Here’s a breakdown of what you can likely expect in a Databricks hiring manager interview, along with tips to help you prepare:

Focus of the Hiring Manager Interview

The hiring manager interview at Databricks is designed to:

• Assess Fit: Determine if your skills, experience, and work style align with the role and team dynamics.
• Dive Deeper into Technical Expertise: Explore your technical depth in areas like data engineering, Apache Spark, cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP), and potentially machine learning if the role requires it.
• Understand Your Problem-Solving Approach:  Evaluate how you think through complex problems, break them down, and develop solutions within a Big Data context.
• Gauge Culture Fit: Explore if your values, work ethic, and communication style align well with Databricks’ culture.

Types of Questions

• Behavioral and Situational:
  • “Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult team member on a data project?”
  • “Describe a situation where you had to adapt your approach due to changing project requirements.”
  • “Walk me through a complex data problem you solved. What were the challenges, and how did you overcome them?”
• Technical:
  • “Explain the difference between RDDs, Dataframes, and Datasets and when to use each.”
  • “Describe your experience working with [cloud provider] and Databricks’ integration.”
  • “Give an example of a time you optimized a Spark job for performance. What were the considerations and results?”
• Role-Specific:
  • (For a Data Engineer) “How do you approach designing scalable data pipelines?”
  • (For a Solutions Architect) “How would you guide a customer with limited Big Data experience towards adopting Databricks?”

Tips for Success

• Showcase Real-World Projects: Prepare to discuss your most challenging and impactful Databricks-related projects. Emphasize your technical decisions, problem-solving process, and the outcomes achieved.
• Communicate Clearly: Clearly explain your thought process and technical concepts. Practice breaking down complex ideas in a way that is understandable to someone who might need to be more deeply technical.
• Be Enthusiastic. Databricks has a passionate, innovation-driven culture. Demonstrate your interest in technology and the problem space.
• Ask Insightful Questions:  Prepare a few insightful questions about the team, specific project challenges, or about Databricks’ growth trajectory. This shows your engagement and thoughtfulness.

Additional Resources

• Databricks Engineering Blog: https://www.databricks.com/blog/2020/01/22/engineering-intervews-a-hiring-managers-guide.html
• Glassdoor Interview Experiences: Search for Databricks interview experiences on Glassdoor.
• Databricks Interview Questions: https://4dayweek.io/interview-process/databricks