ENGINEERING

INTERVIEW GUIDE
Cracking the Code for Interviewing at Snowflake

We are thrilled to welcome you to our interview process for engineering roles at Snowflake! To help you prepare,
we created this document detailing each interview stage. Your Recruiter will follow up with you during the
interview process to connect regarding the next steps. Feel free to ask the Recruiter and/or interviewers as many
questions as you may have about the company, the team, and the product. And don't forget to enjoy the
experience!

Overall Expectations

Software Engineers at Snowflake are participating in all aspects of the software lifecycle. They are able to work
on tasks or small projects with little or no oversight. When it comes to larger projects - no worries - you will get
help from more senior team members. Communication and teamwork are key aspects of an engineering team's
day-to-day work. On each engineering level, we value a self-driven approach and a go-direct attitude.

Recruiter/Hiring Technical Panel Debrief &

01 02 03 04
Manager Screen Interviews Interviews Decision
30 - 45 minutes 2 hours ~3 hours

TIPS FOR ZOOM &

IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS
Zoom Interviews
Test your camera and audio prior to joining the meeting.
Choose a quiet place to take the call.

In-Person Interviews
Wondering if there is a dress code or what to wear? At
Snowflake, we believe in creating a comfortable and casual
environment that allows you to bring your A-game to work! Our
dress code leans towards business casual, which means you can
rock jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, blazers, and even sneakers. Maybe
leave your pajamas and flip-flops at home.
TECHNICAL INTERVIEWS
The initial technical interview will consist of two 1 hr coding sessions via Coderpad/Zoom. Remember that technical interviews
may differ from day-to-day engineering work, so don't hesitate to discuss any ideas with the interviewer and ask questions.
Outcome and attitude are both important, so please keep that in mind. Please refer to the individual interview details below.

Coding - 1 hour x 2
This will be a Zoom call with an engineer from the team. We will use a live coding session (CoderPad) to solve an interesting
problem together. You will choose what language to code it in.

To prepare for the interview, you may want to brush up on computer science and software engineering fundamentals: data
structures, algorithms, complexity analysis (focus on the essentials - sorting, arrays, lists, trees, graphs, tries, heaps, hash
tables). This is not an exam! The focus is on reasoning about a challenging and unfamiliar problem. Your interviewer is your
peer - make sure to collaborate with them as much as you would when working together in a team. Ask as many questions as
necessary to understand the requirements and constraints. Discuss your choices and the tradeoffs while making them.

Technical Coding Tips & Practice Material

PANEL INTERVIEWS
The panel interviews will consist of interactive 1:1 meetings with 3 interviewers (60 minutes each focusing on a different
area), which might be wrapped up by an additional meeting with the hiring manager (30 minutes). We can schedule these in
blocks of 2-3 interviewers per day, over the course of a few days, or in one day if you prefer. Please refer to the individual
interview details below and note the specific order may vary. Please note, at least one of your interviews will be in person.

Coding - 1 hour
This will be a programming exercise similar to the technical coding interview. We expect candidates to be able to optimize
their solution, explain their implementation choices, and be able to come up with test scenarios that should be executed as
part of the exercise. This will require you to leverage your background in classic computer science building blocks:
algorithms, data structures, and code as well as the reasoning behind performance trade-offs, testability of your solution, etc.

PRO TIP: Please be sure you fully understand your interviewer’s question and ask for any clarifications before diving into
your solution.

System Design - 1 hour

The interview mimics a real design scenario in the team where we will start with a rather ambiguous problem statement and
try to build a design doc together. Your interviewer is your peer and design partner. This could start out as a full system (but
more relevant to what we do in Snowflake - if this isn't related to the team's core expertise), and then as we go deeper into
the system we might decide to focus on one particular component of it.

The problem space is largely open-ended - there is no rigid structure to it and this is intentional. The design of the system will
be largely driven by you, so make sure to ask lots of questions to clarify the functional requirements and technical
constraints. Consider scalability, capacity, availability, reliability, trade-offs, data models, caching, observability, and testing
when discussing the design.

PRO TIP: There are lots of materials on the web to help you prepare for such meetings, one of them is System Design Primer
(GitHub - system design primer). This repository is a collection of the most important materials in the field of system design
and should help you prepare for the interview.
Behavioral - 1 hour
At Snowflake, we use the STAR method when considering behavioral questions. A good strategy is to think back on
professional projects you’ve worked on and present a handful of situations that highlight your skills and also embody
Snowflake’s Values. Be ready to talk about yourself. (Why are you interested in Snowflake? What work are you most proud
of? How did you get into software development? What are your strengths?) Come ready with concrete examples from real-
world experiences.

PRO TIP: Be mindful of appropriately using “I” vs. “we” statements. Spend more of your time speaking about your
responsibilities and what you've accomplished, as opposed to what your team as a whole accomplished.

Hiring Manager Discussion (optional - 30 minutes)

An opportunity to share your feedback and to ask the Hiring Manager any lingering questions.

Congrats, the interviews have finished! What happens next? Once all interview steps are complete, the hiring team will
carefully evaluate all feedback collected during the interviews. Your recruiter will reach out to you to announce our decision
and may provide feedback.

LEARN MORE
PAPER BLOG POST BLOG POST

Architecture Paper The Rocket Behind Beyond “Modern” Data

Snowflake’s Rocketship Architecture
An overview of Snowflake’s
original architecture Learn how the engineering Summarizes the Sigmod
published at Sigmod team operates from Greg, paper and talks about other
our SVP of engineering workloads (i.e. unstructured
data, Data Engineering, etc.

CULTURE PRODUCT
Snowflake Values Snowpark Snowflake Trial
Snowflake Engineering Blog Snowflake White Papers Snowflake Lab
Latest Product Innovations