Palantir’s behavioral questions come in the engineer phone screen and the final hiring manager interview, and they test motivation, ownership and how you work with customers in unclear situations. The most common Palantir behavioral questions in 2025 reports are why do you want to work here, what about Palantir excites you, and why are you interested in this role, plus a close look at your career motivations and past projects in the hiring manager round.
A September 2025 Palo Alto candidate’s first interview with an engineer was entirely behavioral, centered on what excites them about Palantir. An October 2025 intern candidate described the final hiring manager interview as able to cover anything, usually the weakest of the previous three. Loops are on the Palantir interview experience page, and the technical rounds are on the Palantir interview questions hub.
What Palantir’s postings say it values
Palantir’s 2026 Software Engineer, New Grad posting lists three principles: Ownership (seeing projects through despite obstacles), Collaboration (with product managers, designers, forward deployed engineers and deployment strategists), and Trust (no micromanagement). The Forward Deployed Software Engineer, New Grad posting lists going where you are needed most, agency, embracing ambiguity, intrinsic motivation, and ruthless goal orientation. Deployment Strategist postings ask for people who are not satisfied with surface-level answers, low ego, and comfort with open-ended problems.
Common Palantir behavioral questions
1. Tell me about yourself
Framework: Present, past, why Palantir, in 60-90 seconds. End with the role track you want: product engineering, forward deployed, or deployment strategist.
Sample answer (adapt): “I am a senior studying computer science. Last summer I interned on a data platform team and built a pipeline that merged three inventory feeds with different schemas, which cut a weekly manual reconciliation from a day to an hour. I liked sitting with the operations team to understand why the numbers did not match. That is why I am applying to the forward deployed track.”
2. Why do you want to work at Palantir?
Sample answer: “I want to work on software that people use for high-stakes operations, and I want to be close to those users. Palantir’s model of engineers embedding with customers, described in the forward deployed posting, is the job I want. In my internship the most useful week was the one I spent with the warehouse team, and I want that to be most of the job.”
3. What about Palantir excites you?
Framework: One specific product, deployment or problem, plus a link to your own work. Avoid general statements about data or AI.
4. Why are you interested in this role?
Framework: Show you know the difference between tracks. Software engineers build Gotham, Foundry or Apollo features on product teams; forward deployed engineers build custom applications at customer sites with 25-50% travel; deployment strategists find the problem and drive deployment with 25-75% travel on the Warp Speed posting.
5. What are your career motivations?
Sample answer: “In two years I want to have owned a deployment from first customer conversation to production. I am less motivated by a title than by being trusted with a real customer problem early, which the new grad posting describes.”
6. Tell me about a project you owned end to end
STAR sample (Ownership): “Situation: Our student club’s event check-in app crashed on the first big night. Task: I volunteered to own the fix before the next event in two weeks. Action: I found the database was hit with a full table scan per scan, added an index, load-tested with 500 simulated check-ins, and wrote a runbook for the volunteers. Result: The next event checked in 420 people with no downtime, and the app is still used.”
7. Tell me about a time you made a decision with incomplete information
STAR sample (Agency): “During my internship, a customer report used two definitions of ‘active order.’ My mentor was out for a week. I picked the definition the operations team used, documented the choice at the top of the dashboard, and flagged it for review. When my mentor returned we kept it, and I had saved a week.”
8. Tell me about working with a non-technical user
STAR sample (Collaboration): Describe the user’s goal, how you learned what they actually needed (watching them work, not only asking), the version you built, and how their behavior changed. Forward deployed and deployment strategist interviewers weigh this heavily.
9. Tell me about a problem that had no clear answer
Framework (Embracing ambiguity): What made it unclear, how you reduced the uncertainty (data, prototypes, conversations), what you chose, and what you would do differently.
10. Tell me about a time you went beyond what a product or tool could do
Framework (Ruthless goal orientation): The goal, the limit you hit, the workaround or new build, and the outcome. Keep it honest about trade-offs such as maintenance cost.
11. Tell me about a time you were wrong
Framework (Low ego): Your position, the evidence that changed your mind, how quickly you changed course, and what you told the team.
12. Do you have any questions for us?
Strong questions:
- “What does a new grad’s first deployment look like on this team?”
- “How do you decide when a customer request becomes a product feature?”
- “How much of the role is at customer sites in the first year?”
Real examples to prepare before Palantir’s behavioral rounds
| Story type | Prompt | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Motivation | Why Palantir, why this role | Knowledge of the product and track |
| Ownership | A project you owned from start to finish | Seeing work through obstacles |
| Agency | A decision with incomplete information | Acting without waiting to be told |
| Customer work | Building for a non-technical user | Learning what users need |
| Low ego | A time you were wrong | Changing course quickly |
Answers that hurt in Palantir’s behavioral rounds
- Not knowing the difference between software engineer, forward deployed and deployment strategist roles
- “I want to work with big data” with no product, customer or problem named
- Ownership stories where someone else made every decision
- Avoiding travel or customer questions when applying to a forward deployed role
- Treating the hiring manager round as a formality after strong technical rounds
Sources
- Palantir: Software Engineer, New Grad posting, New York
- Palantir: Forward Deployed Software Engineer, New Grad - Commercial posting, New York
- Palantir: Deployment Strategist, New Grad - Warp Speed posting, New York
- Taro: software engineer, Palo Alto, September 2025
- Taro: software engineer intern, US, October 2025
- Taro: forward deployed software engineer, US, November 2025
- Glassdoor: Palantir interview review, New York, June 2025
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