In this post12 sections
- The short answer: no public rubric exists
- What Palantir publishes about open-ended questions
- What former employees and candidates describe
- What prep sites say interviewers score, and what that rests on
- The pass-rate figure no one can source
- Our checklist, and why it is built this way
- Using the checklist on a practice prompt
- Score your own practice run (our scale, not an interviewer’s)
- Practice against someone who answers back
- Questions people ask
- Keep reading
- More from the blog
You have a on the calendar and you want the scoring sheet: the list the interviewer ticks, so you can practice against it instead of guessing. There isn’t a public one. This post belongs to our decomposition interview guide, and it answers the narrower question you searched: is there a rubric, and if not, what can you prepare against?
The short answer: no public rubric exists
No employer in our research publishes a decomposition interview rubric, a pass rate for the round or a weight for it. What does exist is thinner, but more useful than it looks:
- Palantir publishes the behaviors it wants when you face an open-ended problem, in its own words.
- A Blind user who says they used to work at Palantir describes what a bad performance looks like, which is a rubric turned inside out.
- Prep sites publish lists of what interviewers score. They cite no employer rubric behind them.
- A pass-rate figure circulates between prep pages, and none of them shows data behind it.
So the honest plan: turn the published behaviors into a checklist you own, and practice until each item shows up in what you say out loud.
| What you wanted | What exists |
|---|---|
| The interviewer’s scoring sheet | Nothing published |
| Numbers on how the round is scored | Prep-site tables with no data |
| What the employer wants to see | Palantir’s published advice |
| What a bad round looks like | One Blind post by a self-described former employee |
What Palantir publishes about open-ended questions
Palantir’s careers site states that open-ended technical questions are a key part of its interview process. Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page It has a page called “Navigating Open-Ended Questions”, and it defines that competency as the ability to tackle open-ended technical challenges that have multiple possible solutions with different trade-offs. Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page
The page’s only interview-specific advice fits in two sentences: “When discussing an open-ended problem in an interview, articulate the alternatives and trade-offs, but don’t forget to be pragmatic enough to be able to arrive at some concrete approach. Deliver a functioning idea first, then expand it afterwards.” Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page It also says why: urgent real-world problems need solutions that work before there is time to make them perfect. Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page
The rest of what Palantir publishes points the same way:
- Talk and ask. Palantir’s “Getting Hired” page tells onsite candidates to talk through how they plan to approach analytical and technical problems, and to ask questions if necessary. Source 2Palantir Careers | Getting HiredPublisherPalantirSource typecompany hiring page
- Think out loud. An August 2022 post on Palantir’s blog, written by recruiting interns with advice from its Early Talent Recruiting Team for intern and new-grad candidates, advises sharing questions and observations so interviewers can see how you approach the problem. Source 3From Pipeline to Prospect: Insights and Advice from Palantir Recruitment (Palantir Blog; archived copy)PublisherPalantir Technologies (Palantir Blog on Medium)Source typearchived company page
- Work with the interviewer. A quoted on Palantir’s blog, in September 2020, described their interviews as interactive “how would you approach this problem?” sessions worked through with the interviewers. Source 4Interviewing at Palantir: Advice from Palantirians (Palantir Blog; archived copy)PublisherPalantir Technologies (Palantir Blog on Medium)Source typearchived company page
- The path counts. In a July 2025 Palantir video aimed at software engineers, not FDEs, a Foundry hiring manager said showing how you think through problems is as important as reaching a good final outcome. Source 5From Code to Career: Meet Palantir's Hiring Managers (YouTube uploaded English captions)PublisherPalantir, YouTubeSource typerecorded talk or interview
- Both kinds of reasoning. First Round Review reported, in February 2026, that Palantir’s former recruiting lead said many of its FDE questions were high-level problem solving rather than Google-style coding tests, and aimed to assess both business reasoning and technical reasoning. Source 6So You Want to Hire a Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherFirst Round ReviewSource typenews report
None of this is a scoring sheet: no levels, no points, no pass line. But it names behaviors you can rehearse, turned below into words you can say.
| Published line | What it sounds like |
|---|---|
| Ask questions if necessary | “Before I design anything, who is waiting on this?” |
| Alternatives and trade-offs | “Two ways in: X or Y. Y costs less to test.” |
| A concrete approach | “I’m going with Y. Here’s why.” |
| A functioning idea first | “The first version is one report, for one person.” |
| Then expand it | “Once they use it, the next version adds...” |
What former employees and candidates describe
Reports are weaker evidence than a published page: each is one person’s account. They still show the round from the other side of the table.
The clearest description is of failure. A Blind user with a Palantir tag, who says they formerly worked there, wrote in March 2025 that a bad decomp performance looks like this: not asking questions, making large assumptions without clarifying with the interviewer, misunderstanding the problem before jumping in, giving impractical solutions, and not expanding on or optimizing the original v0 solution. Source 7Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 8Update: interview experience - Palantir new grad FDSE interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind In July 2022, a different poster on Blind, who had sat a Palantir interview, wrote that “clarifying the question and data schema/source is super important.” Source 7Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 8Update: interview experience - Palantir new grad FDSE interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind
Flip that list and you have the behaviors of a good round. Notice how closely it matches Palantir’s published advice: ask first, stay practical, build a v0, then grow it.
The round shows up across roles. Three Blind posters mention a decomposition round at Palantir: one before an FDSE loop in March 2025, one before a software engineer loop in London in November 2022, and one candidate who had just finished it in September 2021. Source 7Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 9Palantir Interview London HELP !!! (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 10Palantir Deployment Strategist Interview Prep (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind Outside Palantir, one candidate reported on Aced, in August 2026, that the decomposition round was the most important in their entry-level (L3) Databricks Forward Deployed Engineer loop, and that they “had to treat the interviewer almost like a client and clarify stakeholder, scope, and KPI before touching architecture.” Source 11Databricks Forward Deployed Engineer Interview ExperiencePublisherAced (formerly Exponent)Source typecandidate’s personal write-up That is one report, so treat it as one person’s experience, not Databricks’s process.
The prompts vary. Three Blind commenters, none of whom named their role, described Palantir open-ended questions in early 2025: one that started from a random feature and asked which features were P0, then moved through data models, KPIs and what to present to executives; a hypothetical that one said was similar to the question they got, about helping a cousin who delivers for Uber Eats choose orders; and one about an application to log species on a different planet, which the commenter said they “completely bombed”. Source 12Palantir FDSE InterviewPublisherBlind (teamblind.com)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 13Palantir FDSE Decomp/System Design InterviewPublisherBlind (teamblind.com)Source typecandidate report on Blind The prompts differ. Our bet, and the reason for the checklist below, is that the same few behaviors carry across all of them.
What prep sites say interviewers score, and what that rests on
One prep site, Aced (formerly Exponent), lists in its FDE guide what it says interviewers score: clarifying before solving; identifying missing data, stakeholders and success metrics; decomposing and sequencing by risk and value; a thin walking-skeleton MVP; surfacing failure modes; and continuous communication. Source 14Forward Deployed Engineer Interview: The Definitive 2026 Guide (FDE)PublisherAced (formerly Exponent)Source typeinterview prep site The prep site cites no employer rubric for that list. Source 14Forward Deployed Engineer Interview: The Definitive 2026 Guide (FDE)PublisherAced (formerly Exponent)Source typeinterview prep site
It is a sensible practice list, and much of it lines up with Palantir’s published advice. But no employer wrote it, and nothing in it says how any company weighs one item against another.
Here is a quick test for any “what interviewers score” page:
- Does it link to the employer’s own page? If it does, read that page and use its words.
- Does it say who wrote the scoring list? “Interviewers look for” with no source is the site’s opinion.
- Does it give numbers: points, weights, a pass line? If no employer publishes them, someone made them up.
The free lesson on the evidence map turns this into a habit: sort every claim about a loop into what the employer publishes, what candidates report and what a prep site says.
The pass-rate figure no one can source
You may also meet a pass-rate figure for this round that no employer published. The earliest version our research found is a table on the prep site explainx.ai, dated May 2026, which credits its figures only to “candidates who’ve interviewed at top companies” and shows no underlying data. Source 15Forward Deployed Engineer Preparation Guide: Complete Interview & Career Path Roadmap 2026Publisherexplainx.aiSource typeinterview prep site Prep and blog posts on Perspective AI, dev.to and the AI Engineering Insider Substack repeated the same pair of figures in June and July 2026: Perspective AI gave no source, dev.to cited Exponent and DataInterview, and the Substack cited Perspective AI. Source 16Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Questions: A 2026 Prep GuidePublisherPerspective AISource typeinterview prep siteSource 17Forward Deployed Engineer interview questions (2026): every round, with real examplesPublisherDEV CommunitySource typeinterview prep siteSource 18Cracking the Forward Deployed AI Engineer InterviewPublisherAI Engineering Insider (Substack)Source typeinterview prep site None of the pages we traced shows the data behind the figures, so this post does not repeat them. What no one publishes about FDE pass rates has the full trace.
Our checklist, and why it is built this way
With no public rubric, you need your own. This is ours, not what interviewers score. We built it so each published behavior shows up in words an interviewer can hear, and added a few items that make those behaviors easier to show.
Our decomposition checklist
- Ask what the problem costs. Before proposing anything, ask what “better” means, for whom, and by when.
- Find the decider, the user and the number. Who signs off, who opens the thing every day, and which number moves if it works.
- Look at the inputs before trusting them. What data exists, who owns it, how fresh it is, and what is wrong with it.
- Say two ways in, and pick one. Name the option you rejected and why.
- Build a functioning first version. The thinnest thing one real user could use soon.
- Say what comes next. What the next version adds, and what would trigger it.
- Say how it could mislead. How the first version could give its user a wrong answer, and how you would find out in week one.
- Narrate the handoffs. Say which step you are on, and move between steps in one sentence.
Here is where each item comes from, so you know which ones stand on an employer’s words and which are our additions.
| Checklist item | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Ask what it costs | Palantir: ask questions Source 2Palantir Careers | Getting HiredPublisherPalantirSource typecompany hiring page |
| Decider, user, number | Ours; one candidate’s Databricks report Source 11Databricks Forward Deployed Engineer Interview ExperiencePublisherAced (formerly Exponent)Source typecandidate’s personal write-up |
| Look at the inputs | Ours; one Blind poster on data schema Source 7Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 8Update: interview experience - Palantir new grad FDSE interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind |
| Two ways in, pick one | Palantir: trade-offs, concrete approach Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page |
| First version | Palantir: functioning idea first Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page |
| What comes next | Palantir: then expand Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page |
| How it could mislead | Ours; Palantir: work before perfect Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page |
| Narrate the handoffs | Palantir: think out loud Source 3From Pipeline to Prospect: Insights and Advice from Palantir Recruitment (Palantir Blog; archived copy)PublisherPalantir Technologies (Palantir Blog on Medium)Source typearchived company page |
Several items also appear on the prep-site list above. We include them because they follow from Palantir’s advice, not because a prep site says interviewers score them.
Why this shape? “Deliver a functioning idea first” is easy to agree with and easy to forget when you are nervous. “The first version is one report, for one person” is a sentence you can practice until it comes out on its own.
The free lesson the open-ended round and the method on one page runs the whole method on a worked case. The Pro lessons on clarifying before you solve and the walking skeleton go deep on asking first and on building the first version.
Using the checklist on a practice prompt
Take the factory downtime question: a manufacturer says unplanned downtime is killing its margins, and it has sensor data nobody uses. The tempting answer is a model on the sensor data; the checklist stops you taking it.
The weak opening. “I’d build a predictive maintenance model on the sensor data. Let me sketch the pipeline.” That skips the first three items at once. It is also the shape of the bad performance described on Blind: a large assumption, made before clarifying.
The checklist opening, in words you could say:
“Before the sensors: which line loses the most margin to unplanned stops, and is that from frequent stops or long repairs? Sensors mostly attack the first. If it’s long repairs, spares and technician response time usually matter more.”
“The plant manager owns the margin target. The maintenance planner is my user, because an alert only helps if it becomes a scheduled job. The controls engineer owns the plant network, so I’d read from the historian, not the machines.”
“Inputs: historian tags, downtime events and work orders. My first question is whether tags map to physical assets. ‘Nobody uses it’ often means that map is missing.”
“Two ways in: a model across the plant, or one rule on one line. I’d start with the rule. We don’t yet know whether the work orders record failures well enough to label them, and a rule is something the planner can argue with.”
“The first version is a morning report for the planner: assets on one line whose readings crossed a threshold, with their recent work orders.”
“Once the planner acts on it, the next version adds a second failure mode, or a model once we have enough labels to test it.”
“It fails if the threshold fires just as often on healthy machines as it does before a breakdown. I’d replay last year’s readings against the work orders to check, before the planner sees a single alert.”
Each quote maps to one item, in order. Then run the same checklist on the city bus reliability question, where the data is unknown, and on the fitness-app feature question, where you get a table and must scope to something you could ship.
Mistakes the checklist catches
- Solving the stated ask. The customer names a tool; you build it. Fix: ask what the tool is for before you agree to it.
- Endless clarifying. You ask questions until time runs out. Fix: after a few answers, say your assumption out loud and commit.
Score your own practice run (our scale, not an interviewer’s)
To grade a practice run, you need to hear the difference between missing an item and nailing it. Here is our scale, drawn from the factory example; no employer publishes one.
| Missing sounds like | Strong sounds like |
|---|---|
| Cost: “I’d build a model on the sensors.” | “Which line loses the most margin, and is it frequent stops or long repairs?” |
| People: “The business wants less downtime.” | “The planner is my user; the plant manager owns the target.” |
| Inputs: “We’ll use the sensor data.” | “Do the tags map to physical assets?” |
| Two ways in: One plan, no alternative. | “Plant-wide model or one rule on one line. I’d start with the rule.” |
| First version: “Phase one is the data platform.” | “A morning report for one planner on one line.” |
| Next: Silence after v0. | “Once the planner acts on it, we add a second failure mode.” |
| Mislead: “Then we deploy it.” | “I’d replay last year’s readings against the work orders first.” |
| Narrate: Long silences, then a finished diagram. | “That’s the user settled. Now the data.” |
After each practice run, mark every item missing, partial or strong, and work on your weakest items first.
For the full set of mistakes, with how to recover mid-round, read decomposition interview mistakes that sink strong engineers. To watch the whole checklist run on a reported Palantir prompt, read the Palantir decomposition interview example.
Practice against someone who answers back
A checklist on paper does not tell you whether you say it under pressure, to a customer who answers only what you ask. The free practice case puts you in front of an AI customer with a vague problem on a 10-minute clock, free once you sign in, and scores what you said. Run it once with the checklist beside you, then once without, and see which items drop out. When you want the Pro lessons behind each item and the model answers to the Pro questions, Pro has them. Pro starts with a 7-day free trial.
Questions people ask
Does Palantir publish a decomposition interview rubric?
No. Palantir publishes a guide to what it calls Navigating Open-Ended Questions, which defines the competency and advises articulating alternatives and trade-offs, arriving at a concrete approach and delivering a functioning idea first. It does not publish a scoring sheet.Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page
What do decomposition interviewers look for?
No employer publishes a scoring sheet, but Palantir says what it wants to see. It tells onsite candidates to talk through how they plan to approach a problem and to ask questions if necessary, and advises delivering a functioning idea first, then expanding it.Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring pageSource 2Palantir Careers | Getting HiredPublisherPalantirSource typecompany hiring page
Do prep sites show that the decomposition round is the hardest?
No. No employer publishes a pass rate or a round weight, and the figures prep sites repeat come with no underlying data.Source 15Forward Deployed Engineer Preparation Guide: Complete Interview & Career Path Roadmap 2026Publisherexplainx.aiSource typeinterview prep siteSource 16Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Questions: A 2026 Prep GuidePublisherPerspective AISource typeinterview prep siteSource 17Forward Deployed Engineer interview questions (2026): every round, with real examplesPublisherDEV CommunitySource typeinterview prep siteSource 18Cracking the Forward Deployed AI Engineer InterviewPublisherAI Engineering Insider (Substack)Source typeinterview prep site
Keep reading
Company guides
Lessons
Questions
- Here is a table of events from a fitness app. Pick one feature to build from it and scope it to something you could ship in two weeks.
- A city transit agency says its buses are unreliable and riders are leaving. You have a week with their team. How do you approach it?
- A manufacturer says unplanned downtime is killing its margins. They have sensor data nobody uses. What do you do?
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