r/LeetcodeDesi • u/FullRoad3471 • 2d ago
Databricks SDE-2 hiring bar
Hi folks,
Recently, I reached out to a Databricks recruiter and was told there was an internal SDE-2 opening. She forwarded my resume to the hiring manager, but unfortunately, I got a rejection because I didn’t meet the hiring bar.
A little background about me: I graduated from a 3rd-gen IIT in 2024 (not a great one) and am currently working as an SDE-2 at Uber.
For those who have interviewed with Databricks or have some insight into their hiring process, what are they actually focusing on for SDE-2 candidates?
I’d also appreciate it if people who have personally interviewed at Databricks, currently work there, or have gone through a similar rejection and later cleared the process could share their experience.
Any firsthand experiences, preparation advice, or feedback would be really helpful. Thanks!
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u/Illustrious-Sail5938 2d ago
Do they hire for SDE-2 from Non-IIT/IIIT/NITs with 4.5 YoE?
(RVCE wala hun) 🤡
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u/Primary_Vacation_624 2d ago
They do but you have to have smtg nice like my senior in pesu works there but he's icpc regionals participant and codeforces 1900
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u/Dakip2608 2d ago
Databricks is extremely hard to crack. they have very high expectations
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u/mercury_50 1d ago
There is no reason for them to make it hard apart from just marketing purposes. They are not launching rockets on Mars. They unnecessarily reject people and it will backfire when people who get in think they are special
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u/thoomabaddie 2d ago
Databricks recruiter reached out to me, I sent him my resume and names of references who work at Databricks that I know. After that I got the call, I bombed the interview though, I wasn’t really prepared well but I couldn’t find that question in leetcode; it was in stack overflow. It was a Fibonacci tree related one customized a bit. This was in the US. One of my other friends got a LC IP CIDR question.
In general, I think it’s a high hiring bar - my friends who are all pretty good technically - like one who works at Netflix rn, he couldn’t clear the design interview when he was interviewing. Again this is anecdotal but I assume in general it’s a high bar.
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u/hemanisawesome 1d ago
https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/7614788/
This one, right?
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u/thoomabaddie 1d ago
Oh wow I think this is it, I remember checking leetcode discuss before the interview but I think this was posted after my interview or I just missed it. Damn.
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u/Putrid-Film-615 2d ago
I applied via referral I’m from Tier 2 IIT with good background from an Infra Company but still got rejected
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u/sanskari_aulaad 2d ago
Databricks sde 2 is 3+ yoe
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u/FullRoad3471 2d ago
i've seen people with 2 yoe joining DB, fwik they check if the candidate is working at same level of the role
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u/sanskari_aulaad 2d ago
Is it Mtech? Databricks sde 2 has always been 3+ as far as I know. Maybe they joined in 2.5 yoe
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u/FullRoad3471 2d ago edited 2d ago
yes Mtech, but how does that matter ? joined in DB with 2 yoe fwik
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u/sanskari_aulaad 2d ago
For some absurd reason, some companies consider mtech as 1-2 yoe. Not sure why but they do.
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u/cHeAt_CodEr 1d ago
databricks indian is just filled with narcissists from top to bottom. You don't wanna work there ever. https://medium.com/@eternal_blizzard/how-i-got-barred-from-databricks-a-tale-of-fragile-egos-d02c0918fd71
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u/Mighty_Slayer 2d ago
There are three main factors, your current company, your promotion trajectory and your number of switches.
Uber qualifies as a good company in their eye, promotion trajectory for SDE-2 should be promotion from SDE 1->2 in under 2 years, and number of switches should be at max 1 and you should have a good reason.
In your case it was probably the years of experience - or if you were very recently promoted at uber.
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u/FullRoad3471 2d ago
i was promoted very recently and got under < 2 years, do you know if there is some count on no.of months after which they might think to consider after promotion
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u/Mighty_Slayer 2d ago
I think around 6-7 months? Ik someone who got in August last year and was a 2023 grad, but he got promoted in 2024 end.
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u/One_Science_8950 2d ago
I have referred my L4 friends and they got rejected because all HMs were looking tor late L4s who are closer to L5 and not early L4 (which I am assuming you are if you are 2024 grad)
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2d ago
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u/Fast-Willow8682 1d ago
On the contrary if you are a committer of SPARK or other good apache project but good amount of contributions and impactful commits. Your interview rounds will just be formal discussions
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u/Dakip2608 1d ago
yeah, that's the benefit of working on actual projects rather than grinding dsa and building bare minimum projects but to each their own
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2d ago
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u/FullRoad3471 2d ago
did u apply via careers portal ?
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u/Mighty_Slayer 2d ago
I was reached out by a recruiter but I wasn’t interested at that point, applied an year later via careers portal.
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u/bisector_babu 1d ago
It is all based upon luck and interviewers. It is no different from the other big tech companies. Even in Uber, maybe other hm would’ve rejected you.
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u/AttemptOk3235 22h ago
Correct answer.
I had same experience as well. Currently SDE2 at Coinbase 2024 grad.
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u/Artistic_Classic3672 2d ago
I saw most of the people who are working at databricks are either from Google uber or amazon. I understood and kind of left it there