Atlassian's interview process combines interviews on your craft, a manager interview and a values interview. Atlassian publishes interview handbooks for engineering, product and design roles, plus a guide for graduates and interns. They differ in detail, but every one includes a values interview on Atlassian's five values, usually run by someone outside the team you'd join.
Everything below comes from Atlassian's own careers pages, linked as we go. Where Atlassian doesn't say something, we say so.
The Atlassian hiring process at a glance
| Stage | Engineering | Product management | Design |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | Not described in the handbook | Initial hiring manager conversation | 30-minute recruiter screen, then a 60-minute hiring manager interview with a 10-minute case study |
| Craft interviews | Coding (data structures and code design) and a 60-minute system design interview | Three interviews, one each on lead and inspire, craft mastery and delivering outcomes | 45-minute portfolio review and a 60-minute follow-up with two interviewers |
| Manager interview | Usually one-on-one with the hiring manager or a more senior manager | Covered by the opening hiring manager conversation | Covered by the hiring manager interview; senior roles may add a triad interview |
| Values interview | Yes, usually with someone from Sales, HR or Customer Support | Yes, often with someone from a different team | Yes, 45 minutes |
| Decision | Debrief, then an independent Hiring Committee | All four interviewers meet the hiring manager | Calibration session between all interviewers |
What is the Atlassian hiring process?
You apply online, then go through craft interviews for your discipline, a manager interview and a values interview. Interviewers then compare feedback and a decision is made. For engineering, that decision goes to a Hiring Committee that, in Atlassian's words, "works independently from our interviewers".
Atlassian doesn't publish an end-to-end timeline or a fixed number of rounds for every role. Your recruiter, or Talent Acquisition Partner, will explain the steps for yours.
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How do you apply to Atlassian?
Apply through Atlassian Careers. Atlassian's five tips for an Atlassian application explain how CVs are reviewed: Atlassian uses human review and AI to process CVs, recruiters assess your skills and decide on fit, and "we don't use technologies such as AI to make automated decisions about you."
Its advice for the CV:
- Focus on your skills, including transferable ones if you don't have every skill listed.
- Tailor it to the role and put the most relevant points first.
- Standardise your job title to match the closest Atlassian role.
- Show achievements and impact, not a list of responsibilities.
- Keep it to about two pages, proofread it, and avoid buzzwords like "ambitious" or "driven". Show the skill through an example instead.
What happens in the Atlassian coding interview?
Atlassian's engineering interview handbook describes a coding interview in two parts: Data Structures and Code Design. Prompts differ for frontend, backend, fullstack and SRE roles.
What Atlassian says it looks for:
- You choose the language. Atlassian assesses problem-solving and learning agility, not a particular language.
- How you think matters most. It wants to see how you handle trade-offs such as verbosity versus optimisation.
- Small slips aren't fatal. In Atlassian's words, "missing a line isn't a deal-breaker".
Talk through your reasoning as you go, and say which trade-off you're making and why.
What happens in the Atlassian system design interview?
It's a 60-minute technical interview where the goal isn't code. The interviewer picks from a set of structured questions about problems Atlassian solves, from architecture to scaling under specific conditions.
Atlassian wants to see what questions you'd ask, how you'd talk through constraints like reliability and cost, who you'd partner with and which technologies you'd use. There's no single right answer. Follow-up questions "ladder", getting harder or easier as you go, which is how Atlassian assesses how well you think on your feet. Use real examples from systems you've worked on.
What happens in the Atlassian manager interview?
It's usually one-on-one with the hiring manager or a more senior manager on the team. You'll talk about who you are, what interests you, where you want your career to go and the impact you could have at Atlassian.
Prepare to talk through a past project or two: who you worked with, the technical challenges and the business reason for the project. Atlassian uses this session to learn your collaboration and communication style, and its advice is simple: "If you don't know what to do, say so!"
What is the Atlassian values interview?
The values interview assesses how well your mindset and actions match Atlassian's five values. Atlassian's handbooks say:
- Everyone takes one. The design handbook says "like every candidate", you'll have a 45-minute values interview.
- The interviewer is usually from another team, such as Sales, HR or Customer Support, because the values run across the company.
- It's conversational. The interviewer has a set of guiding questions, but Atlassian describes these as "usually fairly informal".
- Use STAR, and any experience. The design handbook encourages STAR answers and says you can draw on experience outside work.
- Say "we". The product handbook says Atlassian hopes to hear you "celebrating your team and using 'we' more than 'I'".
Atlassian's five values are:
| Atlassian value | What it means, in Atlassian's description | What to show |
|---|---|---|
| Open company, no bullshit | Information is open by default; speak your mind with thought and care | You share information and give honest, considerate feedback |
| Build with heart and balance | Passion and urgency, with the wisdom to consider options fully | You weigh options, then commit and get to work |
| Don't #@!% the customer | The customer perspective, collectively, comes first | You put customers first when it costs you something |
| Play, as a team | Put what's right for the team first | You help the team win, not just yourself |
| Be the change you seek | Courage and resourcefulness to spark change | You improved something nobody asked you to |
How does Atlassian interview product managers and designers?
Product managers meet the hiring manager first, then a panel of three interviews and a values interview. The three cover Atlassian's product expectations: lead and inspire, craft mastery, and deliver outcomes. Communication, the fourth expectation, is assessed throughout. Atlassian says it wants outcomes, not output: tell them what a project changed for customers or the business, not just what went into it. It also says an engineering degree doesn't weigh heavily.
Designers have a 30-minute recruiter screen, then a 60-minute hiring manager interview with scenario-based questions and a 10-minute case study. Then come a 45-minute portfolio review, a 60-minute follow-up covering product thinking and craft excellence, and the values interview, according to Atlassian's design interview handbook. More senior roles may add a "triad interview" with engineering and product counterparts. Atlassian advises showing recent projects, ideally from the past three or four years, and being upfront about your own contribution.
How does Atlassian hire graduates and interns?
Atlassian's early careers interview guide lists three stages:
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Application | Apply with your current resume. An early careers recruiter reviews it and contacts you about next steps. |
| 2. Assessment | A role-specific assessment within a set timeframe: an online coding test for software engineer graduates, a take-home case study for product management graduates. Atlassian says passing it is "mandatory" to reach interviews. |
| 3. Interview loop | 3 to 4 interviews: craft-specific technical or functional interviews, a leadership interview and a values interview. All are virtual. |
Atlassian doesn't name the platform for its graduate coding test or publish its length. If your invitation comes from a platform we cover, our guides to the HackerRank test and the Codility test explain how those work in general.
Atlassian's tips for graduates include keeping your resume to one or two pages with your graduation date on it, joining interviews 5 to 10 minutes early from a quiet space, and preparing an elevator pitch of under two minutes for "Tell me about yourself".
Common Atlassian interview questions and how to answer them
Atlassian doesn't publish a list of its interview questions. These are questions to prepare for, drawn from what its handbooks say each interview assesses and from its five values. Use STAR (situation, task, action, result) for the behavioural ones; our STAR method guide explains it.
1. Tell me about yourself.
Atlassian's graduate guide suggests a short pitch: who you are, your experience, what you're looking for. Keep it under two minutes and end on why this role.
2. Why Atlassian?
Atlassian's mission is "to unleash the potential of every team". Say which product or team you're drawn to and why, and connect it to that mission.
3. Tell me about a time you shared something uncomfortable.
This maps to "Open company, no bullshit". Show that you raised an honest point with thought about when and how to say it.
4. Tell me about a time you took your time on a decision, then moved quickly.
"Build with heart and balance" pairs urgency with considering options fully. Show how you weighed them, then committed.
5. Tell me about a time you put the customer first when it cost you something.
This is "Don't #@!% the customer". Pick an example where the customer's interest won over convenience, a deadline or your own preference.
6. Tell me about a time you put the team ahead of your own goals.
This is "Play, as a team". Talk about what the team achieved and use "we", as Atlassian's product handbook suggests, while still being clear about your part.
7. Tell me about something you changed that nobody asked you to.
"Be the change you seek" asks for courage and resourcefulness. Show the problem you noticed, what you did and what improved.
8. Walk me through a past project.
This is the core of the manager interview. Cover who you worked with, the technical challenges and the business reason for the project, then the outcome.
9. Design a system that handles a sudden spike in traffic.
System design questions at Atlassian are about architecture and scaling under specific conditions. Ask clarifying questions first, talk through reliability and cost, and expect follow-ups that change the constraints.
10. What trade-offs did you make in this code?
Atlassian says it wants to see your approach to trade-offs like verbosity versus optimisation. Say what you chose and why, and what you'd change with more time.
11. Tell me about a time you led without authority.
This is from the product expectation "lead and inspire", which Atlassian describes as getting a team behind one goal when they don't report to you. Experiences outside work count.
12. Tell me about a project and what it changed.
Product candidates are assessed on outcomes. Give the customer or business result, not just the timeline and effort.
13. Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly.
Atlassian assesses learning agility in engineering interviews and says engineers may move between products and stacks. Show how you got up to speed and what you delivered.
14. Do you have any questions for us?
Atlassian's early careers guide encourages you to prepare questions about the culture, your interviewers' experience at Atlassian or their career paths. Ask about the team, how it works across time zones or offices, and how success is measured in the role.
Our list of behavioural interview questions gives you more to practise on.
How to prepare for the Atlassian interview process
- Read the handbook for your discipline: engineering, product, design or early careers.
- Tailor your CV to the role, with skills and outcomes first, in about two pages.
- Prepare one STAR story for each of the five values, drawn from work or elsewhere.
- For coding interviews, practise in the language you're strongest in and explain trade-offs out loud.
- For system design, practise scaling and reliability problems from systems you know.
- Prepare a project walkthrough covering collaborators, challenges and the business reason.
- Do a mock interview with someone who'll push back.
- Ask for adjustments if you need them. Atlassian asks you to tell your Talent Acquisition Partner at any stage.
Practising realistic work tasks
Atlassian's craft interviews test how you'd actually do the job, and that improves with practice on realistic tasks. Cohesyve, which publishes this guide, runs practice job simulations for your role, with a scored report on where you lost marks. It isn't affiliated with Atlassian and doesn't use Atlassian's assessments or interview questions.
FAQs
How many interview rounds does Atlassian have?
It depends on the role. Graduates have 3 to 4 interviews after the assessment. Product managers have a hiring manager conversation, then three interviews and a values interview. Engineers have coding, system design, manager and values interviews.
Who takes the Atlassian values interview?
Every candidate, according to Atlassian's design handbook. The interviewer is usually from a different team.
Can I choose my programming language at Atlassian?
Yes. Atlassian's engineering handbook says you can choose the language you work in for the coding interview.
What is the Atlassian Hiring Committee?
For engineering roles, it's the final stage. It works independently from your interviewers, sees only interview feedback and CV information, and looks at your skills, strengths and behaviours as a whole.
Does Atlassian give feedback after interviews?
Atlassian's design handbook says it aims to always provide feedback, whatever the outcome. The other handbooks don't say.
Are Atlassian interviews virtual?
Atlassian says its intern and graduate interviews are "virtual-first". It doesn't state the format for every experienced role, so ask your recruiter.
Sources
Atlassian's own pages, checked 27 October 2026:
- atlassian.com: Engineering interview handbook
- atlassian.com: Product interview handbook
- atlassian.com: Design interview handbook
- atlassian.com: Early careers interview guide
- atlassian.com: Five tips for an Atlassian application
- atlassian.com: Atlassian's core values