Atlassian Software Engineer Interview Questions

I would start with a clear core model and avoid adding complexity until the product truly needs it. Then I would use clean boundaries, sensible defaults, and good internal APIs so the system can grow without becoming hard to maintain. The goal is to keep the product easy for users and easy for engineers at the same time.

I would use a hash map for fast lookups and a doubly linked list to track recent usage. That combination lets me insert, remove, and update entries in constant time. A strong answer also explains how to handle eviction cleanly when capacity is reached.

I would first consider whether the tree is binary or general, then choose a recursion or parent-tracking approach based on the shape of the data. For a binary tree, a recursive solution is often clean and efficient. The key is to show that you understand both the traversal logic and the trade-offs.

I would think about isolation, configuration, permissions, and how to avoid one team’s changes breaking another team’s workflow. Then I would build the service so shared pieces stay stable while team-specific behavior can vary safely. Good platform design reduces coordination overhead instead of increasing it.

I would use a priority queue if there are many lists, because it helps me always pick the next smallest item without scanning everything. If there are just two lists, a simple two-pointer merge is enough. The best solution depends on how much input I have and how often I need to run it.