a doubly linked list ordered by recency. Get moves the node to the front, put inserts at the front, and when over capacity you remove the tail node and its map entry. Both operations are O(1), and you say why: the map finds the node, the list reorders it without a scan. For stacks, mention a monotonic stack for next greater element.

     DSA course →
   • Trees and BSTs, graphs (BFS, DFS, topological sort, shortest paths) and grids

     Decide the traversal from what is asked. Level by level or shortest path in an unweighted graph is BFS with a queue. Exploring all paths, components or cycles is DFS. A dependency order is topological sort: Kahn's algorithm repeatedly removes nodes with in-degree zero, and leftover nodes mean a cycle. Weighted shortest path with non-negative edges is Dijkstra with a heap, O((V + E) log V). On a BST, an in-order walk is sorted.

     DSA course →
   • Heaps and top-K, intervals, binary search on the answer

     For the K largest items keep a min-heap of size K: push each element and pop the smallest when the heap exceeds K, so the cost is O(n log K) and memory is O(K). For intervals, sort by start, then merge by comparing the next start with the current end. For binary search on the answer, define a yes or no check that is monotonic, such as can ship within D days, and search the capacity range.

     DSA course →
   • Dynamic programming from one dimension up to knapsack and string DP

     Define the state in a sentence, write the recurrence, fix the base cases, and decide the order of filling. Start with the recursive version with memoisation, then convert to a table. For 0/1 knapsack, dp[w] is the best value at capacity w, and in the one dimensional form you loop capacity downward so each item is used once. For string problems such as edit distance, the state is a pair of prefix lengths.

     DSA course →
   • Follow-ups: optimise space, handle streaming input, make it thread-safe

     Treat follow-ups as a chance to show depth, and answer in the same calm order each time. To save space, ask which previous rows or values the recurrence actually reads and keep only those. For streaming input, say what summary you can keep, such as a heap of size K or a running count. For thread safety, name the shared state, guard it with a lock, and keep the critical section short.

   Prepare with: Book · DSA roundDSA course

   3 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2025Jointaro: Atlassian software developer experiences ↗
   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
4. 4

   Code design / craft

   Low-level design60 min (one guide)

   Several reports

   The official page lists code design as the second part of the coding interview. A guide describes a real-world task, with a backend popularity-tracking system and a frontend debounced search bar as examples. A US intern candidate advised being comfortable creating classes and using hash maps.

   • code design
   • code quality
   • practical coding task

   Varies: The guide's examples differ for backend and frontend.

   Practise for this round

   • LLDRate limiter with pluggable algorithmsStrategy, Factory, Sliding window, Token bucket · runnable code→
   • LLDSnake game on a gridStrategy, Observer, Deque · runnable code→

   What can be asked in a low-level design round

   An object-oriented design discussion: classes, interfaces, relationships and the patterns that keep them flexible. Often combined with machine coding.

   • Class design for a booking system, a notification service or a payment module

     Begin by listing the nouns and verbs from the requirements, then turn nouns into classes and group verbs by who owns the data. For a booking system you might have Resource, Booking, User and a BookingService, with a rule that two bookings for one resource cannot overlap. Draw relationships clearly: composition when a part cannot exist alone, an interface when behaviour varies. Say which classes you would write first and why.

     Whiteboard →
   • SOLID principles applied to your own classes

     Tie each principle to a concrete choice in your design rather than reciting the acronym. Single responsibility: the invoice class does not also send email. Open and closed: add a new payment method by adding a class, not editing a switch. Liskov: a subclass must honour the parent's contract. Interface segregation: small interfaces. Dependency inversion: the service depends on a notifier interface, not on an SMS client.

   • Strategy, observer, factory, state and builder patterns, and when each helps

     Know the problem each pattern solves. Strategy swaps an algorithm, such as pricing or routing. Observer lets many listeners react to one event, as in notifications. Factory hides which concrete class is created. State moves behaviour into a class per state, as in an order lifecycle. Builder assembles an object with many optional fields. Say when not to use one: a pattern with a single implementation is usually noise.

   • Concurrency inside the design: locks, thread-safe collections, idempotent operations

     Identify what is shared and mutable, then choose the smallest protection that works. Use a lock around a compound check-then-act, a concurrent map for independent keys, and atomic counters for simple tallies. For operations that may be retried, make them idempotent by carrying a request id and ignoring a repeat. Example: charging a booking twice is prevented by storing the request id with the result and returning it again.

   • Extending the design for a new requirement without breaking old code

     Show the design absorbing change. When a new requirement arrives, say which existing abstraction already covers it and which new class you add. If a discount rule appears, add a new implementation of the discount interface and register it. If you must change old code, explain why the original split was wrong and how you would limit the edit. Mention tests: existing tests should still pass unchanged after the extension.

   3 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2024Jointaro: Atlassian software engineer intern experiences ↗
   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
5. 5

   System design

   System design60 min

   Several reports

   A discussion about real engineering challenges such as architecture or scaling under given conditions, not mainly about writing code. Follow-up questions tighten or change the constraints to see how you adapt. A guide cites Jira-notification and Confluence-editor style prompts.

   • clarifying requirements
   • reliability and cost reasoning
   • technology choices
   • adapting to new constraints

   Varies: A Pune report (Nov 2024) lists it as the second of three rounds: technical, system design, manager.

   Practise for this round

   • DesignDesign a product-agnostic tagging system for several products4 chapters · diagrams→
   • DesignDesign an engagement-based popular content feed3 chapters · diagrams→

   What can be asked in a system design round

   A 45 to 60 minute discussion of how to build a system at scale: requirements, numbers, APIs, data model, components, bottlenecks and trade-offs.

   • Short links, chat, news feed, notifications, search, rate limiting

     Use one repeatable path: clarify scope and scale, estimate load, define the API, sketch the data model, draw the main components, then probe bottlenecks. For short links, store a mapping from a generated short id to the long url, generate ids with a counter encoded in base 62, cache hot links, and note reads far outnumber writes. For chat, mention persistent connections and a store ordered per conversation.

     System design course →
   • Payments, wallets and ledgers where money must never be lost or doubled

     Money systems put correctness before speed. Use a double-entry ledger where entries are append-only and every transfer writes a debit and an equal credit in one transaction. Protect against doubled charges with an idempotency key stored with the result, so a retry returns the original outcome. For lost updates use a database transaction, and reconcile with the payment provider's records on a schedule.

     System design course →
   • Ride matching, maps and anything with live location

     Split the problem into location ingestion, a geospatial index and matching. Drivers send updates every few seconds to a write-optimised store, often in memory, keyed by a grid cell such as a geohash or S2 cell. To find nearby drivers, query the rider's cell and its neighbours, then rank by distance and estimated time. Say how you handle a stale location and a driver who accepts two rides.

     System design course →
   • File storage and sync, video streaming and content delivery

     For file sync, split files into chunks, hash each chunk and upload only chunks the server lacks, so a small edit transfers a small amount. Keep metadata in a database and chunks in object storage. For video, upload the original, transcode into several resolutions, store segments and serve them through a content delivery network with adaptive bitrate streaming, so the player switches quality as bandwidth changes.

     System design course →
   • Fundamentals: caching, sharding, replication, queues, consistency, failure handling

     Treat each as a tool with a cost. A cache cuts read latency but adds staleness and invalidation. Sharding spreads write load but makes cross-shard queries hard. Replication gives availability and read scale but introduces lag. Queues smooth spikes and decouple services but require idempotent consumers. For failures, name timeouts, retries with backoff and a fallback. State what you give up whenever you choose.

     System design course →
   • Back-of-envelope estimates and what they decide

     Estimates are there to choose a design, so finish each one with a decision. Use round numbers: a day has about 100,000 seconds, so 10 million requests a day is roughly 100 per second on average, with a peak of a few times that. Multiply object size by count for storage, and compare against one machine's capacity. If one database handles the load, say so and avoid sharding.

     Capacity estimation →

   Prepare with: Book · System designSystem design course

   3 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2024Jointaro: Atlassian software developer experiences ↗
   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
6. 6

   Manager interview

   Hiring manager

   Several reports

   One-to-one with the hiring manager or a senior manager. The official page says it covers your background, the impact you could have, growth paths and how you collaborate, and that you should be ready to discuss past projects including the business justification.

   • project depth
   • collaboration
   • impact and growth
   • communication

   Varies: A Pune report (Nov 2024) lists it as the third of three rounds, after one technical and one system design round.

   Practise for this round

   • BookDraw the architecture of one of your applications.Resume grilling→
   • BookWhat is the worst technical decision you have made, and what did it cost?Resume grilling→
   • BookIf you have written standards for a team, give me three rules and why each exists.Resume grilling→

   What can be asked in a hiring manager round

   A conversation about your past work and how you would fit the team: depth on projects, ownership, decisions and trade-offs, sometimes a design problem.

   • Pick a project and go deep: why this design, what broke, what you would change

     Choose a project you can discuss at every layer. Explain the problem and who it served, the options you considered, why you chose one, what broke and what you would change now. Be clear which parts you did and which the team did. Admitting a flaw earns trust. Opening line: the main constraint was latency, so I chose a cache in front of the database, and I would now add an invalidation strategy.

     Resume grilling chapter →
   • A time you disagreed with a teammate or pushed back on a decision

     Use situation, task, action, result, and keep the disagreement about the work, never the person. The listener is checking that you can hold a view with evidence, listen, and commit once the decision is made. Describe what you proposed, the data or reasoning you used, how you reached agreement or accepted the other path, and what happened. Do not invent a story: use a real one, even a small one.

     Behavioural chapter →
   • How you prioritise when everything is urgent

     Show a method rather than a claim of being busy. Describe how you judge impact and deadline, ask who needs the result and when, and say no or renegotiate scope early when two things clash. Mention communicating the trade-off to stakeholders so nobody is surprised. A sentence you could adapt: I list what is blocking others first, then what has a fixed date, then what moves a metric.

     Behavioural chapter →
   • What you want from the next role and the team

     Answer honestly and tie it to what the role offers. Say what you want to learn or own next, such as larger systems, more ownership of design, or mentoring, and what kind of team helps you do it. Then ask what the team is trying to achieve this year and how the work is reviewed. The listener checks that your wishes match the job and that you have thought about it.

   Prepare with: Book · Resume grillingBook · Behavioural

   2 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2024Jointaro: Atlassian software developer experiences ↗
7. 7

   Values interview

   Behavioural round45-60 min (one guide)

   Several reports

   An informal conversation, usually with someone outside the hiring team such as sales, HR or support, about Atlassian's five values and the mindset behind your actions. An intern candidate gave an example of applying each value, and a Gdansk candidate called this the most stressful round.

   • alignment with company values
   • mindset and humility
   • customer empathy
   • personal examples

   Varies: One guide says interviewers in 2025 favoured answers showing humility and customer empathy.

   Practise for this round

   • BookTell me about a time you disagreed with a technical decision.Behavioural→
   • BookYour app is down in production and you are the only engineer available. What do you do?Behavioural→
   • BookWhy do you want to work here?Behavioural→

   What can be asked in a behavioural round round

   Story-based questions about how you work. Prepare a few real stories you can reshape: the situation, your action and the result, with numbers where you have them.

   • A conflict, a failure, a deadline you missed and what you changed

     Use situation, task, action and result, spending most of the time on what you did. For a failure, own your part, say what you learned and show a concrete change that you kept, such as a checklist or a test. For a conflict, show you listened and focused on the goal. The listener checks honesty and growth. Start plainly: the situation was a release that slipped, and my part in it was an estimate I did not revisit.

     Behavioural chapter →
   • Leading without authority, mentoring, raising a hard issue

     The theme is influence without a title. Pick a real example where you persuaded others, taught a teammate or raised a risk early. Describe how you built agreement, with data, a small proof or a one page proposal, and what changed afterwards. Raising a hard issue means doing it early, privately where fitting, and with a suggested fix. Do not present someone else's work as your own.

     Behavioural chapter →
   • Ambiguity: a time you had to decide with little information

     Interviewers check how you decide when facts are missing. Describe how you reduced the unknowns: asked who could answer, ran a small experiment, chose the reversible option, and set a point to review. Explain what you decided, what risk you accepted, and the outcome, including if it turned out wrong. A fitting opening: nobody could tell us the real traffic, so I proposed a two week trial before committing.

     Behavioural chapter →
   • Customer or user focus, and an example of going beyond the brief

     Show that you understand who uses the work. Pick a real example where you looked at user feedback, support tickets or usage data and changed what you built, even when the ticket asked for something narrower. Describe the extra step you took, why it mattered to the user, and the result. The listener checks initiative and that it is grounded in evidence, not just effort.

     Leadership principles chapter →

   Prepare with: Book · BehaviouralBook · Leadership Principles

   4 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2025Jointaro: Atlassian software developer experiences ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2024Jointaro: Atlassian software engineer intern experiences ↗
   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗
8. 8

   Hiring committee, HR and offer

   HR and offer

   Several reports

   Interviewers pool feedback, then a committee independent of them reviews feedback and CV for a holistic decision. A Hyderabad report from Oct 2025 lists a final HR round that covered salary.

   • overall skills and behaviours
   • level fit
   • compensation alignment

   Practise for this round

   • BookWhat each headline number actually pays youHR & the number→
   • BookWhat band should you expect from each type of company?HR & the number→
   • BookWhat are your salary expectations?HR & the number→

   What can be asked in a hr and offer round

   The closing conversation: motivation, expectations, notice period, compensation and how the offer is structured. Prepared answers and a clear number help here.

   • Current and expected compensation, and how to answer without boxing yourself in

     Be honest and avoid giving a single number too early. Share your current pay only if you are comfortable, and make clear what is fixed and what is variable. For expectations, say you are flexible for the right role, and offer a researched range based on level and market. If pushed, state a figure you can justify. Never state a number you cannot support, because offers are often checked.

     HR and the number chapter →
   • Notice period, joining date and relocation

     Give the facts exactly as they are in your contract. State the notice period, whether early release or a buy-out is truly possible, and the earliest honest joining date. Do not promise a date your employer has not agreed to. For relocation, say whether you can move, how soon, and whether you would need support. Clear, early information helps the recruiter plan and shows you are reliable.

     HR and the number chapter →
   • Why you are leaving and what you are looking for

     Keep it positive and forward looking. Talk about what you want more of, such as larger scale, ownership or a stronger team, rather than criticising your current employer. The listener checks that you will not leave this job for the same reason. Opening line: I have learned a lot in the current role, and I now want to work on problems at a bigger scale.

   • Levels, equity and how the offer is built

     Ask for the structure rather than only the total. Find out the level and title, base salary, bonus and whether it is guaranteed, equity amount, vesting schedule and cliff, joining bonus and any clawback. Compare offers on a yearly total with the same assumptions. If equity is in a private company, ask how it is valued and what happens on leaving. Asking calmly is normal and expected.

     Levels and equity chapter →

   Prepare with: Book · HR & the numberBook · Levels & equity

   3 sources for this round

   • OfficialAtlassian: engineering interviewing guide ↗
   • Candidate write-up · 2025Jointaro: Atlassian software developer experiences ↗
   • Prep guide · 2026TechPrep: Atlassian's interview process ↗

What we could not verify. The official page is undated and gives a duration only for system design. LeetCode and Glassdoor India SDE-2/SDE-3 reports were unreadable, so level differences (P-levels) and India-specific details rest on three short Jointaro pages and a guide. Karat screen, recruiter call and most durations are guide-only.