Atlassian Interview Experience - Software Engineer

Excited to share that I've joined Atlassian as a software engineer. In this blog, I've tried to share my experience through the various interview rounds and the insights I've gained throughout the process. The first time I heard about Atlassian was at my previous job where we were using Jira to track our workflows. As a software engineer, I have a keen appreciation for quality tools and software. Ever since that experience, I have aspired to contribute to the development of Atlassian's tools.

Application Process

I applied at Atlassian through an employee referral. After a few days, one of their HRs reached out to me over call stating that they are interested in my profile and wanted to move forward with the interview process. They mentioned that there are going to be a total of 6 rounds of interviews for this role as follows:

1. Screening Round
2. Browser Coding Round
3. JavaScript Coding Round
4. System Design Round
5. Values Round
6. Management Round

Besides these rounds, I've also had 2 discussions as well

7. Team Match discussion
8. Offer discussion

Interview Process

Now, I'll discuss each round in detail with things I've found after giving those interviews.

Technical Screening Round by Karat

This was a 60-minute interview with a seasoned karat interview engineer. Karat helps companies filter candidates based on their interview processes. Broadly this interview could be divided into 3 parts:

• Analysis part: This part includes questions related to web dev and core computer science engineering concepts.
• UI design part: This part included a basic UI to build using HTML and CSS using best practices and I was also asked a few questions about some of my approaches.
• coding part: This was the part that took the majority of the interview time. First, I was given some code snippets and asked to find mistakes in it (if any) and suggestions to fix the bug. Then I was given a coding problem to solve after that a browser coding problem was given to me to build the application with some functionality, Although I was allowed to choose any frontend framework, I chose plain HTML and javascript to do that.

After a few days, I was informed by HR that I'd cleared the karat round and was invited to the Atlassian interviews.

Browser/Machine Coding Round

This was the first interview with an Atlassian engineer. It was a 60-minute machine coding round. I was given a frontend problem to solve.

One thing that was common across all the Atlassian interviews was that they were all focused on understanding the thought process of the candidate rather than just solving the problem. So even if I had solved a problem, the interviewer would enhance the problem to know more about my approach to solving the enhancement, till the end of the interview.

It was like pair programming for me since I was discussing my approach with the interviewer. I remember the interviewer telling me that this was the first time someone had solved this problem using this approach, which was very optimized since I used a different data structure. The interviewer was helpful throughout the time.

JavaScript Coding Round

This was the 3rd round of the interview process. It was a 60-minute coding round mainly focused on JavaScript.

The interview started with a simple problem that was enhanced as I started solving it. Here, a good understanding of JavaScript was really important because the interviewer tested my core understanding of the language via the problem.

This round was tough for me as barely solved the problem in a given time, along with some of the improved suggestions I was encouraged to add to my solution.

System Design Round

This was the 4th round of the interview process. It was again a 60-minute round but it didn't involve coding.

A typical frontend systems design round involves solving a frontend problem with more focus on the architecture and the design of the app. As soon as I was given the problem, I jumped straight into the process (as I know from my previous interview experiences that this round usually takes me a lot of time since there is no clear way to end the solution)

You are supposed to cover a lot in this round as this helps them understand (to an extent) that you know how to build systems efficiently.

I followed the RADIO framework for the system design problem I was given.

• R → At first, you start by gathering the requirements (functional & non-functional) of the system to design
• A → then you create a high-level design/architecture of the system, this part helps you identify the core components of the app
• D → defining the data flow & model, state management & normalization
• I → API definition, endpoints, payload, request & responses
• O → optimization & scaling

You can learn more about the RADIO framework on the frontend interview handbook

In my opinion, no answer is right or wrong in this round. But be prepared to answer why you choose one thing over another. (for eg: imagine you choose Svelte as your choice of frontend framework to design your application, now you might be asked to explain why did you choose Svelte over some other framework like React for example) I remember there were a few very deep discussions where the interviewer wanted me to explain my choices.

The above 4 rounds are also called the crafts interviews. Now, the last two rounds are non-tech rounds.

Values Round

This was the 5th round in the interview process. It was a 45-minute round. There were behavioral questions based on Atlassian's core values and how well the candidate aligns with them.

Tip: Please go through all the values, and prepare some examples from your past experiences that align well with them. It's one of the reasons I chose Atlassian because I can relate to all the values.

Management Round

This was the 6th round in the interview process. It was a 60-minute round with one of the senior engineering managers at Atlassian. It involved many scenario-based questions that go like "Tell me about a time when you..." that helps them understand whether you can work well with a team or not.

Tip: You can use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Reward) method to craft your answer to such questions.

After all of the interviews, there is a debrief and hiring committee review that can take about 2 weeks before you can get any update on your application. Soon I received an update that I've received positive feedback from the hiring committee and they have initiated the next steps to align me with the team.

Team Match discussion

This was a short discussion with my engineering manager, it was a conversational discussion about the team, product, and some other things. It was quite interesting. The main focus of this discussion was for the candidate to ask questions that they have regarding the team and the organization.

After this, I was told that I was selected for the role of a software engineer and they want to discuss my offer & benefits with HR. I got the offer soon after the discussion then I accepted the offer and joined Atlassian 🎉

The time it took me to go through the complete interview process was less than 3 months. It would have taken a little less time but there was a holiday season (Diwali) in between. This interview experience stands out as one of the best I've ever had.