Atlassian Interview Experience

The interview process consisted of 5 rounds, covering Code Design, System Design, Hiring Manager, and Values.

Positives

One positive thing about the process is that you are allowed to use your IDE, so you don't need to worry about remembering every syntax detail.

Round 1 — Code Design

Problem: Design a file system that supports finding the size of any directory.

After solving the initial problem, there was an extension to the question.

The extension focused on optimizing the system to generate a report containing the top n directories in the file system.

The interviewer also asked questions around:

• Choice of data structures

• Whether the report should be generated upfront or only when requested

Round 2 — Code Design

Problem: Design a simple Snake game where the snake moves based on a given direction.

The suggestion was to focus on solving the problem first and then move towards the design.

For moving the snake, the basic approach was to add a new head and remove the tail.

Round 3 — System Design

Problem: Design a tag management system for Atlassian.

The system should support:

• Adding tags

• Removing tags

• Searching using tags

The service should be capable of supporting all products across the company.

Some important points discussed were:

• Clarify the scope of the service

• Consider whether tags need to support localization/globalization

• Design the system keeping scale in mind

The interviewer was particularly focused on the REST endpoints.

Round 4 — Hiring Manager

This was a non-technical round focused on previous experiences and how different situations were handled.

Questions included:

• Tell me about a success

• Tell me about a failure

• How have you navigated difficult situations?

• How have you handled conflicts?

• Tell me about a situation where you had to take a back seat

• Tell me about a situation where you had to take the lead

Tip: Prepare at least one strong past example that can be adapted to questions around these different topics.

Round 5 — Values

This round was based on Atlassian's values.

There are 5 Atlassian values, and you are expected to discuss each one with relevant examples or instances from your experience.

Final Comments

Atlassian can take some time before making the final decision.

To have a successful outcome, you need to solve both Code Design problems along with their extensions.

Overall, the process focuses not just on getting the solution, but also on how you approach the problem, make design decisions, and explain your reasoning.