Getting hired as a Splunk Software Engineer is no easy feat. With Splunk being one of the leaders in big data analytics competition for these coveted roles is fierce. Candidates must demonstrate exceptional technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills to stand out.
I have interviewed dozens of candidates over my career as a hiring manager at Splunk. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll share my insider tips to help you ace the Splunk software engineer interview process and land the job.
Understanding the Role of a Splunk Software Engineer
Before diving into the interview specifics, it’s important to understand what the day-to-day work of a Splunk software engineer entails
Splunk software engineers are responsible for building and enhancing the backend infrastructure that powers Splunk’s data analytics solutions. Key responsibilities include:
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Designing and developing high-performance software systems that can intake, process and analyze huge volumes of machine data in real-time.
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Building scalable cloud-based architectures and integrating complex distributed systems.
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Optimizing data pipelines, developing Machine Learning models, and creating analytics tools and visualizations.
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Troubleshooting system performance issues and improving reliability.
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Collaborating with cross-functional teams including Product, Design, and Quality Engineering.
To succeed in this role, you’ll need strong technical skills, excellent problem-solving abilities, and the passion to create software that transforms how organizations leverage data.
Splunk Software Engineer Interview Process
The Splunk software engineering interview typically consists of 3 rounds:
Round 1: Initial Screening
- 1-hour phone interview with a recruiter
- Questions about your resume, experience, and motivation
- Assesses cultural fit
Round 2: Technical Screening
- 1-hour call with hiring manager and engineer
- Tests programming skills, system design, algorithms
- Expect 2-3 live coding questions
Round 3: Onsite Interview
- Full day onsite at Splunk office
- 4 interview rounds – 2 technical, 2 behavioral
- Technical rounds assess coding, system design, and architecture
- Behavioral rounds evaluate soft skills, motivation, and culture fit
How to Prepare for the Coding Interview
The coding portion of the Splunk interview will test your skills in object-oriented programming and algorithms.
** languages to prepare:**
- Java
- C++
- Python
Key topic areas:
- Data structures (arrays, lists, trees, graphs)
- Algorithms (sorting, searching, recursion, dynamic programming)
- Object-oriented design and programming
Here are some common coding interview questions to practice:
- Reverse a linked list iteratively and recursively.
- Find duplicates in an array in O(n) time without extra space.
- Design classes for an online shopping system.
- Given 2 sorted arrays, write a function to merge them in sorted order.
- Write a function to find kth largest element in an array.
I recommend solving 50-100 coding problems on platforms like LeetCode to build mastery. Focus on communicating your thought process clearly.
Mastering System Design Interviews
You will be asked to design large-scale systems in the Splunk interview. Prepare by studying these common system design topics:
- Designing a scalable web crawler
- Designing Twitter/Netflix/Youtube backend architecture
- Optimizing search architecture for scalability and latency
- Building databases for massive amounts of data
- Caching strategies for low latency responses
- Load balancing across servers
- Microservice vs monolithic architectures
Focus on high-level architecture, major components, scalability, and tradeoffs. Draw diagrams to communicate effectively.
Be Ready to Talk About Your Projects
Given Splunk’s focus on big data, you will likely be asked to discuss previous projects exemplifying your skills.
Be ready to summarize 2-3 relevant projects you’ve worked on. Focus on:
- Your specific contributions and responsibilities
- Technical challenges and how you overcame them
- Technologies and tools leveraged
- Impact of the project
Having code samples ready can help strengthen your responses.
Common Splunk Software Engineer Behavioral Interview Questions
In addition to technical skills, Splunk evaluates candidates on soft skills through behavioral interview questions. Some common ones:
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Tell me about a time you resolved a disagreement with a coworker. Demonstrates your conflict resolution ability.
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Describe a time you overcame a major obstacle. Highlights your perseverance and problem-solving.
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Tell me about a technical project you worked on as part of a team. Evaluates teamwork and communication skills.
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Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Gauges your career ambitions and aspirations.
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Why do you want to work for Splunk specifically? Assesses cultural fit.
Prepare stories from your past experiences to illustrate desired skills. Practice answering behavioral questions out loud.
Stand Out with Good Questions for the Interviewer
Having insightful questions for your interviewers demonstrates thoughtfulness and interest in the company. Some good questions to ask:
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How do you see this role evolving in the next few years given shifts in big data?
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What excites you most about the technical roadmap for Splunk’s products?
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Could you describe the engineering culture on your team?
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What opportunities are there for professional development and growth?
Master the Splunk Coding Challenge
Many candidates receive a remote coding challenge after the initial screen. This typically involves 1-2 algorithm or data structure problems.
Here are my tips for acing the Splunk coding challenge:
- Carefully read and understand each problem statement before coding.
- Think through test cases thoroughly before writing code.
- Write clean, well-structured, maintainable code with proper syntax.
- Add comments explaining your approach and logic.
- Double check your code works for all test cases.
- Submit your code before the deadline.
Allot sufficient time to complete the challenge (2-4 hours). Submit organized, easy-to-follow code.
Preparing for the Splunk software engineering interview takes time and dedication. Follow the guidance in this guide, and you’ll demonstrate the skills and expertise needed to land your dream job developing analytics software at one of the most impactful big data companies. With passion and perseverance, you can turn that challenging interview into a rewarding career opportunity. Best of luck!
Splunk Software Engineer Interview Guide
The Splunk Software Engineer interview is usually broken up into three stages: the first screen, the technical screen, and the on-site round.
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The initial screen is a one-hour telephonic interview with the recruiter. Typically, the initial screen features questions related to your CV and work experience, if any. The first screen is meant to see if the candidate is interested in the job and if they have the right experience and skills for the job and the company. People who are just out of college should be very careful with their CV and any projects or internships they may have had while they were there.
Most asked interview questions in the Initial Screen.
- What made you decide to become a software engineer?
- Why Splunk?
- What do you know about Splunk?
The technical screen is a one-hour interview with the hiring manager and a Splunk software engineer. This round is aimed at assessing your technical skills in the following areas:
- Coding
- Systems Design
- Algorithms and Data Structures
Coding
There will be questions on the technical screen that test the candidate’s general programming skills in the “coding aptitude” section. The focus will primarily be on object-oriented programming. Students need to be proficient in at least one of the programming languages among C++, Java, and Python. Also, questions to test your clarity of the OOP concept may be asked. Typically, the interviewer asks 2-3 coding questions that need to be attempted through a shared online code editor.
Most commonly asked Coding questions in the Technical screen:
- Here’s some Python code to see if a substring is part of a given string:
- Write Python code that will accept strings with only vowels.
- Given a matrix of size r*c. Traverse the matrix in spiral form.
- Here’s the code to add an item to the middle of a linked list:
- You can turn a sorted list into a binary search tree by writing a function.
- Here’s some code to see if an array is part of another array:
- Use all four pillars of the oops concept to make a class of university management system.
System Design
Systems design includes things like system architecture, product design, modules, interfaces, and data that a system needs to meet certain needs. The interviewer may ask questions on front-end design, back-end design, scalability, and more in this section.
Most asked Splunk Software Engineer interview questions on System Design
- Can you design a database system for a Supermarket?
- Design a secure password system for wearable devices
- How would you design and build the different modules of a recommendation system that is based on core attributes and features?
- Create a system that can be expanded to keep track of taxis that are breaking the rules.
- Can you design a movie ticket reservation system?
- Tell me how you would make a chat app like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
- Tell me how you would handle versioning of Web Services APIs.
- Design Splunk Design Server driven system.
Algorithms and Data Structures
Algorithms and data structures is a staple of almost all Software Engineering interviews, and Splunk is no different. Question areas to focus here would be Linked Lists, Queues, Stacks, Binary Search Trees, and Arrays.
Most asked Splunk Software Engineer interview questions on algorithms and data structures:
- Given a list of n integers and the number Z, you need to write an algorithm that finds all the pairs of integers (a,b) whose sum is Z.
- Design LRU using basic data structures.
- Come up with a way to do preorder traversal in a binary search tree.
- How would you handle dependencies between assets? What kinds of data structures can help you handle different kinds of dependencies?
- Give the code to find the word that appears most often in a paragraph.
The onsite round is an extended version of the phone screen. It is conducted on Splunks campus, and consists of 4 rounds, two technical, and two behavioural. The technical rounds last for an hour each, and the behavioral round lasts for an hour and a half. After the first interview, you’ll have a 15-minute lunch meeting with a current software engineer where you can ask any questions you have about the role, responsibilities, etc.
Technical Round 1
The technical rounds are conducted by a senior software developer at Splunk.
The first technical round would mostly feature coding questions. It will feature at least two coding problems. Candidates should be prepared to code in C/Java, or Python.
Most asked coding questions in the Onsite Round:
- Given n numbers (P1,P2,P3,. Pn). Split them into m separate parts so that the sum of the highest and lowest numbers is
- Write a program that will add the numbers in a string. For example, if you give the string Gl223a45ssd908oo6r, the program should return 223 x 45 x 908 x 6 = 1182.
- Come up with a way to find the middle item in a list that is only linked to itself.
- Write code that will look for an item in a Binary Search Tree.
- Writing a function to find all integer pairs whose sum is equal to a certain number is what you need to do.
- Given a character array, calculate the minimum no. of jumps from 1st alphabet to reach the last alphabet. CRITERION: From a given character, you can either: 1. Jump to the adjacent character 2. Jump to the same character positioned in a different place.
Technical Round 2
The second technical round will feature system design questions. It will feature at least 2-3 system design questions. Interviewers may ask back-end design, frontend design, as well as scalability questions.
Most commonly asked System Design question in the onsite round
- Create a backend application using an in-memory database.
- Draw low level design of online bus booking system.
- Design a Billing System for a cloud-based Platform.
- Create a system that tells a user about all the restaurants within 2 km of where they are.
- Plan for a poker game with several tables and six chairs at each table. And the system has to give the people in line the seats that are available. And each participant will be allocated 100 poker chips.
Behavioural Rounds
The two behavioural rounds are aimed at assessing behavioural aspects of your personality. You may be asked situational questions as to how you tackled a particular situation. The people interviewing you may also want to know why you want to be a software engineer or why you chose Splunk. There may also be a few scenario-based questions to test your leadership skills.
The most fundamental thing to keep in mind in behavioural interviews is tobe honest in your replies. Always expect that you and the interviewers will go back and forth over a question or answer, so be ready for that.
Most commonly asked questions in the Behavioral section
- Why have you chosen to apply to Splunk?
- What made you decide to become a software engineer?
- Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
- Tell me something about your approach to goal-setting.
- How do you handle pressure at work?
- What’s the best thing about working with other people?
- Have you ever been unmotivated at work? If so, what did you do to get back on track?
- Stick to the “Think out loud” method to show the interviewers how you’re going to answer. Make sure not to rush to answer any question.
- Do not hesitate to ask clarifying questions.
- Get to know Splunk’s values, work culture, and other things before the behavioral interview. Also, prepare some examples to use in the scenario-based questions about your past jobs, including what you did well, what problems you had, and how you solved them.
With the above pointers, we are sure you would crack the Splunk Software Engineer interview. Hope you found the guide useful.
The role of a Splunk Software Engineer
Splunk is an American tech company based in San Francisco, California. It makes software that lets you search, monitor, and analyze data generated by machines using a Web-based interface. Let us know the role and responsibilities of a Splunk Software engineer.
Role and responsibility
- Write backend code for Splunk search infrastructure.
- Build robust, fault-tolerant distributed systems in a multi-threaded/multi-process environment.
- Look at how to make it easier to get, route, and collect data across multiple deployments and make it scalable.
- Look at how scalable data collection, routing, storage, and retrieval are and make them better.
- Define and perform various search language layer optimizations/transformations.
Skills/qualifications required
- 5 years of experience in a related field and a technical bachelor’s degree, or the equivalent in real-world experience
- Learn how to code and fix bugs in any object-oriented language, such as C.
- Solid understanding of how AWS services, like EC2, S3 etc. are used.
- It’s helpful to have a good understanding of backend systems, storage, filesystems, memory, and multi-threading.
- Familiarity with any query language like SQL, SPL etc.
- Have a good foundation in data structures, algorithms, software design.
- Knowledge of modern distributed system design and implementation.
Splunk Software Engineer salary
- Entry-level salary: USD 192,000
- Senior positions: USD 460,000.
- Median salary: USD 238,000, with USD 156,000 in base pay, USD 68,000 in stock pay, and USD 14,000 in bonus pay.
Splunk Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers | Splunk Security Interview Question
FAQ
How many rounds of interviews does Splunk have?
What is Splunk used for interview questions?
What is a karat interview like?
How do you answer Splunk interview questions?
Here are the answers to 10 basic Splunk interview questions. Use them to review your candidates’ responses during interviews. 1. Explain what Splunk is. Applicants should know that Splunk is an application that enables data scientists and machine-learning engineers to monitor, search through, and analyze machine data.
What questions should you ask a Splunk engineer?
Diving into the technical aspects of the role, interviewers ask this question to gauge your understanding of the Splunk architecture and its components. Splunk Engineers need to know the functionalities of forwarders and indexers, as they play a critical role in data collection, processing, and storage.
What do interviewers want from Splunk?
Visualizations are an integral part of Splunk, allowing users to easily understand and interpret complex data. Interviewers want to know if you have experience in creating custom visualizations that cater to specific business needs, showcasing your ability to adapt and think creatively.
Should you hire a Splunk engineer?
When hiring for a Splunk Engineer, employers want to know if you have experience in migrating Splunk environments, as this can be a complex and critical task for the company’s data analytics and monitoring capabilities.
