Atlassian Staff Software Engineer Interview Experience — Music Player Design and Product Discussions

The author describes interviewing for an ML/AI product engineering role with BCNY, a small company acquired by Atlassian, and cautions that this team’s process may differ. A phone screen used a music-player exercise to assess object-oriented design and communication, including playback controls, queuing, repeat behavior, and shuffled playlists.

Onsite discussions included designing comments for a social platform serving fewer than one million users. Topics covered interfaces, storage, notifications, and growth in application and database capacity, with existing identity and post services assumed. A project deep dive emphasized explaining a previously built system and discussing its components in detail. Leadership and behavioral questions were described as conventional. The process finished within two weeks. The author perceived a strong emphasis on cultural fit and described the team as enthusiastic and attentive to product quality. No hiring decision is stated.