Nebius interview, decoded.
Updated · Sources at the end
Nebius interviews engineers in several one-hour technical rounds and then asks for one thing most companies skip: a 90-minute Technical Deep Dive into a single project you built. The company says its interviews are built by the engineers you would work with, that you can code in any language, and that AI tools are not allowed at any stage unless it says otherwise. Site reliability engineers also get a hands-on troubleshooting interview on Kubernetes and infrastructure.
Nebius is an AI cloud company based in Amsterdam, listed on Nasdaq as NBIS. It sells GPU capacity and managed AI services from its own data centres, and it signed a five-year GPU capacity deal with Microsoft worth $17.4 billion in September 2025. NVIDIA agreed to invest $2 billion in March 2026, and revenue for the second quarter of 2026 was $582.3 million, up 454% on a year earlier. It is the international business that remained after Yandex N.V. sold its Russian operations in July 2024.
Free · 2 minutes · no account
The questions for your exact Nebius role and level.
Interviewing at Nebius? Below are the questions candidates report. For the ones your exact role and level will get, paste the posting. Your first mock is free.
Who Nebius hires
Nebius hires backend, site reliability, system, machine learning and frontend engineers, most of them for the core AI cloud: GPU clusters, networking, storage, scheduling and inference. This guide follows the software engineer and SRE paths. Many engineers on the core cloud team start in a 12-month Engineering Bootcamp, rotating across up to four teams before choosing one. Remote work depends on the team; the company says working from home one or two days a week is usually fine, and a few teams allow more.
What is the Nebius interview process?
Nebius publishes its engineering interview process on its own careers pages, with a separate guide for each track. The shape is a CV review with an answer within three business days, a 30-minute recruiter call, several technical rounds, and a decision. Each interview is about an hour on Zoom, except the 90-minute Technical Deep Dive near the end. Candidate accounts describe gaps of two to three weeks between rounds, so the whole process can take two months; those details are marked as reported.
Nebius compares your background with the role and says it replies within three business days.
The role, your background and your expectations. No specific preparation is needed; have your CV and the job posting at hand and be ready to talk through your career.
One coding task on algorithms and data structures, plus questions about the languages, operating systems and databases you have worked with. Any language is allowed. Candidates report easy to medium LeetCode-level problems; one reported a 2D pathfinding task.
An algorithm interview and a system design section for backend engineers. SREs get a technical screening on Linux, networking, Kubernetes and DevOps, then a hands-on troubleshooting interview on Kubernetes and infrastructure debugging, then a deeper technical assessment. Senior or specialist candidates may add a systems architecture interview.
One significant project you worked on, in depth: the problem, your own role, the trade-offs and decisions, the hardest technical parts, how it was deployed and run, and the results. Nebius says it wants your individual contribution, not the team's.
Introductions to the teams you may join, then the decision. With an offer, you talk details through with your recruiter and the team lead; some offers are for the Engineering Bootcamp rotation.
The Nebius Technical Deep Dive: how to pick and tell your project
What they ask and how to prepareNear the end of the process, Nebius spends 90 minutes on one significant project you worked on. It asks about what you actually built rather than hypothetical questions, and it wants your own contribution rather than the team's. It is the longest round in the loop and the one you can prepare most for.
- Choosing the project: Pick day-to-day work where you were a key contributor and can explain both the technical and the business side: a launch, an infrastructure or platform change, a migration, a performance or scalability fix, or an ML system. Nebius says a side project is less useful than real work at scale.
- Going deep, not wide: Prepare one project in detail: the problem, your role, the key decisions and the alternatives, the hardest technical parts, how it was deployed and operated, and the results with numbers.
- Your part, exactly: Keep your own contribution separate from the team's in every answer. Nebius says it is most interested in your individual contribution.
- Hindsight: Have an honest answer for what you would do differently today. The company says reflecting on a decision you would change is welcome.
AI tools and outside help are not allowed in any interview or take-home, including phone screens, unless Nebius says otherwise for that step.
What Nebius screens for
Nebius's own interview pages say plainly what its interviewers listen for, and one rule applies to every stage.
- Reasoning out loud: the company says it cares more about your thinking than a perfect answer
- Engineering judgement in the Deep Dive: why you chose one approach, what else you considered, what you would change
- Production experience: running software at scale, since many teams operate large cloud infrastructure
- Algorithms as a signal of structured problem solving, which Nebius explains it tests on purpose
- Your own work: no AI tools or outside help in any interview or take-home unless it is explicitly allowed
Nebius interview questions
Candidate-reported themesCandidates have reported only a few specific Nebius problems, and the company describes what each round covers rather than its questions. What follows is built from both, so what you practise matches what the rounds test.
Behavioural & motivation
- Walk me through the most significant project you have built, and your own part in it.Listening forContext and constraints · Your own contribution · Trade-offs and hindsight
- Tell me about a production incident you debugged. How did you find the cause?Listening forFrom symptom to cause · Real tools · What changed after
- Why Nebius, and why this team?Listening forSpecificity · Connection · Research
Technical
- Practice: find the shortest path from the top-left to the bottom-right of a grid where some cells are blocked, and explain the complexity.Coding in the online editorEasy to medium algorithm problems in any language; one reported task was 2D pathfindingListening forThe right search · Working code · Complexity stated
- Practice: a pod is stuck in CrashLoopBackOff after a deploy. Walk through how you find out why.Kubernetes troubleshootingThe SRE track's hands-on round on Kubernetes and infrastructure debuggingListening forWhere to look first · Likely causes · Fix and prevent
- Practice: a service on a Linux host suddenly cannot reach its database. What do you check, in order?Linux and networkingLinux, networks and console tools in the SRE screeningListening forLayer by layer · Console tools · Isolating the fault
- Practice: design a service that accepts training jobs from many customers and places them on a shared GPU cluster.System design for an AI cloudA system design section for backend engineers; the product is GPU clusters, scheduling, storage and inferenceListening forRequirements first · Placement and failure · Trade-offs
These are the reported themes — your loop is role-specific. Paste the actual posting and Calibrd predicts the questions for that exact role and level.
Predict my Nebius questions →Pay
Levels.fyi figures for software engineers in the Greater Amsterdam area, read on 29 September 2026 from its listing: €102K at G16 to €165K at G18, with a median of €141K in total pay including stock and bonus. Nebius does not publish salaries; its careers page promises top-tier pay and benefits. Calibrd benchmarks an offer against your level and location in the report.
How to prepare for a Nebius interview
- Choose your Deep Dive project early and rehearse it out loud for 90 minutes: problem, your part, decisions, hardest parts, results.
- Practise easy and medium algorithm problems in the language you know best; any language is allowed.
- For SRE roles, practise debugging a broken Kubernetes deployment and a Linux host that cannot reach a service, out loud.
- Think out loud in every round and ask for a hint when stuck; Nebius says its interviewers are there to guide you.
- Do not use AI tools at any stage unless Nebius says so for that step.
- Plan for a long process. Candidates report two to three weeks between rounds, so keep other applications going.
This guide covers Nebius' engineering and research hiring. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.
Also interviewing at CoreWeave, Together AI or Crusoe? Their guides follow the same format, from the first screen to the offer.
Knowing the questions isn’t the same as answering them out loud. Run a Nebius mock: spoken answers, coached on the spot. Your first mock is free.
Run a Nebius mock →FAQ & sources
What is Nebius' interview process?
Nebius publishes its engineering interview process on its own careers pages, with a separate guide for each track. The stages, in order: CV review; Recruiter call; Preliminary interview; Technical rounds; Technical Deep Dive; Team introductions and decision.
What does Nebius look for in candidates?
Nebius's own interview pages say plainly what its interviewers listen for, and one rule applies to every stage. Reasoning out loud; Engineering judgement in the Deep Dive; Production experience; Algorithms as a signal of structured problem solving, which Nebius explains it tests on purpose.
What questions does Nebius ask in interviews?
Candidates have reported only a few specific Nebius problems, and the company describes what each round covers rather than its questions. Technical themes: Coding in the online editor; Kubernetes troubleshooting; Linux and networking; System design for an AI cloud.
What is the Nebius Technical Deep Dive?
Near the end of the process, Nebius spends 90 minutes on one significant project you worked on. It asks about what you actually built rather than hypothetical questions, and it wants your own contribution rather than the team's. Covered on this page: Choosing the project; Going deep, not wide; Your part, exactly; Hindsight.
How do I prepare for a Nebius interview?
Choose your Deep Dive project early and rehearse it out loud for 90 minutes: problem, your part, decisions, hardest parts, results. Practise easy and medium algorithm problems in the language you know best; any language is allowed.
- 01Nebius, Engineering interviews at Nebiusthe four-step process, the 30-minute recruiter call, the SRE track (typically 5 stages, up to 6, Kubernetes troubleshooting), the 12-month Engineering Bootcamp, the 90-minute Technical Deep Dive and what it covers, and the no-AI rule (read 29 September 2026)
- 02Nebius, Interviews for backend engineersreply within three business days, one-hour interviews, the preliminary interview's coding task in an online editor, any language allowed, preparation advice and why algorithms are tested (read 29 September 2026)
- 03Nebius, SRE interviewsthree technical interviews of 60 to 90 minutes from different teams plus a final hour, and the skills assessed: Linux and networks, console tools, service operations, testable code, system design, algorithms (read 29 September 2026)
- 04Nebius, Careersremote work of one to two days a week in most teams, and the Early Talent Program (read 29 September 2026)
- 05Taro, Nebius senior software engineer interview, Amsterdama candidate's account (February 2025): three coding sessions over eight to nine weeks, two to three weeks between rounds, easy to light-medium LeetCode problems
- 06Taro, Nebius software engineer interview, United Statesa candidate's account (July 2025): a 2D pathfinding problem typed live by the interviewer
- 07Nebius Group, second quarter 2026 results (SEC Form 6-K)revenue of $582.3 million, up 454% on the second quarter of 2025 (August 2026)
- 08Yahoo Finance, Nebius signs $17.4 billion AI infrastructure deal with Microsoftthe five-year GPU capacity deal from the Vineland, New Jersey data centre (September 2025)
- 09Bloomberg, Nvidia to invest $2 billion in AI data center specialist Nebiusthe $2 billion NVIDIA investment (11 March 2026)
- 10Wikipedia, Nebius GroupAmsterdam headquarters, the July 2024 sale of Yandex N.V.'s Russian assets, the Nasdaq listing as NBIS (read 29 September 2026)
- 11Levels.fyi, Nebius software engineer salaries, Greater Amsterdam Area€102K at G16 to €165K at G18, median €141K (read 29 September 2026 from the listing)
Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.
Prep for a real Nebius role
Practise your Nebius interview, out loud.
Paste a real Nebius posting and Calibrd predicts the questions for that role and level, benchmarks the pay, and flags the gaps an interviewer will probe in your CV — then listens to your spoken answers and coaches them. Your first mock is free.
Free to start · No card · Encrypted at rest, never used to train AI, remove anytime