Palo Alto Networks Senior Staff Engineer Mock Interview
Master 30 Senior Staff Engineer interview questions covering distributed systems, security architecture, and technical leadership at Palo Alto Networks.
Question 6 of 30
If you are assigned several different projects with competing requirements, schedules, and resource needs, how would you prioritize them?
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William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
Most software development organizations are asked to do more with less. This means having several projects on the table simultaneously, all of which compete with each other. As a senior staff engineer, you will be asked to prioritize which projects should receive your team's attention, time, and resources. The interviewer at Palo Alto Networks is less concerned about which projects you would prioritize over others than about the criteria you use and the methodology for accomplishing this. It is okay to provide them with an example to illustrate your answer. The interviewer may also expect you to ask several clarifying questions if they provide you with a list of projects to prioritize.
William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
"The general criteria I use to prioritize the tasks my team is assigned to complete is based on how well accomplishing each task will meet the organization's business objectives. These criteria involve the time, effort, and cost involved to complete each task and its impact on the organization. If I don't already have this information, I ask the business leaders and other project stakeholders questions that provide the answers and help me prioritize. Other criteria include the importance and urgency of each task, with an emphasis on the importance. For example, fixing a bug in the accounting software code could be very important if it prohibits the accounting team from closing the books for the quarter and reporting the company's financials to the SEC on time."
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