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 EngineerNew Grad Locked

Optimize a SQL query plan tree

This question evaluates understanding of relational algebra, query optimization techniques, and tree-based plan transformations such as predicate push...

Coding & Algorithms
7
0
67 people solved
Jan 22, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Find path between nodes in Fibonacci tree

This question evaluates understanding of recursive tree structures, preorder indexing, implicit tree representations, algorithmic reasoning about node...

Coding & Algorithms
5
0
44 people solved
Jan 22, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Implement a sliding-window hit counter

Implement a hit counter that supports recordHit(timestamp) and getHits(pastSeconds). Use a fixed-size array to maintain a sliding time window (e.g., l...

Coding & Algorithms
16
0
115 people solved
Sep 6, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer Locked

Implement a Lazy Array

This question evaluates understanding of lazy evaluation and deferred computation, implementation of iterator/generator-like abstractions, and the abi...

Coding & Algorithms
1
0
14 people solved
Jan 6, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Implement lazy array and KV store

This question evaluates understanding of lazy evaluation and functional transformation chaining for a LazyArray alongside in-memory data structure des...

Coding & Algorithms
8
0
102 people solved
Jan 5, 2026
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Databricks
Medium
Backend Engineer

Find First Anagram Occurrence

Given two strings text and pattern, return the starting index of the first substring in text that is an anagram of pattern. If no such substring exist...

Coding & Algorithms
13
0
133 people solved
Apr 2, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Implement RLE and bit-packing compression

You are asked to implement two related compression/decompression schemes: Run-Length Encoding (RLE) and bit-packing. --- Part 1 — Run-Length Encoding ...

Coding & Algorithms
35
1
241 people solved
Oct 10, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Implement a rate-limited hit counter

You are designing a hit counter that records the number of hits received in the past 5 minutes. Implement a class HitCounter with the following method...

Coding & Algorithms
20
0
329 people solved
Dec 8, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer

Find shortest path in a Fibonacci-ordered tree

You are given a recursively-defined binary tree T(order) whose shape depends only on order (not on node values). Nodes are labeled 0..N-1 using preord...

Coding & Algorithms
20
0
155 people solved
Nov 6, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Find all anagram start indices

This question evaluates proficiency in string manipulation, algorithmic efficiency, and pattern detection through character frequency analysis, assess...

Coding & Algorithms
14
0
138 people solved
Jan 7, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Implement a Tic-Tac-Toe game API

This question evaluates implementation skills in data structures and algorithmic optimization, focusing on efficient state tracking and constant-time ...

Coding & Algorithms
14
0
102 people solved
Jan 7, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Convert an IP range to minimal CIDRs

This question evaluates understanding of IPv4 address encoding, binary and bitwise operations, and optimal interval covering for expressing consecutiv...

Coding & Algorithms
7
1
49 people solved
Jan 7, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Design BFS to detect forced win in Tic-Tac-Toe

You are given an n×n Tic-Tac-Toe–like board and a target k (1 ≤ k ≤ n). From the current board state and the player to move, design an algorithm to de...

Coding & Algorithms
18
0
167 people solved
Aug 13, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Design an efficient Tic-Tac-Toe engine

Design a Tic-Tac-Toe engine on an n x n board. Implement move(row, col, player) -> result where result indicates no winner, player1 wins, player2 wins...

Coding & Algorithms
23
0
165 people solved
Aug 11, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Solve graph path, interval deletion, and robbery

Solve graph path, interval deletion, and robbery Part A — Optimal path with transport modes: You are given a directed weighted graph of a city. Each e...

Coding & Algorithms
19
0
290 people solved
Aug 9, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Design a rolling event tracker with ranges

Design a rolling event tracker that supports time-based queries. Implement a data structure with: ( 1) record(timestamp): record one event at integer ...

Coding & Algorithms
15
0
137 people solved
Aug 7, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Find Fastest Commute Mode

This question evaluates graph traversal and shortest-path reasoning on a constrained 2D grid, including modeling movement rules per transportation mod...

Coding & Algorithms
10
1
76 people solved
Apr 8, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Choose fastest transportation mode on city grid

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to model constrained grid movement and perform weighted shortest-path optimization, covering skills in g...

Coding & Algorithms
16
0
188 people solved
Feb 11, 2026
Databricks logo
Databricks
Medium
Software Engineer

Compute last-5-minute QPS in memory

Problem You are building a lightweight in-memory component that tracks the query load (QPS) of a service. Design a data structure with two operations:...

Coding & Algorithms
5
0
97 people solved
Nov 14, 2025
Databricks logo
Databricks
Hard
Data ScientistIntern

Find top-5 most similar rows across datasets

You are given two datasets with the same feature columns: - source (rows you want to match): - source_id (STRING/INT) - f1...fk (NUMERIC; may cont...

Coding & Algorithms
2
0
45 people solved
Oct 14, 2025

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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