Uber Data Engineer Interview Questions and Guide (2026)

Strong L5 candidate, ex-Stripe, walks into Uber's SQL round and blanks on a LAG over partitioned trip data. Three minutes of dead air. The interviewer asked it a second way and he still could not land the window frame. Offer came back an L4 downlevel. $80K gone over one function he had never practiced under a clock.

Uber DE Interview FAQ

How SQL-heavy is the Uber DE interview?+

Very. SQL is Uber's primary filter for data engineers. You will face SQL in the phone screen (2 to 3 problems) and a dedicated onsite SQL deep dive (3 problems, 60 minutes). The system design round may also involve SQL for the serving layer. In total, you will write more SQL in an Uber DE loop than at almost any other company. The problems are set in Uber's domain (trips, drivers, riders, surge, geospatial data) and emphasize window functions, time-based aggregations, and query optimization.

Does Uber ask about Kafka and streaming in every DE interview?+

Not every round, but the system design round almost always involves a real-time component. Uber's data infrastructure is built around Kafka and Flink, so familiarity with streaming concepts (event ordering, exactly-once delivery, consumer groups, windowing) is expected for senior roles. If you have never worked with streaming, study the fundamentals before the interview. You do not need production Kafka experience, but you should be able to discuss streaming architecture at a conceptual level.

What level does Uber hire data engineers at?+

Uber hires DEs from IC3 (entry level, 1 to 3 years) through IC6 (staff, 10+ years). Most external hires come in at IC4 (mid-level, 3 to 6 years) or IC5 (senior, 6 to 10 years). IC5+ candidates always have a system design round. IC3 candidates may have an extra coding round instead. The level determines your compensation band and the scope of projects you will own.

02 / Why practice

Your SQL Has to Be Muscle Memory By Then

01
Active recall beats re-reading by 50%
Cognitive-science meta-reviews (Dunlosky et al., 2013) rank practice testing as a top-tier study technique, while re-reading and highlighting rank near the bottom
02
76% of hiring managers reject on the coding task, not the resume
From HackerRank's 2024 Developer Skills Report. Candidates who look strong on paper still fail the live screen if they haven't done timed, executable practice
03
Five problem shapes cover 80% of data engineer loops
Dedup, sessionization, top-N-per-group, slowly-changing dimensions, partition tricks. Writing the shapes by hand turns the unfamiliar into pattern recognition

Start Practicing

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