JetBrains Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 28 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at JetBrains.
JetBrains
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Difficult Negative experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Technical screen Background check
Interview formats
Coding Technical Behavioral
So this interview process was seriously one of the worst I've ever seen. They totally ghosted me, no official rejection or anything. I was stuck waiting for a while after an initial recruitment step and had to chase them just to see if they were still moving forward. The first tech interview threw the classic 'reverse the list' problem at me, but then they wanted a formal proof of its computational complexity! Honestly, it's been a pretty wild situation in my 10+ years of work. On the flip side, another tech interview was actually great, we discussed how to make database queries and network traffic faster. The HR chat was also super nice, but yeah, they ghosted me in the end, so I guess they were just being friendly until they didn't need me anymore.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you write code to reverse a single-linked list?
- Provide a formal proof for the computational complexity of reversing a linked list.
JetBrains
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Difficult Positive experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite Presentation
Interview formats
Technical Coding Presentation
The interview process has four steps. First, there's a recruiter screening call to check background and motivation. Second, a 1-hour technical round for DSA problem solving. Third, a technical project implementation round. Fourth, a final project presentation, with detailed questions asked about the presentation itself.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you explain the Lowest Common Ancestor of a tree problem?
- What are your Java concurrency questions regarding ReadWriteLock?
JetBrains
Software Developer
Intern Easy Negative experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Take home Technical screen
Interview formats
Coding Technical
I applied for the internship and had a challenging task which I managed to tackle. The interview was delayed till last day of the deadline, after me sending them a follow up email about my internship application status they offered me an interview mentioning the tried to do this before but the couldn't because of some internal issues. The interviewers introduced them and the company and how things work with the internship. Though I wrote the code more than 1 month ago because of the delay from their side, I remembered almost everything and answered all the questions. After the interview I got rejection and I asked for feedback and unfortunately I haven't got Any. A disappointing experience for the effort I put in such a task and the whole process.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Could you walk me through your code and explain it?
JetBrains Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from JetBrains interview reports.
“How would you convert a recursive Kotlin method into an iterative one?”
Read reports →“What is the difference between an abstract class and an interface?”
Read reports →“What is the difference between Stack and Heap memory allocation?”
Read reports →“Can you write code to reverse a single-linked list?”
Read reports →“Could you explain the differences between JVM and Python garbage collectors?”
Read report →“In Java, how could you implement a singleton pattern?”
Read report →“Can you explain the overhead associated with HashMaps?”
Read report →“Could you explain the in-depth differences between HTTP and HTTPS?”
Read report →“Can you explain the Lowest Common Ancestor of a tree problem?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 28 JetBrains interview reports.