Palantir interview guide: practise decomposition before you face it
Palantir's loop has rounds you won't see anywhere else. The biggest one is decomposition, where you get a vague real-world problem ("help a hospital network manage bed shortages") and have to turn it into requirements, data models and a plan in under an hour. Most strong coders have never practised this, and it shows. A mock interview with an engineer who can play the vague customer is the best way to get comfortable with it.
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This guide is compiled from Palantir's Getting Hired page and candidate reports from 2025 and 2026. The practice questions are written in the style candidates describe and aren't leaked.
Palantir interview process at a glance
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Stage | Format | Notes
Online assessment | Coding | Some roles
Recruiter call | Background, "why Palantir" | 30 min
Technical screen | Coding or decomposition | 1 engineer
Onsite | 3 to 4 rounds | Virtual
Hiring manager | Fit and motivation | Final step
[[/table]]
The onsite is built from a pool of five round types: decomposition, learning, re-engineering, coding and system design. Decomposition shows up for almost everyone. The rest depend on your role and team, so two candidates rarely get the same mix. Most people report the process taking three to four weeks.
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Software Engineer vs Forward Deployed Engineer
Palantir hires two main engineering tracks, and the interviews lean differently.
[[table]]
Track | Builds | Rounds weighted
Software Engineer | Foundry, Gotham, AIP | Coding, design
Forward Deployed (FDSE) | Customer solutions | Decomposition, learning
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Software Engineers work on Palantir's platforms. Forward Deployed Software Engineers work directly with customers, often inside their systems, and the role mixes engineering with consulting. If you're applying as an FDE, expect a recruiter to ask why you want a customer-facing role, and prepare a real answer.
The five Palantir onsite rounds
Decomposition
You get a broad problem with no clear spec, and the interviewer plays the customer. Your job is to ask the right questions, define who the users are, sketch a data model, list the main features, and decide what to build first. There's usually no code. Interviewers watch how you handle ambiguity, how you prioritise, and whether you keep checking your plan against what the customer actually needs.
The most common mistake is jumping into architecture in the first five minutes. Spend the first ten minutes on questions.
Learning
The interviewer teaches you something new, like an unfamiliar concept, API or small domain, and then asks you to use it to solve a problem. It tests how fast you pick things up and whether you ask good questions when you're stuck. Saying "let me make sure I've understood this" and repeating it back is a strength here.
Re-engineering
You get an existing piece of code, often with bugs or design problems, and have to understand it, fix it and improve it without breaking what already works. Code-reading speed matters more than writing speed. Talk through what you're checking as you go.
Coding
A fairly standard coding round, usually medium difficulty. Interviewers care about clean code and clear explanations more than clever tricks. Ask clarifying questions before you start.
System design
More common for Software Engineer and experienced candidates. Expect designs tied to data-heavy products, like ingesting data from many sources, permissions on sensitive records, or syncing data to offline field devices.
Behavioural questions run through every round, usually at the start. "Why Palantir?" comes up almost every time, so have a specific answer about the problems Palantir works on.
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What changes for experienced candidates
Palantir has a flatter ladder than most big tech companies, and senior titles often sit in the same band as non-senior ones. In practice, experienced candidates are judged on how they handle scope rather than on a level number.
[[table]]
Experience | Focus | Watch out for
0 to 2 yrs | Coding, learning | Rushing decomp
3 to 6 yrs | Decomp, design | Over-engineering
7+ yrs | Design, ownership | Vague customer focus
[[/table]]
If you have several years of experience, interviewers expect your decomposition to sound like someone who has shipped to real users. Talk about rollout, data access rules, what you'd cut, and how you'd measure success. In the hiring manager round, bring stories about owning a messy problem end to end.
Palantir practice questions
These are practice questions in the style candidates describe. They're not leaked questions.
Decomposition
- A city wants to reduce ambulance response times. What would you build?
- A manufacturer keeps running out of spare parts at different factories. Design a tool to help.
- A disaster relief agency needs to track supplies across camps with poor internet. Where do you start?
Learning
- Here's a short explanation of a graph query language. Use it to find all suppliers two steps away from a failed part.
Re-engineering
- This scheduling service sometimes double-books rooms. Find out why and fix it.
Coding
- Given a list of flight segments, rebuild the full itinerary.
- Merge records from two data sources that use different ID formats.
System design
- Design a system that syncs case data to field devices that go offline for days.
Practise decomposition with a live interviewer
How to prepare for a Palantir interview
Practise decomposition out loud, with a timer. Take a messy real-world problem from the news, give yourself 45 minutes, and talk through users, requirements, data model, first version and risks. Then do it again with a friend playing a customer who keeps changing their mind.
Get faster at reading code. Open an unfamiliar open-source project, pick a small bug from its issue list, and try to find the cause in 30 minutes. That's close to what the re-engineering round feels like.
Keep your coding sharp with medium-level problems, and focus on writing code another engineer could read without help.
Prepare your "why Palantir" answer early. Pick a real customer story or product area that interests you and be ready to explain why.
FAQs
What is the Palantir decomposition interview? A round where you break a vague real-world problem into users, requirements, a data model and a build plan, usually without writing code.
How many rounds are in the Palantir onsite? Usually three or four, picked from decomposition, learning, re-engineering, coding and system design, followed by a hiring manager call.
Is the FDE interview different from the Software Engineer interview? Yes. FDE loops put more weight on decomposition and learning. Software Engineer loops lean more on coding and system design.
How long does the Palantir hiring process take? Most candidates report three to four weeks.
How do I practise decomposition? With a partner who plays a vague customer. It's hard to practise alone because the round is about asking questions and adjusting.
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Get Comfortable With Palantir's Unusual Rounds: Take a Mock Interview
Decomposition and re-engineering are hard to prepare for alone. Practise them with an engineer who can play the customer, push on your choices and give you honest feedback on each round.
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