Splunk Interview Questions
& Process

So I interviewed with Splunk and Cisco, and it was a really good and professional experience. It started with a Karat screening, which had three parts: System Design where we talked about distributed vs dedicated servers and I did a high-level design for a game parlour card machine. Then Angular, where we went over dependency injection, Signals, and RxJS operators. And finally, a Coding part where I had to build a UI screen from a picture using HTML, CSS, and JS. After passing Karat, HR got my info and set up four on-site interviews. There was a DSA round with two medium Codility problems. Another round mixed DSA with Angular and RxJS questions. Then a System Design round where I architected a concert booking platform. Lastly, a Manager round to chat about my current project's architecture, behavioral stuff, and what I'm looking for. It ended with HR talking about the offer. No negotiation happened, but the offer was pretty competitive and I was happy with it.

The interview process was quite unusual. I was referred by someone. There was a strong sense of urgency to schedule interviews, but then they tried to change the salary offer. They made a very low offer, and the HR person made a rude remark when I told them my current salary. The hiring manager appeared uninterested and was very impolite. She abruptly ended the interview by saying she had to leave. I've never experienced that before. Moving forward was dependent on my willingness to accept a salary far below market value. Again, very strange and I wouldn't advise anyone to interview here.

The interview process was pretty standard: first a recruiter screen, then the hiring manager, then their manager, followed by a panel interview and a presentation. It's pretty common these days for companies to ask for presentations or other assignments. Everyone I met was friendly and professional, and the interviews felt mature. What was not so great was the recruiter didn't keep me updated on the timeline, never replied to emails, and didn't set expectations on when to expect next steps. The whole process took two months, which felt long for this type of role, especially considering how urgent they seemed to be to hire. This company tends to hire people who already know their product/industry, which I think might cause them to miss out on good candidates.

The hiring manager reached out to me about a role months before it was even approved, saying my experience was a great fit. We chatted, and a bit later, the job was posted, and I was asked to apply. Then, the recruiter got in touch and set up four panel interviews, including another chat with the manager. The interviewers seemed rushed to give feedback, and the interviews felt super transactional; nobody even asked me to introduce myself, we just dove straight into questions. Two days after those panel interviews, the manager told me they had more candidates and would update me on a decision. Four days later, the recruiter said the team liked our chats and hoped to have a decision the following week. After a week and a half with no update, I reached out. Fifteen days later, the manager got back to me, explaining they were short on recruiters and interviewer availability, and still had more interviews to do, saying they'd let me know about next steps the following week. Another week and a half passed, and the recruiter contacted me saying they wanted me for one final interview, over a month after my 'final' interviews had supposedly concluded. I asked the recruiter what this round would assess that wasn't already covered and if they could share details to help me prepare. The recruiter never clarified but mentioned they 'hoped' for a decision by the end of the next week. I tried to get clarification again, but the coordinator and recruiter never followed up to schedule this final round. Three weeks after that, I saw my application status changed to closed. So, after almost three months of engaging with this team for a role I was initially approached for, and after hearing 'discussions went well' and 'hope to make a decision' multiple times, they never took the time to actually share their final decision.