Oracle Software Engineer Interview Guide
Updated by Oracle candidates
This guide was written with the help of software engineering interviewers at Oracle.
tl;dr
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrote: "Life's a journey. It's a journey about discovering limits." As one of the world’s largest companies in their space, Oracle’s software engineers push the limits of cloud and database technologies.
When you apply for a role at Oracle, the interview loops are team-dependent, so there’s variance among each team’s process. However, what remains true throughout each process is that Oracle tends to prefer software engineers with experience in at least some of the following:
- Distributed systems
- Scalability
- Cloud services
Unlike companies like Amazon, which cover many different verticals, Oracle sticks to what they know best: big, reliable enterprise databases. Oracle looks for candidates who can help them build, grow, and digitize these massive database- and storage-related products.
What does an Oracle Software Engineer do?
An advantage of being an Oracle Software Engineer is the ability to specialize. Unlike smaller companies, where generalists are all the rage, Oracle’s scale means engineers can dig into a unique business area’s software needs. Software engineers might be hired to manage databases, create cloud solutions, or improve enterprise apps, middleware, or AI. Other software engineering roles will focus on security, data, or support.
The average total compensation across software engineering levels at Oracle are:
- (Entry-level) Software Engineer (IC-1): $156k
- Software Engineer (IC-2): $195k
- Senior Software Engineer (IC-3): $210k
- Principal Software Engineer (IC-4): $276k
Before you apply
- Study up on Oracle’s bread and butter—distributed systems, databases, and the cloud—with our software engineering course.
- Research Oracle’s software offerings, especially if the team you’re interviewing with works on them, to become familiar with their products. Where relevant, emphasize those skills on your resume.
- Interviewing with multiple teams simultaneously to maximize your odds of getting an offer.
Interview process
Though Oracle teams have differing hiring processes, applicants generally describe three interview stages:
- Recruiter phone screen to ensure you meet the minimum requirements for the role
- Technical screens split into two (sometimes three) separate interviews
- A final round interview focused almost entirely on behavioral questions
Being team-dependent, Oracle’s interviewers aren’t held to unified sets of questions. One knock-on effect candidates report is that interviewers often go “off script” to dig deeper into your answers, so be prepared to answer in confident detail. Remember, Larry Ellison said, "Always have a vision. Be passionate. Act confident, even when you're not."
Recruiter
The recruiter who calls you for your phone screen will probably be the same one you schedule further interviews with and hopefully end up negotiating with. Remember their name for later. And more importantly, always maintain your leverage by not disclosing specific details about your compensation expectations or the other interviews you have.
Oracle’s recruiter calls can take up to 45–60 minutes, which is longer than most other big tech recruiter rounds. There may be some light technical questions, but usually not. The focus is on behavioral questions and typical recruiter logistics questions.
Be ready to talk about your previous work history and skills as they relate to the job description and why you’re passionate about cloud infrastructure, databases, and distributed systems (aka “why Oracle”).
When discussing your work history and experience, expect to be asked, “Tell me about a time you failed.” The most common mistake, which can result in a rejection, is not providing metrics or what you learned from the failure.
Oracle wants software engineers who can effectively communicate their work as individual contributors solving moment-to-moment issues and as team members aware of future objectives. As Larry Ellison says, "See things in the present, even if they are in the future."
Sample questions include:
- Walk me through your resume.
- Why Oracle?
- What are you looking for in your next role?
- Do you have any prior experience with Oracle software?
- Tell me about a time you failed.
- Tell me about a time when you made a mistake and how you handled it.
Senior-level candidates: Oracle hiring managers use the analogy that good mid-level engineers can articulate how they scored a goal, but good senior-level engineers can describe how they got an assist (and how they used that assist to improve the whole team's playbook).
Technical interviews
Oracle puts most candidates through multiple technical screens. Hiring managers report a preliminary assessment and an additional technical round, after which candidates get passed to the final round.
Comparing the philosophy of technical rounds, Oracle and Google primarily care about your thought process (the “how”), whereas Meta and Amazon care mainly about your results (the “what”). Though Google’s loop is reportedly more difficult than Oracle’s in all the ways except behavioral, their outlooks are related: since they’re so interested in your thought process, be prepared to discuss the tradeoffs of your proposed decisions.
Preliminary tech screen
During this round, you’ll take a 2-hour timed online skills assessment. Many Oracle teams do this through HackerRank, though others will vary their technical assessments, and some candidates report getting multiple-choice assessments.
Brush up on Oracle’s framework, language, storage, and database offerings before you interview. Many candidates rejected at this stage report not being familiar enough with Oracle products as their rejection reason.
Topics include:
- Coding
- Data structures and algorithms such as Arrays, Substrings, Binary Trees, and Strings
- Performance tuning, specifically with SQL queries
- Databases and cloud technologies, specifically made by the Oracle brand
Sample questions include:
- What types of JOINs can you do in Oracle databases, and what are they best used for?
- Find the area of a square, rectangle, and circle in Java using Method Overloading and advanced array methods.
- What is the $PATH environment variable?
- In Linux, how would you find a string from a collection of files?
- What are the specific properties a binary tree would need to have to be a binary search tree?
- What is the pumping lemma?
- What is Oracle Cloud Autonomous Database?
- What makes a language regular and parseable by regular expressions?
Second tech screen
After the preliminary assessment is another 60-minute technical assessment. Questions in this round are more complex, focusing more on your understanding of Oracle software than on perfectly solving a problem. Questions tend to be open-ended trivia-style questions of in-depth subjects a team deals with daily. These assessments are often scheduled in person, especially for senior roles, regardless of the remote status of the position.
Topics:
- Oracle database and storage products
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and how it relates to microservices deployment
- Architecture and troubleshooting in Oracle Real Applications Clusters (RAC)
- Principal Engineer candidates have reported being asked to discuss their experience with scalability, fault tolerance, and performance optimization in microservices environments, as well as questions around observability, reliability, and security
Study the exact service or product made by the team you’re interviewing with. You will most likely be grilled on this subject during the tech screen.
Sample questions include:
- How would you handle a corrupted Oracle database?
- How does Oracle Cloud Infrastructure handle fault tolerance for physical and logical failures?
- Can you explain the concept of compartments and how they can be customized in the Cloud Console?
- Describe volume management techniques used in RAC, and describe what Split Brain Syndrome is and how to avoid it.
- How would you integrate features of Oracle DB with microservices?
- Describe Oracle server architecture.
- How would you clone a database in Oracle DB?
- What are the types of indices in Oracle DB, and what situations are they applicable to?
- Explain cluster and non-cluster indices in Oracle.
- How and why would you normalize a database?
Don’t be discouraged if your recruiter takes a few weeks to give you the results of these assessments. Oracle tends to move applicants through the funnel at a slower pace than other big tech firms.
Final round
Since Oracle is a large and cross-functional company, your final round interview can be with anyone—from your hiring manager to an SVP of Product.
Surprisingly for big tech interview loops, Oracle's final round contains little or zero technical questions. This round is focused on advanced behavioral and motivational questions. Make sure to give answers that reflect your quantifiable impact.
Sample questions include:
- Walk me through a contribution that you’re especially proud of.
- Tell me about a time you had to give someone feedback. What was it, and what was the result?
- Tell me about a time you had to teach a colleague a complex operation. What was it, and what was the result?
- Recall a time when you weren’t sure how to solve an issue. Walk me through how you resolved it.
- Why Oracle? (Be ready to answer this in more depth than you did during your recruiter screen.)
Additional resources
- Take our course to level up your software engineering skills.
- Get coaching and actionable feedback from software engineers at the level you aspire to land an offer for.
- Practice with mock interviews on the most common types of problems.
FAQs
What can I expect from my interview at Oracle?
Expect interview questions focused on distributed systems, cloud storage, and databases. Each team has its own process, but you can expect 1–2 tech screens in between your recruiter screen and the final round.
On average, how much do Oracle Software Engineers typically make?
The average total compensation across software engineering levels at Oracle are:
- (Entry-level) Software Engineer (IC-1): $156k
- Software Engineer (IC-2): $195k
- Senior Software Engineer (IC-3): $210k
- Principal Software Engineer (IC-4): $276k
How long is the typical Oracle interview process?
Typically, the Oracle interview process lasts 33 to 41 days (with many applicants reporting that it lasted at least two months).
How should I prepare for a software engineering interview at Oracle?
- Research relevant Oracle products beforehand. Especially the ones built or maintained by the team you’ll be interviewing with.
- Study up on database and cloud technology.
Will I have in-person interviews at Oracle?
Even if you’re interviewing for remote roles, you may still be asked to attend in-person interviews in an office. Notably, new hires report that Oracle’s work culture supports remote work once they get hired.
Do I need an Oracle certification to get a job at Oracle?
Some recent hires have reported that getting Oracle certifications helped them get hired, but Oracle doesn’t require this explicitly (and the cost can be restrictive).
What happens if I get rejected for a role at Oracle?
If you get rejected for one role, Oracle is one of the few tech companies that doesn’t have a “cooling off” period for applicants. You can apply for another role right after, and that rejection won’t affect your next application.
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