I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Anduril in Apr 2025
Interview
I had a disappointing interview experience. The interviewers came across as cold and disinterested from the start, which made for an uncomfortable atmosphere.
The technical portion involved multiple Leetcode-style problems. I completed the tasks well within the time limits and discussed runtime complexities, but the interviewers seemed dissatisfied because I hesitated at points or initially made small errors, even though I corrected them quickly. It became clear that they were essentially looking for someone to regurgitate textbook Leetcode solutions verbatim, with no room for thought process or natural debugging. One of the interviewers began correcting my code as I was writing it, which felt intrusive. While I tried to explain my thought process, it seemed to be misinterpreted as asking for help, as the interviewer kept offering unsolicited hints.
The behavioral interview was similarly frustrating. We went through my resume in chronological order starting with the earliest roles, and by the time we reached my recent experience — arguably the most relevant — we were out of time. I never got the chance to highlight my latest accomplishments.
Overall, the interviewers appeared disengaged and uninterested throughout the process, which left a negative impression of the company and its culture.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode 647. Palindromic Substrings and Leetcode 20. Valid Parentheses
One technical leetcode style question for the first round. Following that was three rounds of technical questions, one focused on APIs, one was more conversational and focused on past experience, one was a leetcode style question with follow-ups.
Fast quick process! The team was very smart but unfortunately didn’t get an offer. The company is still growing so will definitely reapply in the future! Hiring manager was nice as well.
The process included multiple on-site coding interviews and a behavioural round. Interviewers were technically strong, but there were last-minute changes to the schedule which made things feel slightly unstructured. The technical interviews were quite intense and focused on performance under pressure rather than collaborative problem solving.
After the interviews, I received an offer, but follow-up discussions revealed a rigid working culture. Fixed hours, no overtime compensation, and no flexibility for remote work or working abroad were clearly stated. When raising concerns about work-life balance, the response emphasised embracing a “fast-paced and chaotic” environment rather than addressing flexibility.
Overall, while the technical bar is high and compensation is competitive, the culture felt misaligned with a sustainable work-life balance.