What is a Software Engineer?

At Anthropic, a Software Engineer is not just a builder of features; you are a critical architect of the systems that ensure our AI models, like Claude, are safe, steerable, and reliable. This role sits at the intersection of cutting-edge research and massive-scale engineering. You will be responsible for building the infrastructure that trains our models, the interfaces that allow users to interact with them, and the safety harnesses that align their behavior with human values.

The work here is distinct because of our singular focus on AI safety. Whether you are working on distributed systems to handle massive compute loads, optimizing inference latency, or developing internal tools for our research team, your code directly impacts the trajectory of safe artificial intelligence. You will tackle ambiguous, complex problems where standard industry solutions often do not apply, requiring you to think from first principles to support products that are redefining the technological landscape.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation for Anthropic is different from standard tech interviews. While algorithmic foundations are necessary, we place a heavy premium on practical engineering speed and ethical alignment. You should approach this process ready to demonstrate not just how you code, but why you build systems the way you do.

Your performance will be evaluated against these core criteria:

Practical Coding Proficiency We test your ability to write functional, bug-free code under strict time constraints. Unlike theoretical whiteboard sessions, our assessments often involve building working APIs, file systems, or parsers in a realistic environment. You must demonstrate fluency in your chosen language (Python is highly recommended) and the ability to debug complex logic quickly.

System Design & Scalability You will be evaluated on your ability to design systems that can handle immense scale—think hundreds of thousands of requests per second. We look for engineers who understand trade-offs in distributed systems, concurrency, and data consistency, specifically in the context of serving or training large language models.

AI Safety & Cultural Alignment Anthropic is an AI safety company first. We assess your engagement with our mission. You must be prepared to discuss the ethical implications of AI, how to mitigate risks, and how your personal values align with our "Constitutional AI" approach.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process at Anthropic is rigorous and moves quickly. It is designed to filter for high-velocity engineers who can handle the complexity of our tech stack. The process typically begins with a high-stakes automated assessment (often via CodeSignal) that serves as a significant filter. Speed and accuracy here are paramount; many candidates find this step challenging due to the time pressure.

If you pass the assessment, you will move to a recruiter screen followed by a technical phone screen. This technical screen is often a "practical" coding round—expect to work on a realistic task like parsing logs or building a small crawler, rather than a generic algorithmic puzzle. The final stage is a virtual onsite loop consisting of multiple rounds covering coding, system design, and a dedicated "culture fit" interview that dives deep into your views on AI safety and ethics.

This timeline illustrates the progression from the initial screening to the final onsite loop. Note the distinct separation between the automated screen and the live technical rounds. The "Culture Fit" stage is not a formality; it is a decisive round where we assess your alignment with our safety-first mission.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must prepare specifically for the types of problems we solve. Based on candidate experiences, our process favors practical implementation and system robustness over pure algorithmic theory.

Practical Coding & Automation

This is the most frequent failure point. We evaluate your ability to translate requirements into working code rapidly. You may be asked to implement business logic, file systems, or data processing scripts.

Be ready to go over:

• Complex Logic Implementation – Writing multi-step functions where the output of one step feeds into the next (e.g., banking transaction ledgers).
• String Manipulation & Parsing – converting raw data (like stack traces) into structured events.
• Concurrency & Multithreading – Tasks that involve handling multiple processes or async calls, such as a web crawler.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Build a key-value file system with transactional support."
• "Implement a parser that converts nested stack traces into discrete start/end events."
• "Write an asynchronous web crawler that respects rate limits."

System Design

For mid-level and senior roles, system design is critical. We look for the ability to scale. You should be comfortable discussing high-throughput systems.

Be ready to go over:

• API Design – Structuring clean, restful endpoints for internal or external services.
• Scalability – Handling 100,000+ requests per second; discussing load balancing, caching, and database sharding.
• Data Consistency – Managing state in distributed environments.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a system to scale a function execution to 100,000 requests per second."
• "Design an API for a banking ledger system that handles concurrent reads and writes."

Culture & AI Safety

This round is unique to Anthropic. We do not just ask "how do you handle conflict?" We ask about your philosophy on technology.

Be ready to go over:

• AI Ethics – Your understanding of the risks posed by LLMs and how to mitigate them.
• Mission Alignment – Why you want to work on safety specifically, not just "cool AI tech."

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Engage in a philosophical discussion about the future of AI and safety constraints."
• "How would you handle a situation where a product feature conflicts with safety guidelines?"

The word cloud above highlights the frequency of terms like "Concurrency," "File System," "API," and "Safety" in our interview feedback. Notice the emphasis on "Speed" and "Practical"—this indicates that you should prioritize practicing timed, realistic coding tasks over memorizing obscure dynamic programming solutions.

Key Responsibilities

As a Software Engineer at Anthropic, your daily work will be hands-on and high-impact. You will not just be maintaining legacy code; you will be building the tracks as the train is moving.

• Infrastructure Development: You will build and maintain the distributed systems required to train and serve large-scale models. This involves working with Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and high-performance computing clusters.
• Product Engineering: You will develop the APIs and user-facing interfaces that allow the world to interact with Claude. This requires a strong sense of API design and user experience.
• Internal Tooling: You will collaborate closely with research teams to build tools that accelerate their experiments. This often requires understanding the research workflow and translating it into efficient software.
• Safety Engineering: You will implement technical guardrails and monitoring systems that enforce our safety constitution, ensuring our models behave predictably and ethically.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

We are looking for engineers who are technically excellent and mission-driven.

• Must-have skills:

  • Proficiency in Python, Rust, or C++: We value language mastery. Python is heavily used for our assessments and tooling.
  • Strong Systems Fundamentals: Experience with concurrency, multithreading, and distributed system architecture.
  • Coding Speed: The ability to produce clean, working code under tight time constraints (demonstrated via CodeSignal and live coding).

• Nice-to-have skills:

  • ML Infrastructure Experience: Familiarity with PyTorch, GPU clusters, or training frameworks is a strong plus, though not always required for generalist SE roles.
  • Frontend/Fullstack Experience: For product-focused roles, experience with modern web frameworks (React, TypeScript) is beneficial.

Common Interview Questions

The following questions are representative of what candidates face at Anthropic. They are drawn from recent interview data and reflect our focus on practical application.

Practical Coding & Algorithms

• "Implement a multi-tier banking application that processes transactions and updates account balances in memory."
• "Given a set of nested log data, write a program to reconstruct the execution flow (stack trace) and identify errors."
• "Create a basic in-memory database that supports set, get, and delete operations with transaction rollback capabilities."
• "Write a script to crawl a set of URLs asynchronously, ensuring you do not exceed a specific request rate."

System Design

• "How would you design a rate-limiting system for an API that serves millions of users?"
• "Design a distributed key-value store. How do you handle consistency during a network partition?"
• "Architect a system that ingests high-velocity log data from model training and allows for real-time querying."

Behavioral & Culture

• "Describe a time you disagreed with a technical decision. How did you resolve it?"
• "What are your thoughts on the risks of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?"
• "Why Anthropic? Specifically, how do you view our approach to AI safety compared to other labs?"

These questions are based on real interview experiences from candidates who interviewed at this company. You can practice answering them interactively on Dataford to better prepare for your interview.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the CodeSignal assessment? It is considered challenging primarily due to the time constraint. You typically have roughly 70-90 minutes to complete 4 progressive tasks. The first is easy, but they ramp up quickly to complex implementation problems. Speed and debugging skills are essential.

Q: Does Anthropic provide feedback after interviews? No. Consistent with our internal policies, we do not provide specific feedback on interview performance to candidates. This is a strict policy, so please do not expect detailed notes if you are not moved forward.

Q: Is the coding interview LeetCode-style? It is a mix. While the initial screen may feel like LeetCode, the live technical screens are often more "practical." Candidates report tasks like "building a file system" or "parsing logs" in a local environment or notebook, rather than solving abstract graph puzzles.

Q: How important is the 'Culture Fit' interview? Extremely important. Unlike some companies where this is a "soft" check, at Anthropic, failing to demonstrate alignment with our safety mission or engaging thoughtfully in the ethics discussion can be a dealbreaker, even for strong technical candidates.

Other General Tips

Master the "General Coding Framework" Our initial assessment often utilizes the CodeSignal General Coding Framework. Practice this specific format. You need to be comfortable managing time across four questions where subsequent questions may depend on understanding the previous logic.

Prepare for "Practical" Environments In live rounds, you might use Google Colab or a local IDE. Be comfortable writing code that runs. You won't just be writing a function on a whiteboard; you might need to handle imports, standard libraries, and actual execution flow.

Read the "Constitution" Familiarize yourself with Anthropic’s research papers, specifically regarding "Constitutional AI." Being able to reference our specific approach to safety during your culture interview demonstrates deep interest and preparation.

Communicate Your Trade-offs In system design and practical coding, explicitly state why you are choosing a specific data structure or architectural pattern. We value the thought process as much as the solution.

Summary & Next Steps

Becoming a Software Engineer at Anthropic is an opportunity to do the most significant work of your career. You will be joining a team that is not only pushing the boundaries of intelligence but is deeply committed to ensuring that intelligence benefits humanity. The bar is high, specifically regarding coding velocity, system design intuition, and ethical alignment.

To succeed, focus your preparation on speed and accuracy in practical coding tasks. Move beyond basic algorithms and practice building small, functional systems (like parsers or APIs) under time pressure. Deeply engage with our mission and be ready to have a rigorous conversation about the future of AI.

The compensation at Anthropic is top-tier, reflecting the high expectations we have for our engineering talent. Offers typically include a competitive base salary and significant equity upside, commensurate with the impact you will have on the company's future.

You have the potential to drive the future of safe AI. Prepare thoroughly, code quickly, and come ready to discuss the big questions. Good luck.