Anduril Software Engineer Interview Questions & Process (2025)
Introduction
An Anduril software engineer interview isn’t like Big Tech, and they’re not looking for textbook-perfect engineers who only shine in contrived whiteboard setups.
In 2025, the company’s tone is clearer than ever. The #DontWorkAtAnduril campaign is a deliberate filter. The company wants engineers who self-select into a mission-driven, resilient culture. It’s not warm and fuzzy. It’s intense, fast-moving, and unapologetically focused.
And the stakes are high—not just technically, but financially. The average total compensation for a software engineer at Anduril is $273,000 per year, with most salaries ranging from $214,000 to $551,000.
This guide focuses exclusively on the Software Engineering (SWE) track at Anduril. If you’re looking for details on interviews for other roles, check our full breakdown.
Why Work at Anduril as a Software Engineer?
Software engineers at Anduril work directly with end-users like military operators to build real-world solutions. You’ll write C++ and Python that run on live robots, often testing in the field. The environment rewards those who thrive in ambiguity and want full ownership over complex systems.
Engineers build everything from FPGA interfaces to AI-powered platforms like Lattice OS. Collaboration across hardware and software is standard, with engineers deploying code on physical systems and iterating fast. As one put it: “You’re working on real robots, not just code.”
Equity refreshers typically begin in year two, with performance and seniority influencing size. RSUs are heavily tied to big contract wins, making timing and impact key. L5+ engineers often see significant refreshes. Anduril’s Mojave and Texas ranges enable fast deployment and testing. Engineers push live autonomy updates to drones and robots, with on-the-spot debugging and iteration. The culture encourages risk-taking and full accountability, launching real missions with real consequences.
Anduril Software Engineer Interview Process
The Anduril SWE interview process is as follows:
Recruiter Screen
The recruiter screen at Anduril is typically a quick 20–30 minute chat, but don’t be deluded into thinking it’s just a casual conversation. It’s an important moment to gauge whether your experience and mindset align with the company’s mission, and they’ll want to hear about why you’re interested in working in defense tech. So, be prepared to talk about your motivations and how your background fits into that space.
Technical Phone Round
The Anduril technical phone screen typically lasts 45-55 minutes, with a focus on live coding using a collaborative tool like CodePair. It’s a fast-paced session, beginning with a brief intro and resume discussion (5–10 minutes), followed by a coding exercise (35–40 minutes), and wrapping up with any candidate questions (5–10 minutes).
You’ll be expected to code live in C++ or Go, with C++ being the preferred language for embedded or robotics-focused roles.
In the technical portion, optimizing your solution and edge cases is the priority. Remember to ask clarifying questions and discuss the trade-offs of the different approaches you’re considering. Also, ensure you understand the real-world implications of your solutions.
Take-home/HackerRank
Anduril’s take-home assignment, where utilized, typically targets roles in autonomy, embedded systems, or sensor data processing and spans 3–5 hours. The task often centers on building a real-time data stream processing system, like ingesting telemetry from thousands of drones, detecting anomalies, and triggering alerts with sub-second latency.
You’ll be slinging C++ or Go, threading your way through packet loss, jitter, and busted TCP streams like it’s just another Tuesday. Kafka, RabbitMQ, raw sockets—whatever. Prioritized sensor queues? Threaded processors? Simulated Lattice OS dashboards? Yup, those too.
Virtual/On-site loop
The final round at Anduril is a high-signal, half-day loop—usually four hours—run either virtually or in-person, and designed to rigorously test real-world engineering ability under realistic constraints. It typically consists of two coding interviews, one system design session, and one behavioral/mission-fit interview.
The coding interviews? Yeah, they’re medium-ish, but not in that abstract “invert a binary tree” sense. As you might already expect, they’re framed around real-world problems.
And then you hit the values interview. It’s not just “culture fit.” They’ll ask why you want to work in defense
Most Common Anduril Software Engineer Interview Questions
Here are some of the recurring questions that our candidates report being asked at Anduril software engineer interviews:
Coding & Algorithm Questions
These questions assess your ability to write efficient, low-level code for real-time systems—common at Anduril, where performance, memory use, and algorithmic rigor are critical for mission-critical defense applications:
1. Implement Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm for a given graph with a known source node
To implement Dijkstra’s algorithm, initialize the shortest distance to the source node as zero and all others as infinity. Use a priority queue to explore the graph, updating the shortest path to each node and keeping track of the previous node for path reconstruction.
To solve this problem, use a breadth-first search (BFS) approach to explore the grid, starting from the northwest corner. At each step, move through the unlocked door to an adjacent room, keeping track of the number of steps taken. If you reach the southeast corner, return the step count; if no path exists, return -1.
To solve this problem, use a breadth-first search (BFS) approach to explore all possible transformations from the begin_word to the end_word. Each valid transformation must be a word in the word_list, and the BFS will ensure that the shortest path is found by exploring all possibilities level by level.
4. Find the longest increasing subsequence in a list of integers
To solve this, iterate through the list while maintaining a dynamic programming array that stores the length of the longest increasing subsequence ending at each index. Update this array by comparing each element with previous elements and updating the subsequence length accordingly. The maximum value in this array will be the length of the longest increasing subsequence.
5. Find if there is a path from a starting point to an ending point in a walled maze
To determine if there is a path from the starting point to the target in a maze, you can use a depth-first search (DFS) or breadth-first search (BFS) algorithm. The algorithm should explore all possible paths from the starting cell, avoiding walls, until it either finds the target cell or exhausts all possibilities, returning a boolean indicating the presence of a path.
6. Given a string, write a function to find its first recurring character
To find the first recurring character in a string, iterate through the string while keeping track of characters that have been seen using a set. The first character that appears in the set is the first recurring character. If no character recurs, return None.
7. Given a stream of numbers, select a random number from the stream with equal probability
To select a random number from a stream with equal probability and (O(1)) space, use reservoir sampling. This involves maintaining a single selected number and updating it with a probability of (1/\text{count}) as new numbers arrive in the stream.
Systems & Low-Latency Design
These questions evaluate your ability to design efficient, scalable data systems with low-latency constraints—key at Anduril, where real-time analytics power mission-critical decisions across defense and autonomous systems:
8. Design a data pipeline for hourly user analytics
To build this data pipeline, you would need to extract data from the data lake, transform it to calculate hourly, daily, and weekly active users, and then load it into a system that supports real-time dashboard updates. This could involve using tools like Apache Spark for processing and a database like PostgreSQL or a data warehouse like Snowflake for storage.
9. How would you create a schema to represent client click data on the web?
To create a schema for client click data, you should include fields such as user ID, session ID, timestamp, page URL, and click coordinates. This schema will help in tracking user interactions and analyzing user behavior on the web app.
To design a system for real-time drone video analysis, prioritize efficient data compression and transmission techniques to manage bandwidth and latency. Implement edge computing for initial data processing and threat detection, reducing the need for constant data streaming to central servers, and use machine learning models to identify potential threats quickly.
11. How would you build a database for a consumer file storage company like Dropbox?
To build a database for a consumer file storage company like Dropbox, consider supporting various file types and maintaining a history of file changes. The database should efficiently handle large volumes of data and provide robust version control and metadata management.
Frontend/Operator-Console Questions
These questions assess your ability to implement clean, efficient logic for frontend tools like operator consoles—interfaces where speed, reliability, and intuitive behavior are critical in Anduril’s mission-focused environments:
To conduct this experiment, you would need to design a controlled A/B test where one group of users receives the traditional ETA estimate and another group receives the range estimate. Key metrics to evaluate include user satisfaction, accuracy of the ETA range, and any changes in user behavior. Statistical analysis would determine the significance of the results, ensuring that any observed differences are not due to random chance.
To design a system for processing and displaying real-time data across multiple platforms, you need to ensure that comments are persistent and support interactive features like reactions. The system should update and display reaction counts in real-time to all viewers. Considerations include handling data consistency, latency, and integrating AI censorship features, which could be static or dynamic.
14. How would you design a real-time dashboard for a command and control interface that must update with incoming telemetry every second?
To design this dashboard, you would need a robust data ingestion system capable of handling high-frequency telemetry updates. The architecture should include a real-time data processing engine, such as Apache Kafka or AWS Kinesis, to manage data streams. A low-latency data store, like Redis, would ensure quick access to the latest telemetry data. The dashboard interface should be optimized for rapid updates, possibly using WebSockets for real-time communication, and include failover mechanisms to maintain reliability.
15. How would you architect a UI component for displaying live video feeds from autonomous systems with minimal latency and fallback behavior?
To architect a UI component for live video feeds, focus on minimizing latency and ensuring smooth fallback behavior. Use efficient streaming protocols like WebRTC or HLS for low-latency delivery. Implement adaptive bitrate streaming to adjust video quality based on network conditions, and design a robust fallback mechanism to handle feed interruptions gracefully.
Mission-Fit & Behavioral
These questions evaluate how well your personal motivations, ethical stance, and long-term goals align with Anduril’s mission-driven culture and its role in the defense technology space:
16. Why are you interested in Anduril or the defence industry?
Demonstrate your understanding of Anduril’s mission and how it aligns with your values or interests. When asked about your motivation for working in a specific industry, such as the defense industry, it’s important to reflect on your personal values and how they align with the goals of the industry, such as national security or technological advancement. Discuss any ethical considerations you’ve weighed and why you believe your work can have a positive impact. Be honest about your motivations and any reservations you’ve addressed.
17. Describe a data project you worked on. What were some of the challenges you faced?
In tackling a challenging data project, it is crucial to identify both technical and interpersonal hurdles. Effective problem-solving involves a strategic approach to collaboration and continuous learning, which can lead to successful outcomes and valuable lessons learned.
18. How would you convey insights and the methods you use to a non-technical audience?
To effectively communicate insights to a non-technical audience, focus on simplifying complex data into actionable insights using clear language and relatable examples. Utilize visual aids and storytelling to make the information more engaging and understandable.
19. How do you handle situations where colleagues disagree with you?
When handling disagreements with colleagues, it’s important to engage them in conversation, listen actively, and address their concerns. By fostering open communication and understanding their perspective, you can work collaboratively towards a resolution.
Sample Coding Challenge Walk-Through
This question assesses your ability to design high-performance, low-latency C++ systems for real-time sensor data processing:
16. How would you design a memory-efficient, thread-safe C++ class to aggregate high-throughput sensor data streams?
The system must handle over 10,000 events per second with less than 50ms latency. Data ingestion should be optimized for real-time performance, favoring lock-free structures and avoiding blocking operations wherever possible.
Each sensor should maintain min, max, and average values within a sliding 5-second window, with a granularity of 1 second. The design must also accommodate out-of-order events arriving up to 500ms late.
To ensure scalability, use fixed-size circular buffers for time-windowed data and object pooling to minimize allocation overhead and keep memory usage predictable.
// ... other class members ...
void ingest(int sensor_id, double value, int64_t timestamp) {
auto& window = sensors[sensor_id];
size_t idx = window.head.fetch_add(1, std::memory_order_relaxed) % window.buffer.size();
window.buffer[idx].value.store(value, std::memory_order_relaxed);
window.buffer[idx].timestamp.store(timestamp, std::memory_order_release);
}
// ... other methods ...
Scoring Rubric (0-10 Scale)
Here’s a scoring rubric for the mentioned challenge:
Correctness (30%)
Scores of 9 to 10 require accurate results and proper handling of edge cases. Scores from 5 to 8 allow minor errors. Scores below 5 reflect major mistakes.
Performance (25%)
High scores mean the code meets latency and throughput goals. Mid scores show some contention or slowdowns. Low scores have blocking or poor responsiveness.
Memory Efficiency (20%)
Top scores need well-sized buffers and no leaks. Mid scores may have small inefficiencies. Low scores use memory wastefully.
Concurrency (15%)
Scores of 9 to 10 require thread safety and atomic operations. Mid-range scores use mutexes correctly. Low scores have data races or unsafe access.
Code Quality (10%)
High scores go to clean, well-documented code. Mid scores are readable but lack comments. Low scores are messy and untested.
30-Day Study Plan for Anduril SWE Interview
Here is a 30-day study plan for the Anduril SWE interview:
| Week | Focus | Key Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concurrency Refresh | Mutex vs. lock-free, atomic ops, memory models, hazard pointers, real-time telemetry coding drills |
| 2 | Systems Design (Telemetry/Fusion) | Design pipelines, fuse multi-sensor data, optimize latency, fault-tolerance, Lattice OS deep dive |
| 3 | Coding Mock Interviews | Drone-themed problems (arrays, graphs, telemetry systems, lock-free queues), Anduril-specific twists |
| 4 | Mission & Clearance Prep | Study Anduril’s mission, ethics Q&A, clearance packet prep, mock interviews, storytelling via STAR |
Anduril Software Engineer Salaries & Leveling
Average Base Salary
Average Total Compensation
FAQs
Is the Anduril SWE interview hard?
Yes—technical bar is comparable to FAANG, with added emphasis on real-time systems and mission alignment. Cultural fit around national security is a key filter.
Which languages should I use?
Use C++17⁄20 or Go for backend roles. TypeScript is common on the operator UI (e.g., Lattice OS). Match the role’s stack if possible.
Do I need a clearance before interviewing?
No—clearance is not required to apply. Anduril will sponsor it post-offer; interim Secret is common while the full process completes.
How long does the SWE process take?
Expect 3–5 weeks pre-clearance. On-site interviews returned in mid-2024; remote loops are still used for early stages.
Can new grads apply?
Yes—new grad and intern-to-full-time pipelines are active. Strong systems or robotics experience helps stand out.
Conclusion
Anduril’s SWE interview is challenging and mission-driven, focusing on real-time systems, concurrency, and ethical fit. Success means having strong Data Structure Skills paired with a passion for impactful defence technology, and getting inspired by the Success Story of Nathan Fitter. If you thrive in fast-paced, high-stakes environments, Anduril offers a unique and rewarding opportunity, but you must also practice responding to behavioral questions. All the best!