Databricks Data Engineer Interview: Answering the Project Failure Question
The ownership framework that transforms a deflective answer into a $200k+ offer-winning response with quantified impact
Databricks Data Engineer interview: ‘Describe a project failure.’ Most fumble it by blaming others. Here’s the ownership answer:
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❌ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 (𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻)
“We had a pipeline that failed because the requirements kept changing. The product team didn’t give us clear specs upfront. We had to rebuild it multiple times. Eventually it worked but took longer than planned.”
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:
- Blames external factors (product team, changing requirements)
- No ownership of technical decisions
- No learning or growth shown
- Vague on what actually failed
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✅ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 ($𝟮𝟬𝟬𝗸+ 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿-𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴)
“I designed a real-time streaming pipeline for 1TB/day that cost $15K/month and failed 20% of the time. My mistake: I over-engineered for sub-second latency when the business only needed 15-minute freshness.
