Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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37 stories

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AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

A Recruiter Screen About Level, Motivation, and Availability

The recruiter asked what level of position I was looking for. I was a little distracted at the beginning and misheard the question, thinking I was being asked about my current position at my company. The other questions were why I wanted to join Anthropic and when I would be available to begin interviewing. The rest of the call was an introduction to the interview process. I was told that a coord…

In progressHR Screen0
AnthropicSoftware EngineerSenior+
Aug 2026

A Half-Hour Recruiter Screen on AI Safety

I received an outreach email from a recruiter in August. I originally thought we would just chat briefly and then move forward to schedule the later interviews, but we ended up talking for about half an hour. The recruiter asked quite a few questions, including: "Why Anthropic?" "How does your previous experience relate to AI safety?" "Why do you think you are a fit for this position?" "How large…

In progressHR Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

Reviewing and Improving Pull Requests with Claude Code

This new question had probably been in use for a few months. I was given an online VS Code environment and a site similar to GitHub. It contained four pull requests, and I was allowed to use Claude Code. The task had two parts. First, I needed to go through every pull request, explain the problem each one solved, and comment on each one. Second, I had to choose one pull request, improve it, and u…

Onsite0
AnthropicPerformance / Infrastructure Software EngineerSenior+
Aug 2026

Three Screens and an Onsite Invitation

The process up to my onsite invitation was as follows. Recruiter: passed, then waited two days. Hiring manager screen: passed, then waited two days. Technical coding phone screen: passed, then waited nine days. Onsite: scheduled. The recruiter round was very formal at the beginning. They really probed why I wanted Anthropic and why I wanted to switch jobs now. After the recruiter seemed satisfied…

In progressTechnical Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

A Serious 20-Minute AI Safety HR Screen

A former colleague referred me earlier, and recently a recruiter called me for an HR screen. The recruiter did not smile at all and gave no introduction. The first thing I was asked was: why Anthropic? Then came several more questions: Was there anything in a recent Anthropic interview, article, or news story that I agreed or disagreed with? Why was AI safety important to me? Had I genuinely prac…

In progressHR Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

Call Stack Sampling and GPU Weight Distribution System Design

I interviewed this past Thursday. The first question was: given continuous call stack samples, generate timestamped function start/end events. While I was answering, the interviewer kept pushing back with follow-up questions, including things like: How do you compute the change between adjacent call stacks using the longest common prefix? Why do end events go from inside out, while start events g…

In progressTechnical Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

Rejected After a Weak System Design Round

Phone screen: a file. Onsite: Coding: image processing. System design: prompt playground. This round was probably my weakest performance — I hadn't crammed on enough interview experiences beforehand, and I hadn't written much down in my own doc. On one or two questions I walked right into the interviewer's trap. Pay attention to some low-level details here — that's also something I hadn't taken v…

RejectedOnsite0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

Perfect OA, Rejected at the ML Inference System Design Phone Screen

I bugged a former coworker for a referral, and then got rejected right at the phone screen. The round was a system design interview, a classic ML inference design question. I felt okay about it after the interview and don't know why I got rejected. There were a few points where I think I either matched what the interviewer wanted, or was way off. The interviewer gave basically no real-time feedba…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

Technical Screen on Designing a P2P Model Downloader

The question was about downloading a model. It went so-so, even though the question itself was actually the simplest version of it. The main issue was that download and upload shared a 10Gbps bandwidth cap — not sure if the interviewer just picked that number randomly. The main problem was that early on I spent a lot of time performing — working through and explaining the optimal algorithm. I'd a…

In progressTechnical Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

A Community-Compiled Guide to the OA, Technical, and Values Rounds

Anthropic's SWE interview process breaks into three main parts: an online assessment (OA), one to two technical interviews, and a values/culture interview. This guide compiles experiences and community info from multiple candidates, in the hope that it helps people who are preparing. Timeline The whole process moves pretty slowly. Multiple candidates report gaps of 2-3 weeks between rounds. A typ…

Technical Screen0
AnthropicSoftware EngineerSenior+
Jul 2026

HR Screen Loaded with AI Safety and Personal Morals Questions

Just finished my HR call with Anthropic. It was a referral from a colleague, but honestly my background doesn't match the JD that well, so overall I got the sense she hadn't decided yet whether to move me on to the technical interview. The official line was that they'd decide in one or two days. She asked me a bunch of questions: What does the team do You said you're a tech lead — what does your…

In progressHR Screen0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

Two-Day Onsite With System Design, Project Deep Dive, and Culture

Process Recruiter call. Phone screen (coding) — a question that had already shown up on this forum. Phone screen with the hiring manager — again, a question already posted here. Onsite: four rounds. Onsite Day one: two system design rounds, both domain specific, not much reference value since they're not the kind of thing that gets asked repeatedly on this forum. Day two: project dive deep + cult…

Onsite0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
May 2026

A Persistent Memoization LRU Cache Onsite Question

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OnsiteXP0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
May 2026

a Brand New 'Bootloader' Puzzle and a Next-Day Rejection

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
May 2026

A Task Management OA With a TTL and Snapshot Twist

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In progressOnline AssessmentXP0
AnthropicMachine Learning EngineerSenior+
May 2026

Two CodeSignal Rounds, DNS Resolver and a Numpy Debugging Hunt

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Online AssessmentXP0
AnthropicSoftware EngineerSenior+
May 2026

Passed HR Screen, Then the Role Was Cut

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In progressHR ScreenXP0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
May 2026

A Cold Coding Round, a Warm System Design Round, Then Rejected

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
AnthropicSoftware Engineer
May 2026

OA Take-home Then a File-Duplicate Phone Screen

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Technical ScreenXP0
AnthropicSoftware EngineerSenior+
Apr 2026

Rejected After the HR Motivation Question

My process ended at the HR interview before I reached any technical interview. The recruiter asked why I wanted to choose Anthropic. After I answered, the recruiter's expression looked noncommittal. Sure enough, I received a rejection a few days later. I have ten years of experience and was interviewing for a technical role, so I was really frustrated that a poor answer to "Why Anthropic?" was en…

RejectedHR Screen0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

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