Palantir Technologies Product Designer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and after about two weeks, the recruiter at Palantir emailed me asking me to set aside two hours to complete a Hackerrank challenge within five days so they could 'assess my interaction skills'. I wasn't given salary info or next steps at this point. I did the Hackerrank challenge and then heard nothing for two weeks, so I figured I didn't make it. Then, the same recruiter contacted me again with a confusing email that didn't mention our previous communications. After some trouble arranging a call, we finally spoke and they said the design team approved my Hackerrank and wanted to interview me. They asked me to prepare 1-2 case studies for a 45-minute slot. The screener call didn't cover much else, like my experience. It took about 2-3 weeks to set up the case study presentation, and I wasn't told who would be there. I was interviewed by two designers who seemed quite junior, based on their questions and demeanor. The lead interviewer was pretty rude and passive-aggressive. I was taken aback, as I'd never encountered that before in big tech interviews. They focused only on micro-interactions. The whole process felt shady and secretive, which aligns with other reviews of Palantir's interview process and company culture.

The interview process has about 3 to 6 rounds, depending on how you count them. Since I hadn't applied to other internships before, my experience might be limited. The first round involved a 1-hour Hackerrank design whiteboarding challenge with a prompt that was quite difficult and directly related to Palantir's data-centric culture. Following that was a recruiter phone interview. Round 2 consisted of a portfolio presentation. Round 3 included two back-to-back technical whiteboarding interviews. The prompts for these were objectively tough and very specific, but would likely feel natural if you have experience in product roles beyond just UI/UX. The final round was a hiring manager behavioral interview. Overall, everyone I spoke with was really nice and enthusiastic about the company's mission. I genuinely enjoyed the interview experience with them, even without prior internship experiences elsewhere.

First, there was a brief call with a designer. Then, a two-hour session that included a portfolio review and a whiteboard challenge. After that, another two-hour session with a designer chat and a whiteboard challenge. The portfolio reviewers were experienced and asked good, engaging questions. However, the others were junior designers with much less experience than me. It's strange how they think they can assess a candidate with out-of-context, fuzzy whiteboard challenges. Product design in reality isn't like that, so it's mind-blowing they expect to find a good fit using that method. After all my effort, I just got a generic HR email.