At Kodiak Robotics, the Software Engineer is not merely a coder; you are a foundational architect of the future of autonomous trucking. Whether you are working on Onboard Infrastructure, Planning Infrastructure, or Learned Behavior Planning, your work directly enables a fleet of driverless semi-trucks to navigate complex environments safely and efficiently. You will bridge the gap between high-level AI research and the rigorous, real-time demands of an embedded system operating on public roads. This role offers a unique opportunity to tackle challenges at the intersection of hardware, high-performance computing, and machine learning. You will be responsible for building the systems that allow our robots to "think" and "act." You will work in a high-stakes, high-velocity environment where the code you write today is deployed to heavy-duty vehicles tomorrow. If you thrive on building robust systems that prioritize safety, observability, and performance, this role will place you at the center of the most critical developments in autonomous logistics.
Initial Screening
reportedGauge your background and alignment with current technical needs.
What to demonstrate
- Gauge your background and alignment with current technical needs
- Depth in C++
How to prepare
- Be able to walk your CV end to end in two minutes, and say why this company specifically.
- Have your salary expectations, notice period and location constraints ready, and ask for the rest of the loop in writing.
Technical Deep-Dive Rounds
reportedIncludes coding assessments, system design discussions, and project-specific technical reviews.
What to demonstrate
- Includes coding assessments, system design discussions, and project-specific technical reviews
- Depth in C++
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How do you ensure low latency in a system that relies on networked sensors like LIDAR or cameras?
- Answer aloud and timed: What are the trade-offs between using a real-time operating system (RTOS) versus a standard Linux kernel for autonomous applications?
Interviews with Team
reportedSpeak with engineers, managers, and cross-functional partners to assess your contributions.
What to demonstrate
- Speak with engineers, managers, and cross-functional partners to assess your contributions
- Depth in C++
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How do you approach performance profiling when an application is consistently hitting CPU or memory bottlenecks?
- Answer aloud and timed: How would you design a fallback mechanism for an autonomous system when the primary behavior planner encounters an unknown state?
PracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Focus on the "Why
When explaining a design decision, don't just say what you did; explain the trade-offs you considered and why you chose your specific path.
Prioritize Safety
In the context of autonomous trucking, safety is paramount. Always mention how your design handles failure modes and edge cases.
Be Collaborative
Treat your interviewer like a teammate. If you get stuck, explain your thought process and ask clarifying questions—we are looking for how you solve problems in a team setting.
Master Your Tools
Familiarize yourself with the tools mentioned in our nice-to-haves, such as Bazel or performance profilers, as they often come up in deeper technical discussions.
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
Describe your approach to debugging a race condition in a multi-threaded C++ application.
Describe your approach to debugging a race condition in a multi-threaded C++ application.
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
How do you approach performance profiling when an application is consistently hitting CPU or memory bottleneck
How do you approach performance profiling when an application is consistently hitting CPU or memory bottlenecks?
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
How do you measure the "safety" of a new behavior policy before it is deployed to a vehicle?
How do you measure the "safety" of a new behavior policy before it is deployed to a vehicle?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Explain how you would model actor intent (e.g., another vehicle cutting in) in a dynamic environment.
Explain how you would model actor intent (e.g., another vehicle cutting in) in a dynamic environment.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Given a set of sensor inputs, how would you structure a cost function for a motion planner to balance comfort
Given a set of sensor inputs, how would you structure a cost function for a motion planner to balance comfort and efficiency?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Replace offset paging on the resource feed with keyset
resource holds resource_id, tenant_id, owner_user_id, title, body_ref, version, status ('draft','active','archived','deleted'), created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, with an index on (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). The listing endpoint returns active resources for one tenant, newest update first, 50 per page, today with LIMIT 50 OFFSET n. Tenants reach page 400 and rows are created while they read. Write the keyset query, define what the cursor carries and how it is encoded, and say which part of the index each predicate uses. Assume PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Name the two failures separately. OFFSET 20000 makes the server produce and discard 20,000 rows, so page cost grows with depth rather than with page size. Independently, any write that changes how many rows sort above the offset moves the window between two fetches, and the direction decides which anomaly you get: an insert lands at the head of updated_at DESC and pushes already-returned rows down past the boundary, so they are returned a second time; a delete above the offset, or a row whose updated_at is bumped above the cursor, pulls rows up and one is never returned at all. Nothing in the response reveals either.
- Write the seek: WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND status = 'active' AND (updated_at, resource_id) < ($2, $3) ORDER BY updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC LIMIT 50. The row-value comparison is one index range rather than a disjunction, and both columns are NOT NULL, which is what makes that comparison well defined.
- Map each predicate onto the index: tenant_id and status are equality on the leading columns, (updated_at, resource_id) is the range, and the ORDER BY matches the index order so no Sort node appears and the scan stops after 50 rows. The DESC in the definition only matters for mixed directions — a plain ascending btree on the same columns is read backwards for this query.
- Put both sort columns in the cursor and nothing the client can tamper with into another tenant: base64 of (updated_at, resource_id), validated server-side, with tenant_id taken from the principal.
Follow-up
- The client asks for 'jump to page 400'. What do you offer instead, and what does the honest version cost?
- Sort order becomes user-selectable across four columns. How many indexes is that, and which would you refuse to add?
Explain why the owner filter ignores the listing index
The only index on resource is (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). A new endpoint returns one user's resources across all statuses, newest created first: WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND owner_user_id = $2 ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20. On a tenant with 2M rows it takes 900 ms and EXPLAIN shows a sort above a large scan. Explain precisely why the existing index cannot serve it, give the index that can, and state which of these the new index still will not help: owner_user_id alone across tenants; the same query ordered by updated_at. PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Separate the two jobs an index does. For filtering, a composite btree is seekable only on a left prefix, so with no predicate on status the scan can at best range over tenant_id and test owner_user_id per row; PostgreSQL 16 has no btree skip scan to jump the unconstrained column.
- For ordering, the index is sorted by (status, updated_at) within a tenant and not by created_at, so the LIMIT cannot stop early: every matching row is read and then sorted. That is the 'Sort Method: top-N heapsort' line, and it is why the plan reads 2M rows to answer with 20.
- Derive the replacement from the access path — equality, equality, then the ordering column: CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY ON resource (tenant_id, owner_user_id, created_at DESC). The scan seeks to the (tenant, owner) range and walks 20 entries in order, so the Sort node disappears along with the row-read.
- Treat INCLUDE (title, status) as conditional, not free. An index-only scan still visits the heap for any row whose page is not marked all-visible, so on a table taking 1.2k writes/second the win depends on autovacuum keeping the visibility map current, and the wider index costs more on every insert.
Follow-up
- 90% of rows are status='active'. Would a partial index WHERE status = 'active' change your answer, and for which of the three queries?
- A dashboard runs this for 40 owners in one page load. What changes about the design?
How would you design a high-performance logging system for a vehicle that generates gigabytes of data per seco
How would you design a high-performance logging system for a vehicle that generates gigabytes of data per second?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How do you ensure low latency in a system that relies on networked sensors like LIDAR or cameras?
How do you ensure low latency in a system that relies on networked sensors like LIDAR or cameras?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
What are the trade-offs between using a real-time operating system (RTOS) versus a standard Linux kernel for a
What are the trade-offs between using a real-time operating system (RTOS) versus a standard Linux kernel for autonomous applications?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How would you design a fallback mechanism for an autonomous system when the primary behavior planner encounter
How would you design a fallback mechanism for an autonomous system when the primary behavior planner encounters an unknown state?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Describe the challenges of integrating a learned neural network model into a classical, heuristic-based planni
Describe the challenges of integrating a learned neural network model into a classical, heuristic-based planning stack.
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
Listing latency scales with page size, not with filters
The tenant listing endpoint reads resource filtered by tenant_id and status, ordered by updated_at DESC, and returns each row plus the owner's display name from app_user and the actor of that resource's latest resource_revision. p99 is 55 ms at 10 rows per page and 1.4 s at 200. Database telemetry shows 401 statements per request, each under 1 ms, and nothing in the slow-query log. Diagnose the cause and give the fix, stating the statement count per request and the p99 you expect afterwards.
Approach
- Read the counters before forming a theory. 401 statements for 200 rows is one driver query plus two per row, and sub-millisecond execution with an empty slow-query log rules out a bad plan. The time is round trips, which is why it is invisible in every per-query metric and scales with rows returned rather than with filter selectivity.
- Name the two per-row statements from their normalised text: a single-row app_user lookup by user_id, and a resource_revision lookup by resource_id ordered by version DESC LIMIT 1. Confirm by dropping those two response fields and watching the statement count fall to one. That locates the calls in the serialisation layer, not the repository.
- Check that the arithmetic accounts for the whole gap. Measure one round trip to the replica in isolation; 400 trips at roughly 3 ms of network plus 0.2 ms of execution is about 1.3 s on top of a 55 ms baseline, which matches. If the multiplication had fallen short, the N+1 would only be part of the story and you would keep looking.
- Batch both lookups. Collect owner_user_ids and resource_ids from the driver query, then issue WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND user_id = ANY($2) for the users, and PostgreSQL's SELECT DISTINCT ON (resource_id) ... WHERE resource_id = ANY($2) ORDER BY resource_id, version DESC for the latest revision, which the UNIQUE (resource_id, version) index serves directly. On an engine without DISTINCT ON, use a lateral join or a row_number window. Three statements per request at any page size.
Follow-up
- The page size is capped at 200 today. What breaks first if it is raised to 2,000, and is it still this bug?
- How do you stop the next N+1 from reaching production, given that no individual query is slow and the endpoint's tests pass?
Built from the rounds and topics Kodiak Robotics candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Kodiak Robotics loop
- Write out the reported sequence: Initial Screening, Technical Deep-Dive Rounds, Interviews with Team.
- For each round, write one sentence on what it is judging, from the description above, and mark the one you are least ready for.
Deliverable: A one-page map of the 3 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work C++
- Spend the session on C++, which Kodiak Robotics candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in C++ and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in C++.
03Work Real-time systems / Real-time OS
- Spend the session on Real-time systems / Real-time OS, which Kodiak Robotics candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Real-time systems / Real-time OS and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Real-time systems / Real-time OS.
04Work Linux
- Spend the session on Linux, which Kodiak Robotics candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Linux and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Linux.
05Answer out loud: Systems Engineering and Infrastructure
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you design a high-performance logging system for a vehicle that generates gigabytes of data per second?
- Answer aloud, timed: Describe your approach to debugging a race condition in a multi-threaded C++ application.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Systems Engineering and Infrastructure question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: Planning and Algorithmic Reasoning
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you design a fallback mechanism for an autonomous system when the primary behavior planner encounters an unknown state?
- Answer aloud, timed: Describe the challenges of integrating a learned neural network model into a classical, heuristic-based planning stack.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Planning and Algorithmic Reasoning question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: Behavioral and Leadership
- Answer aloud, timed: Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult trade-off between code maintainability and development speed.
- Answer aloud, timed: How do you handle disagreements with cross-functional partners (e.g., Perception or ML teams) regarding system architecture?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Behavioral and Leadership question(s), under time.
Expand any day for tasks and deliverables. Your progress is saved on this device.
Behavioural rounds judge the decision you made and what it cost.
Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult trade-off between code maintainability and development speed.
Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult trade-off between code maintainability and development speed.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you handle disagreements with cross-functional partners (e.g., Perception or ML teams) regarding system
How do you handle disagreements with cross-functional partners (e.g., Perception or ML teams) regarding system architecture?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Describe a project where you had to lead a technical design that impacted multiple engineering teams.
Describe a project where you had to lead a technical design that impacted multiple engineering teams.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you prioritize your work when faced with competing demands from safety, performance, and feature-develo
How do you prioritize your work when faced with competing demands from safety, performance, and feature-development teams?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
- 01
Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult trade-off between code maintainability and development speed.
- 02
How do you handle disagreements with cross-functional partners (e.g., Perception or ML teams) regarding system architecture?
- 03
Describe a project where you had to lead a technical design that impacted multiple engineering teams.
- 04
How do you prioritize your work when faced with competing demands from safety, performance, and feature-development teams?
How difficult are the coding interviews?
Expect questions that focus on practical systems programming rather than abstract brain teasers. We want to see how you write production-quality code under pressure, so focus on readability, efficiency, and robust error handling.
Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What is the culture like at Kodiak Robotics?
We are a mission-driven company that values safety, collaboration, and speed. We operate as a unified team where engineers are expected to take ownership of their work and communicate openly across domains.
Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How long does the process take from start to finish?
While timelines vary based on team availability, we aim to be efficient. Most candidates complete the process within 3–5 weeks.
Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Is there a preference for specific C++ standards?
We use Modern C++ (C++14/17/20), and you should be comfortable with the features introduced in these versions. Demonstrating knowledge of how these features improve safety and performance is a major plus.
Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Kodiak Robotics test in interviews?
Kodiak Robotics interviews most often cover C++, Data Pipelines, Machine Learning Fundamentals, Product Sense, and Python. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
No official company page is cited. Rounds and questions come from candidate reports and PracHub editorial material; each source shows the date it was read.
- 01Kodiak Robotics Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
Candidate reports · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22
Explore related engineering environments and compare the preparation focus.
WSP Software Engineer Interview Guide
What WSP asks Software Engineer candidates, from reported rounds and questions.
Visionist Software Engineer Interview Guide
What Visionist asks Software Engineer candidates, from reported rounds and questions.
Vannevar Software Engineer Interview Guide
What Vannevar asks Software Engineer candidates, from reported rounds and questions.
Vendelux Software Engineer Interview Guide
What Vendelux asks Software Engineer candidates, from reported rounds and questions.