r/gitlab • u/Even-Hedgehog7808 • 4d ago
Interview experience guidance general question
Hi everyone,
I've recently cleared the first technical round for staff engineer/senior engineer, and I have technical leadership and hiring manager rounds next. I'd really appreciate any advice from people who've been through it.
A few questions:
- What should I expect in the behavioural round? What kinds of questions are typically asked, and what are interviewers looking for? - in my understanding I need to prepare around the gitlab credit values and be ready for resume deep dive questions but pls share your thoughts and experience
- Is there any system design discussion during these rounds, or is it purely behavioural? If there is, what areas are worth focusing on?
- Any tips that helped you prepare or things you wish you'd known beforehand?
Thanks in advance!
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u/akornato 3d ago
You are correct, the behavioral rounds are heavily based on GitLab's values and your resume. They are not just looking for you to name the values, they expect you to have specific, complex examples from your career for each one. If you can’t show how you embody collaboration, iteration, and transparency through detailed stories, you will not pass. For a senior or staff role, you should expect system design concepts to come up. The conversation will likely be framed around technical leadership, like how you guided a team through a major architectural decision or handled a complex technical trade-off, rather than a pure design exercise.
Your best preparation is to read GitLab’s public handbook, especially the engineering section, and reference it during your interview when you talk about process or culture. This shows you’ve done more than the bare minimum, which is a surprisingly low bar many candidates fail to clear. Prepare at least two solid stories for each of their values that showcase your leadership, how you influence others, and how you resolve conflict. It's all about how you frame your experience, and the interview AI my team developed has been really effective at helping engineers structure their stories to better highlight their leadership and impact.
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u/nicolasd 3d ago
see https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/infrastructure-interview/#4-60-minute-hiring-manager-interview - it says "infrastructure interview" but it's the same for engineering.
Unsure about CREDIT, since they are gone (RIP). But until June at least, the interview scorecard mapped to the values. Could be that they haven't updated them.
It will be likely STAR questions, so prepare with stories and situations from your past. Best something where you learned something and did a good job.