Module 1What interviews assessBoth kinds of role

What FDE interviews assess

What employers publish and what candidates report, how to read a report and how level shows up in it, what hiring leaders say they look for, the double bar, and the AI rules by company and stage.

4 lessons
48 min
Free: 1.1
4 of 4 live
Both kinds of role

By the end of this module you can

Separate what an employer publishes from what one candidate reported
Say what hiring leaders say they look for, in their words
Prepare for both bars: technical depth and trust in front of a customer
State each target company’s AI rule for each stage, or ask for it in writing

What employers publish about their loops

Palantir publishedPalantir’s Getting Hired page says everyone starts with one or two phone interviews and, if there is a fit, moves to an onsite round, in person or virtual. Source 1Getting Hired - Palantir CareersPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page
OpenAI publishedOpenAI’s interview guide says that in engineering interviews it looks for well-designed solutions, high-quality code, optimal performance and good test coverage, and that it evaluates communication and collaboration. Source 2Interview Guide | OpenAIPublisherOpenAISource typecompany hiring pageSource 3OpenAI interview guide (Wayback Machine capture)PublisherOpenAI (archived by Internet Archive)Source typearchived company page
Baseten publishedBaseten’s FDE lead writes that every FDE candidate must pass its standard technical bar and, in parallel, a screen for product intuition and interest in working with customers. Source 4Forward deployed engineering on the frontier of AIPublisherBasetenSource typecompany blog
Sierra publishedIn an April 2026 blog post, Sierra says it replaced coding and algorithm interviews in its engineering process with an onsite in three parts: plan, build and review. Source 5The AI-native interview (Vijay Iyengar, Arya Asemanfar, Angie Wang)PublisherSierraSource typecompany blog

No employer publishes a pass rate or a round weight.

Start here

Free lesson, 1.1 LiveThe evidence map: what employers publish, what candidates report, how to read both14 min read
Free questionWhat level do you think you are, and why?
Free questionPick one project from your résumé and take me through it in depth: the problem, your design, what broke and what you would change.
Free questionTell me about a project you owned from the first customer conversation to production. Which decisions were yours alone?

The lessons

4 lessons, 48 min of reading. 4 of 4 live today.

1.1The evidence map: what employers publish, what candidates report, how to read both14 minFreeLive

For any target company, you can separate what it publishes, what candidates report (who, when, which role) and what is unknown, and turn that into a practice list.

What it covers

Three kinds of evidence
Company-wide processes that include FDE hiring
How to read a candidate report: who, when, which role
The round types candidates report
How level shows up in reported loops
What no employer publishes
Turning the map into a practice list

Key takeaways

Sort everything you read about a loop into published, reported and unknown; a company-wide page still gives you formats, tools and a warning that loops vary.
A candidate report is one dated account: check whether the round had happened, when it was, which role the poster named, and who is writing.
Prepare round types, not a fixed sequence: reports from one company describe different mixes.
Level can change inside the loop, so prepare your level answer and your reply to a lower offer before the first round.
Anything unknown becomes a question for the recruiter, and the recruiter’s answer about your own loop goes at the top of the map.

Practice

1 more planned.

Do this now

Write the loop block for your target, then answer out loud: what level do you think you are, and why?

1.2What hiring leaders say they look for12 minProLive

You can list the traits hiring leaders name, company by company, and map each to a round where you can show it.

What it covers

Who is speaking, and in what capacity
Drive, ownership and pursuit of value
Engineering fundamentals first
Customer empathy with a spine
Communication with non-engineers
Red flags leaders name
Mapping traits to rounds

Key takeaways

Leaders name traits, not rubrics: drive and ownership, fundamentals, customer empathy with a spine, and clear communication.
Weigh each statement by who said it, where, whether it is about FDE hiring, and when; a former employee describes past practice.
Bring counter-evidence for the red flags leaders name: something you threw away, and a process you changed for a customer.
Map each trait to the round where it shows, and prepare one story for each.

Practice

3 more planned.

Do this now

Answer ‘Tell me about a time you threw away your own work’, naming the evidence that made you stop

1.3The double bar: technical enough, and trusted in front of a customer11 minProLive

You can say which side of the double bar you are weaker on, with evidence from one scored case run and one timed question.

What it covers

Two bars, passed together
Failing on the technical side
Failing on the customer side
Why strong communicators still get rejected
A one-evening self-diagnosis
Building a plan around your weaker side

Key takeaways

Two bars are cleared together, an engineering bar and a customer bar, and a bar is pass or fail, not a ranking.
Our reading of two candidate reports: a fluent answer that names no key, interface, number or test can read as ‘not technical enough’.
Measure both sides in the first week of prep before you choose where to spend time.
A timed attempt beats a self-assessment.

Practice

4 more planned.

Do this now

Run the building permits case in full, then read your technical concreteness score

1.4AI assistance rules, by company and by stage11 minProLive

You can state the published AI rule for each of your target companies at each stage, or say plainly that none is published and what you will ask.

What it covers

Why this matters in the room
Rules that forbid AI in live rounds
Rules that allow or expect it
Rules that change by stage
What candidates report about individual rounds
The question to ask your recruiter

Key takeaways

Rules vary by company and by stage, from not permitted to expected.
Several rules are company-wide rather than FDE-specific; they still apply to you.
Some rules changed recently, so check the page before each loop.
When no rule is published, ask the recruiter in writing.

Practice

3 more planned.

Do this now

Extend unfamiliar code with an assistant and explain every change it made

Preview a Pro lesson

Lesson 1.212 minProLive

What hiring leaders say they look for

You can list the traits hiring leaders name, company by company, and map each to a round where you can show it.

What it covers:

Who is speaking, and in what capacity
Drive, ownership and pursuit of value
Engineering fundamentals first
Customer empathy with a spine
Communication with non-engineers
Red flags leaders name
Mapping traits to rounds

The evidence map sorted what employers publish, what candidates report and what nobody knows; this lesson reads the fourth source it named, the leaders who hire FDEs, who talk about people rather than rounds. The bridge story used their remarks on motivation; this lesson takes the ones on what they hire for.

By the end you will be able to name the traits leaders have put on the record, company by company, weigh who said each, and pick the round and the story where you will show it. They come from AI companies (OpenAI, Baseten, Cognition and Sierra) and from enterprise and fintech ones (Palantir, Salesforce and Ramp).

Who is speaking, and in what capacity

You will weigh any statement about hiring with four checks. Does the speaker work there now? Is it the company’s own channel? Is it about hiring, or all hiring? And when was it said? A former employee describes past practice; a company-wide post describes every engineer’s loop.

Ramp’s engineering blog names four axes for evaluating FDE candidates: drive and work ethic, engineering fundamentals, customer empathy and great communication. Source 1Forward Deployed EngineeringPublisherRamp Builders (engineering blog)Source typecompany blog That is a company on its own FDE hiring, the strongest kind. Tiffany Siu, a former Palantir recruiter, told First Round Review in February 2026 that Palantir’s early FDEs “had to pass the same interview loops and facets as software engineers.” Source 2So You Want to Hire a Forward Deployed EngineerPublisherFirst Round ReviewSource typenews report That is early Palantir, not today’s loop. In a May 2025 episode of Lenny’s Podcast, YouTube edition, Nabeel Qureshi, who spent nearly eight years as a Palantir FDE, said one type of FDE got a technical interview that was “more about just like can you reason about data?” Source 3How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (YouTube uploaded en-US captions)PublisherLenny's Podcast, YouTubeSource typerecorded talk or interview That is past practice for one kind of FDE. Sierra’s April 2026 post is the company’s own and recent, but it covers its engineering interviews in general, not an FDE loop, and says its earlier interviews produced signal mostly about mechanics. Source 4The AI-native interview (Vijay Iyengar, Arya Asemanfar, Angie Wang)PublisherSierraSource typecompany blog Read it as how Sierra hires every engineer.

The weight decides what you do with a statement. A company’s own words on its own channel you may quote back to that company’s interviewer, with the source: “Your engineering blog puts customer empathy next to fundamentals.” A former employee’s remark, or a company-wide post, only tells you which story to prepare; never repeat it as what this panel wants.

No leader in our research gives a scoring rubric, a pass rate or a list of red flags meant as policy; Ramp’s four axes are the closest thing to published criteria. Source 1Forward Deployed EngineeringPublisherRamp Builders (engineering blog)Source typecompany blog The rest of this lesson takes the traits one at a time.

Practice for this module

Cases

Building permits take monthsFree

Questions

Client scenarios

6 planned

Coding drills

3 planned

Take-homes

1 planned

Onsite this week?

Do these first. Each is live and free.

The evidence behind this module

The plan for this module cites 81 claims: 52 from employers' own pages and postings, 20 candidate reports, 8 press reports and 1 from prep sites, labeled as such. How we source what we say.

What Pro adds to this module today

3 of 3 Pro lessons live, and the rest as they ship.
Model answers to 9 questions this module practices Pro

See Pro and pricing

Questions about Module 1

Is Module 1 free?

The first lesson, 1.1, is free to read. The other 3 lessons are in Pro.

How long is Module 1?

4 lessons, 48 minutes of reading in all, plus the practice each lesson ends with.

Is Module 1 written yet?

Yes. All 4 lessons are live.

Which kinds of FDE role is it for?

Both: roles at AI labs and AI product companies, and roles at enterprise software and data companies.

Sources

Getting Hired - Palantir Careers Palantir Technologies, company hiring page
Interview Guide | OpenAI OpenAI, company hiring page
OpenAI interview guide (Wayback Machine capture) OpenAI (archived by Internet Archive), archived company page
Forward deployed engineering on the frontier of AI Baseten, company blog
The AI-native interview (Vijay Iyengar, Arya Asemanfar, Angie Wang) Sierra, company blog