Decomposition round

A decomposition round is an open-ended interview in which you are given a vague problem that has more than one reasonable solution, and you work out loud toward a concrete approach and a first version that works. Palantir calls the competency “Navigating Open-Ended Questions”, says open-ended technical questions are a key part of its process, and defines them as challenges with multiple possible solutions that incur different trade-offs. ^[1]Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page Three posters on Blind, writing between September 2021 and March 2025, mention a decomposition round at Palantir, for FDSE, Software Engineer (London) and Deployment Strategist roles; two of them wrote before their interviews. ^{[2, 3, 4]}Source 2Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 3Palantir Interview London HELP !!! (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 4Palantir Deployment Strategist Interview Prep (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind

Why it matters in interviews

The only interview-specific advice on Palantir’s “Navigating Open-Ended Questions” page is to articulate the alternatives and trade-offs, be pragmatic enough to arrive at a concrete approach, and deliver a functioning idea first, then expand it. ^[1]Source 1Palantir Careers | Navigating Open-Ended QuestionsPublisherPalantir TechnologiesSource typecompany hiring page Reports differ on what the round feels like: one Blind poster called it “basically system design” in January 2023, and another, whose interview was still ahead, wrote in March 2025 that they had read it is “high level and less technical than traditional system design”. ^{[2, 5, 6]}Source 2Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 5Palantir Decomposition Question (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 6Update: interview experience - Palantir new grad FDSE interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind One candidate reported, in March 2025, that their Palantir FDSE decomposition interview moved from designing a system where users share interests to implementing search(user_id, users), so be ready to write a schema and a function, not only boxes. ^[7]Source 7Palantir FDSE Interview Experience (REJECTION~) (post by u/bosslee21)PublisherReddit r/csMajorsSource typecandidate report on Reddit

One poster on Blind who says they formerly worked at Palantir wrote, in March 2025, that a bad decomp performance means not asking questions, making large assumptions without clarifying with the interviewer, giving impractical solutions and not expanding on or optimizing the original v0 solution. ^{[2, 6]}Source 2Palantir FDSE Interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on BlindSource 6Update: interview experience - Palantir new grad FDSE interview (Blind)PublisherBlind (Teamblind)Source typecandidate report on Blind When the interviewer answers a question with “What do you think?”, don’t ask again: state an assumption, write it down where they can see it, and move on. Too few questions is on that poster’s list; asking for so long that nothing gets built misses Palantir’s own advice to deliver a functioning idea first. Our decomposition method is our scaffold for thinking aloud through the round, not an employer’s rubric.

The lesson The open-ended round and the method on one page walks through the method in order.

Where it comes up

• 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 regional food bank says donated food spoils before it reaches families. Decompose the problem.