Palo Alto Networks Backend Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 16 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Palo Alto Networks.
Palo Alto Networks
Backend Developer
Mid Average Positive experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Phone screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Technical System Design
To prep for your phone interview, which will cover architecture and features you've built, plus any challenges, you need to nail down a few key things. Make sure you can talk about the tech you've used, like Java, Spring Boot, Redis, Kafka, and AWS, and how you've used architectural styles like microservices, monolithic, or event-driven. Also, be ready to share your experience with making things scalable, performant, secure, and available.
Confirmed questions6 questions
- Can you walk me through the architecture of systems you have been involved with?
- What was the tech stack used in those systems, including languages, frameworks, databases, and cloud services?
- Can you explain the system design principles you've applied, such as microservices, monolithic, or event-driven approaches?
Palo Alto Networks
Backend Engineer
Senior Average Negative experience No offer 1 round
Interview process
Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Coding
You have a 30-minute interview with two parts. First, we'll talk about a project you worked on. Give a quick overview of the project, like what it was for, what tech we used, and what it achieved. Then, tell us about your specific role and what you did – your responsibilities, any problems you solved, and cool things you accomplished. Second, we have a coding challenge where you'll shuffle an array. You can use any language, and the Fisher-Yates Shuffle is a good way to do it.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Tell me about a project from your last job.
- Can you explain how to shuffle an array using code?
Palo Alto Networks
Backend Software Engineer
Entry Average Positive experience Accept offer 1 round
Interview process
Phone screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Technical Coding System Design
The interview started with a phone screen. This screen focused on systems-level questions and also touched upon basic data structures. Additionally, there were questions related to bash scripting and fundamental Linux commands. Some questions about inter-process communication (IPC) were also asked. The interview also covered networking topics, specifically asking about the distinctions between TCP and UDP.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Could you describe the difference between a process and a thread?
Palo Alto Networks Backend Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Palo Alto Networks interview reports.
“What is a virtual function?”
Read reports →“How would you reverse a linked list?”
Read reports →“How would you save the relationships between nodes and then print the resulting tree structure?”
Read reports →“What is LRU?”
Read reports →“What are the failure scenarios between microservices and a monolith?”
Read report →“Can you explain rate-limiting in a microservices architecture?”
Read report →“How does load balancing work?”
Read report →“Can you explain the difference between a thread and a process?”
Read report →“Could you describe the difference between a process and a thread?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 16 Palo Alto Networks interview reports.