Palo Alto Networks Software Engineer interview experience

The format leaned heavily on presenting what I’d worked on—my main project was the anchor—and then answering follow-up technical questions based on that work.

The whole thing felt more practical than purely algorithmic: instead of a constant stream of stand-alone puzzles, the interviewers used my project as a way to test how I thought, how I explained tradeoffs, and how comfortable I was with the underlying technical details. The calls were timed like a real working session, especially during the longer virtual interview.

In the end, I didn’t move forward, and I left feeling like the