Databricks Coding & Algorithms Interview Questions

Databricks Coding & Algorithms interview questions focus on clean, scalable problem solving under realistic constraints. Expect interviews that often resemble LeetCode-style algorithm problems but with an emphasis on optimizations that matter at scale: time and space complexity, edge cases, and clear, maintainable code. Interviews typically use an online IDE for live coding and are woven into a loop that also assesses system design and collaboration. For candidates targeting data, platform, or ML infrastructure teams, concurrency, streaming, and data-structure tradeoffs commonly surface alongside pure algorithmic challenges. For effective interview preparation, prioritize deliberate practice of medium-to-hard algorithm problems, timed mock interviews, and explaining complexity tradeoffs aloud. Solidify one primary programming language so you can write correct, testable code quickly, and revisit concurrency primitives and common distributed-systems patterns if your role touches platform work. Practice communicating assumptions, iterating from a brute-force approach to optimized solutions, and writing concise test cases. This combination of technical depth, clear communication, and systems awareness is what Databricks typically evaluates.

60 Questions 1 Company08.13.2026
Showing 20 results
Role
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Find Path Between Fibonacci Tree Nodes

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to reason about recursive tree structures, map preorder indices to positions in a recursively defined Fi...

Coding & Algorithms
9
0
78 people solved
Feb 13, 2026
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Databricks
Hard
Software EngineerNew Grad

Implement firewall matching with CIDR rules

Implement a simple IPv4 firewall rule matcher. Problem You are given an ordered list of firewall rules. Each rule has: - an action: ALLOW or DENY - a ...

Coding & Algorithms
11
2
182 people solved
Dec 10, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Design an IP filter using CIDR rules

Explain CIDR notation with a couple of concrete examples. Show how to convert a prefix like 192.168.0.0/16 into an inclusive 32-bit integer range and ...

Coding & Algorithms
36
0
266 people solved
Jul 31, 2025
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Databricks
Medium
Software EngineerNew Grad

Design KV store with sliding-window average QPS

Problem Design an in-memory key–value store that supports mutation operations and can report the average QPS (queries per second) over a recent time w...

Coding & Algorithms
28
0
368 people solved
Dec 17, 2025
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Databricks
Hard
Software EngineerNew Grad Locked

Evaluate ACL rules for IP and CIDR

This question evaluates a candidate's competency in IP address and CIDR arithmetic, bitwise reasoning, and algorithm design within the Coding & Algori...

Coding & Algorithms
10
0
66 people solved
Jan 22, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Check Whether Two Strings Are Anagrams

Problem Implement are_anagrams(a, b). Return true exactly when a and b contain the same lowercase English letters with the same multiplicities, possib...

Coding & Algorithms
2
0
33 people solved
Apr 7, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Find k customers with least revenue

Problem You are given a list of purchase events. Each event contains: - customer_id (string or int) - amount (integer, may be 0; assume non-negative u...

Coding & Algorithms
28
0
391 people solved
Feb 12, 2026
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Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Minimize run-length encoded length with deletions

This question evaluates proficiency in string manipulation, run-length encoding concepts, and dynamic programming-based optimization under deletion co...

Coding & Algorithms
29
0
505 people solved
Feb 12, 2026
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Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Implement an Alternating Tic-Tac-Toe Game

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to implement state management, alternating turn logic, input validation, board representation, game outc...

Coding & Algorithms
2
0
16 people solved
May 30, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Find first CIDR block covering IP

You are given: - A single IPv4 address as a string, e.g. "192.168.1.5". - A list of CIDR blocks (IPv4), each as a string in the form "a.b.c.d/x", wher...

Coding & Algorithms
12
0
91 people solved
Dec 8, 2025
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Databricks
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Find optimal commute mode in a city graph

You are designing a route planner that suggests the best way to commute between two points in a city using different transportation modes. The city is...

Coding & Algorithms
30
0
287 people solved
Oct 19, 2025
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Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Find the Best Commute Mode

This question evaluates competency in grid-based pathfinding, graph traversal, and multi-criteria optimization of path time and cost within the Coding...

Coding & Algorithms
3
0
22 people solved
May 17, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Partition a Target String by Source Substrings

This question evaluates understanding of string algorithms and optimal partitioning, specifically substring matching and minimizing the number of cont...

Coding & Algorithms
3
0
20 people solved
May 14, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Implement Snapshot Iterator Without Order Guarantees

Design and implement a mutable collection that supports snapshot iteration. The collection stores unique values and supports the following operations:...

Coding & Algorithms
1
0
15 people solved
Feb 16, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Check if CIDR is fully canceled by rules

You are given: - A target CIDR block T as a string, e.g. "10.0.0.0/16". - A list of rule CIDR blocks. Each rule has: - A type: either "allow" or "de...

Coding & Algorithms
24
0
205 people solved
Dec 8, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Machine Learning EngineerSenior+ Locked

Delete a Character From Cover

This question evaluates proficiency in string manipulation, interval arithmetic, and data-structure updates with attention to index mapping and edge-c...

Coding & Algorithms
11
0
84 people solved
Feb 7, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Compute 5-minute rolling average load

This question evaluates understanding of sliding-window aggregation and efficient data-structure design for time-series event streams, focusing on com...

Coding & Algorithms
8
0
161 people solved
Feb 3, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Track Customer Revenue and Referral Revenue

Track Customer Revenue and Referral Revenue Problem Implement a top-level function that processes an in-memory customer revenue tracker through a lite...

Coding & Algorithms
2
1
27 people solved
Apr 18, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Machine Learning EngineerSenior+

Design In-Memory QPS Counter

Implement an in-memory traffic counter. You need to support two operations for each logical key, such as an endpoint, customer, or service name: - rec...

Coding & Algorithms
12
0
94 people solved
Apr 18, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Implement Random Connectivity and Grid Routing

This entry contains two independent coding problems. Problem 1: Uniformly connect node groups You are given k non-empty, disjoint groups of unique nod...

Coding & Algorithms
5
1
55 people solved
Apr 17, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult are Databricks Coding & Algorithms interviews compared to other tech companies?
Databricks coding and algorithms interviews are typically challenging and often skew toward medium-to-hard LeetCode problems. Interviewers expect correct, efficient solutions and clear complexity analysis; a brute-force approach can show progress but interviewers commonly expect subsequent optimizations. Many problems emphasize algorithmic thinking—graphs, dynamic programming, intervals, and tricky edge cases—while some rounds focus on concurrency, synchronization, and memory behavior. You’ll be evaluated on producing clean, runnable code, reasoning through trade-offs, and explaining how your solution scales. Practicing under timed conditions helps simulate the pressure and pacing of actual rounds.
Where in the Databricks interview process does Coding & Algorithms appear, and what formats should I expect?
Coding & Algorithms typically appears across multiple stages: a proctored online assessment for many candidates, a technical phone screen conducted in a shared editor like CoderPad, and two to three onsite coding rounds during the virtual onsite loop. Those sessions can be pure algorithmic problems or implementation-heavy tasks; some interviews concentrate on concurrency or large-input performance. Data-focused roles may combine algorithm questions with SQL or data-processing tasks. Interviews emphasize writing runnable code, walking through test cases, and discussing time/space trade-offs while communicating your thought process clearly throughout each format.
How should I structure my interview preparation timeline for Databricks' coding rounds?
If time allows, plan a structured 6–8 week schedule: begin with fundamentals and complexity analysis, spend weeks practicing arrays, strings, trees, and graph problems, then focus a week on dynamic programming, intervals, and greedy approaches. Reserve time for concurrency and performance-minded problems, and finish with mixed timed mocks and reviewing mistakes. For a condensed timeline, prioritize high-frequency problem patterns and daily timed practice over three to four weeks, adding focused concurrency and optimization sessions. In all cases include regular mock interviews, writing tests, and reviewing optimized solutions to build speed and robustness.
What key subtopics and problem types should I focus on for Databricks Coding & Algorithms interviews?
Focus on core algorithmic areas: arrays and strings, linked lists, trees, graphs and traversals, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming and memoization, intervals and sorting, sliding-window, hashing, greedy strategies, and bit manipulation. For Databricks roles also emphasize handling large inputs, streaming-style constraints, efficient I/O, and performance-minded optimizations for memory and runtime. Advanced items often include concurrency and multithreading, union-find, priority queues, and careful complexity trade-offs. Equally important is pattern recognition and habitually writing test cases that cover edge cases and performance boundaries during practice.
What standout tips should I follow, and what common pitfalls should I avoid in these interviews?
Speak your thought process clearly, ask clarifying questions about constraints, and start with a correct brute-force solution if needed, then iterate toward optimization. Write clean, well-structured code you can run through simple tests and explain complexity. Avoid common pitfalls: premature optimization before correctness, ignoring edge cases and input constraints, failing to test with representative cases, and not handling concurrency pitfalls like race conditions or deadlocks when relevant. Also don’t stop at a solution—discuss trade-offs, alternative approaches, and how your code would behave on large-scale inputs or in a distributed setting.

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