Palantir Software Engineer interview: algorithms, REST API, and learning loop

After a recruiter call about my background and interests, I took a coding assessment with two medium-style algorithm questions and a REST API task. About a day later, I had a 45-minute technical interview that stayed focused on practical problem solving instead of theory alone.

The process then moved into an onsite-style loop about learning and decomposition. In one round, I broke down an ambiguous prompt and explained how I would approach it. In another, I had to learn something new while doing the work and apply it. My pacing and clarity seemed to matter because I felt they were testing how I reason under unfamiliar constraints.

The final stage was a hiring-manager round. The process felt average to challenging, but I did not receive an offer. My main reflection was that the learning and decomposition pieces mattered most, even when the earlier rounds felt under control.

Location: Washington, DC. Overall feedback: positive. Offer status: no offer.