Get a Job at Adobe: Interview Process and Top Questions

Learn how to prepare for Adobe interviews with this in-depth guide.

Adobe is well-known for its Photoshop software, but it also offers an entire suite of image editing and creative software, including Acrobat, Illustrator, Stock, Firefly generative AI, and more.

It also has a caring work culture and offers generous employee benefits. If you’re passionate about innovation and creativity, Adobe could be a great workplace for you.

Below, we summarize the Adobe interview process and the top questions you should expect to answer.

Adobe Interview Process

The interview process at Adobe is relatively standardized, but there may be some variance across teams.

The Adobe interview process typically takes about 2–4 weeks and involves:

• Recruiter phone screen,
• Hiring manager screen,
• Technical screen,
• Final round.

Recruiter phone screen

The first part of Adobe’s interview process is a 30-minute phone call with an Adobe recruiter. This is a standard recruiter call. You’ll get asked about your relevant background, your resume, and a couple of high-level behavioral questions about how you fit the role and the company.

Ask the recruiter any questions about your interview process at this stage.

Sample questions

• "Why Adobe?"
• "How many years of experience do you have in SQL (or Python or experimentation)?"

Hiring manager screen

You’ll meet with the hiring manager next. This 30- or 45-minute video call assesses soft and technical skills.

You’ll likely get a couple behavioral questions and one simple technical question to test you on the basics of your role. 

You may also get asked about one previous project. In this case, be sure to discuss a project related to the role you’re interviewing for. 

Technical screen

Adobe’s next stage in the interview process is conducted by your hiring manager. For technical positions, you’ll get a coding challenge. Adobe’s technical assessment is typically two or three data structure and algorithm questions of easy to medium difficulty. 

For non-technical positions, this stage may be incorporated into your hiring manager screen as a few technical questions related to your role and team.

Final rounds

The final round at Adobe includes 4–5 loops—several technical rounds, one behavioral, and one presentation of a take-home project, all of which are 45–60 minutes each. Adobe’s final round can be virtual or in person depending on your role and location. 

Top Adobe Interview Questions

These are examples of real interview questions asked at Adobe as reported by candidates.

Behavioral

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why do you want to work for Adobe?
• What are you looking for in your next role?
• Tell me about a past project you were particularly proud of.
• Tell us about a time when you disagreed with a member of your team.

Coding

• Given an integer array nums and an integer k, return true if nums has a subarray of at least two elements whose sum is a multiple of k.
• Given n houses in a line with money in each, find the maximum amount a robber can steal, without stealing from two adjacent houses.
• Given the root of a binary tree of integers, return the maximum path sum.
• Find the median of two sorted arrays.
• Move all zeros to the end of an array.

System design

• Design a typeahead box for a search engine.
• Design a system that manages message queues for inter-service communication.
• Design a system that converts long URLs into shorter versions.
• Design a caching system that stores data across multiple nodes to improve retrieval speed.
• Design a service where users can store and share text or code snippets.

Machine learning

• Design an image classifier.
• Explain the bias-variance tradeoff and how it affects model performance.
• What are some ways to prevent overfitting in deep learning models?
• Explain the difference between L1 and L2 regularization. When would you use one over the other?
• Explain how batch normalization improves training stability in deep learning.

Data science

• Calculate conditional probability
• Handle missing data
• Name two data types that are mutable and two that are immutable.
• Tell me about your research topics. What is the difference between your methods and classic methods?
• Create confidence intervals for a finite sampled population.

Product management 

• What are the key metrics you track for the product you currently manage?
• How would you improve Google Maps?
• How should Adobe Creative Cloud target small businesses in Singapore?
• You're a PM at Instagram responsible for building the Reels feature. How would you define and measure its success?

Adobe Interview Loops

Behavioral

The behavioral round at Adobe assesses your soft skills and cultural fit.

To show off your soft skills, prepare real stories from your previous experience, demonstrating your skills in innovation, collaboration, adapting to ambiguity, and putting the customer first. 

Get to know Adobe and its current ventures, and study Adobe’s core values and culture. Prepare more anecdotes that highlight your alignment with the culture.

Consider what excites you about Adobe and this particular team, and let that excitement shine, especially in this round.

Get to know Adobe’s core values:

• We create the future.
• We are genuine.
• We own the outcome.
• We raise the bar.

Coding

Adobe’s coding rounds assess candidates on both coding challenge questions and knowledge-based questions.

At Adobe, expect to get standard data structures and algorithms questions, as well as full-stack coding questions.

You’ll likely get at least one practical question, too, so study Adobe’s products before your interview to speak to specifics. 

Read up on Adobe’s engineering teams and learn how the actual team you’re interviewing for works.

Show your interest by referencing products, tech stacks, or processes your desired team uses.

Common coding topics:

• String manipulations
• Dynamic programming
• SQL 
• React
• HTML and CSS
• JavaScript
• C++

System design

The Adobe system design round is a standard system design interview but prepare for a full-stack design question.

Remember, Adobe highly values innovation and creativity, so this is an important interview round at Adobe. 

Talk out loud through your interview because this round is about the interviewer understanding your thought process and decision-making just as much as it’s about your finished design. Ask clarifying questions before you start and leave time after your design so the interviewer can ask follow-up questions.

Study up on Adobe’s products beforehand. Look into Adobe’s current ventures on Adobe’s news page to predict what you might get asked. 

Machine learning

Adobe’s machine learning round is a technical take-home project that you then present to a panel of interviewers.

Expect a practical question that tests your knowledge of ML concepts in a real-world way specific to the team you’re interviewing with. For example, you might get a problem that asks you to design an image classifier or to solve problems related to statistical modeling. 

Data science

The typical data science final round at Adobe includes a sensitivity analysis and a case study presentation. Data scientists also get a coding loop similar to the technical screen, focused on SQL. 

For the sensitivity analysis portion, you’ll get a model and be asked to develop different scenarios, such as best-case, low-case, and moderate-case. You’ll need to try multiple variables to decide how the outcome will change. 

For the case presentation (the most crucial part of your DS interview), you’ll present a take-home project to a panel of interviewers, where you’ll be assessed on business, functional, and behavioral aspects.

The prompt is usually a broad problem: “You are part of this pricing team. You’re tasked with understanding the patterns in our customer purchase behavior. Your task is to build a pricing model, test it, and make a recommendation.”

Be sure to leave about 20 minutes at the end of the interview after you present for follow-up questions from your panel.

Product management

The product management final round at Adobe includes interviews with PMs who are all stakeholders for the role you applied for.

Study up on product design and analytical questions. Expect to also get asked at least one real-life product question your team faced.

Do your research into the product the team works on; hypothesize issues they could encounter to prepare. Adobe PM is highly data-driven, so incorporate how you’d use data to make decisions into your responses.

Adobe wants PMs with a high-level understanding of the architecture they work with so they can collaborate with engineers and data scientists. Refresh your technical knowledge before your interview, and mention how you’ve worked with engineers in past roles.

Get to know all of Adobe’s products, particularly products aside from Photoshop to show your breadth of knowledge beyond the most popular. Research Adobe’s current ventures on Adobe’s news page to predict what you might get asked. 

Adobe Interview Tips

Adobe values innovation. 

Adobe looks for new employees who match the company's values and have an innovative mindset.

Two of its core values demonstrate this: “We create the future” and “We raise the bar.” Adobe’s main product is about creativity, so project the values of innovation and creativity throughout your interview loop.

Prepare examples of ways you innovated a process or product in a past role that you can work into your conversational interviews.

Adobe offers attractive employee benefits. 

Adobe offers its employees a generous time-off allowance (2 weeks off on top of your vacation time to help you cool down), employee stock purchase programs with shares at 15% below market value, and an extensive continuous learning budget.

Know Adobe inside and out.

• Get to know all of Adobe’s products.
• Read up on current ventures and updates on Adobe’s news page.
• Check out Adobe’s blog.
• Look into Adobe’s teams.
• Learn about top clients on Adobe’s Customer stories page.
• Understand Adobe’s core values on Adobe's values & culture page.

FAQs

How competitive are Adobe interviews?

Adobe interviews are competitive, but to get an offer at Adobe, you have to be better than the average employee in your current role.

This is much less competitive than Amazon.

How should I prepare for my interview at Adobe? 

• Study interview questions asked at Adobe.
• Refresh your knowledge of coding questions for the online assessment.
• Create a story bank of behavioral question answers that align with Adobe's values and culture.
• Take an Exponent interview course in your domain: ML engineering, data science, SWE, system design, or PM. 
• Book a mock interview to practice your answers to commonly asked questions.

Does Adobe hire students or new grads? 

Yes, Adobe offers multiple programs for students and grads early in their careers. Adobe has programs and internships for undergrad and MBA students. Adobe also offers early career positions to new graduates. 

More Adobe Interview Prep Resources

Exponent has extensive resources to prepare you to feel your best when it comes time for your interview at Adobe:

💬 Brush up on interview questions asked at Adobe

📖 Read through these role-specific Adobe interview guides