CrackingWalnuts
Checked 3 August 2026. Databricks does not publish its interview structure. Everything on this page is commonly reported by candidates, so treat it as a guide rather than a specification.
| Round | Duration | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Screen | 60 min | Strategy conversation. |
| System Design Strategy | 90 min | Multi-year data platform strategy at company scale. |
| Architecture Review | 60 min | Deep critique of a company-scale architecture. |
| Cross-Org Influence | 60 min | How you align multiple data platform orgs. |
| Technical Vision (Writing) | Take-home | Strategy memo for a Databricks-scale problem. |
| Hiring and Mentorship | 60 min | Staff hiring and growth stories. |
| Behavioral (Principal Scale) | 60 min | Company-level impact. |
| Senior Leader Round | 60 min | Vision, leadership style, company fit. |
IC6 is the principal-level IC role. The bar is "sets data platform strategy at company scale, hires and grows IC5s, influences company-level direction".
Targeted guidance per round in this loop. Each section links to the matching track on the site. There is no shortcut list, the bar moves loop to loop, so build the pattern recognition and the stories from real practice.
Work the pattern templates until the recognition is instant. Trace one mock problem per pattern. Practice stating time and space complexity out loud before you write code.
Databricks IC6 (Principal Engineer) has one design round: Architecture Review (60 min): Deep critique of a company-scale architecture.. Bar is multi-year architectural bets and cross-org technical strategy. You should be naming specific decisions you would defend in a roomful of senior engineers. Pick problems from the track at the scale this loop tests and rehearse the structure: requirements, numbers, high-level design, data model, API, deep dive on one part, trade-offs.
Principal bar. Multi-year bets, executive-level communication, cross-org influence, and growing Staff engineers. The behavioral rounds often outweigh technical-depth rounds in the final hiring decision at this level.
Write a real strategy memo for a problem you understand. Edit it twice. Read your own writing back the next morning. Aim for clear prose, specific recommendations, named trade-offs.