Notion interview, decoded.
Updated · Sources at the end
Notion's coding interviews look like its own product. The problems candidates report between 2024 and September 2026 are object models more than puzzles: a text document that applies, undoes and redoes operations, list functionality in a technical phone screen, a todo list model, aggregating the columns of a table, a recursive JSON viewer in React. One candidate's advice was to expect no hints. Around them sit a system design round, a values conversation and, for many candidates, a discussion of product sense.
Notion was founded in San Francisco in 2013 and is led by its co-founder and CEO Ivan Zhao. By September 2025 it had about 1,000 employees, more than 100 million users and $500M in annualized revenue. In May 2026 it launched a developer platform that connects its custom AI agents to outside tools, saying customers had built more than a million agents.
Free · 2 minutes · no account
The questions for your exact Notion role and level.
Interviewing at Notion? 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 Notion hires
On 25 September 2026 Notion had 129 open roles, 17 of them in engineering, plus 9 early-career roles for intern and new-grad engineers. Sales is the largest group. Most engineering roles are in San Francisco, with a few in Hyderabad, Dublin and New York; the company also hires in Tokyo, Paris, London and Seoul. Notion calls itself an in-person company: everyone works from the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
What is the Notion interview process?
Notion does not publish its interview process, so the stages below come from candidate reports. Glassdoor averages about 27 days across 221 reports and puts engineering manager loops near 90. Ask the recruiter for your exact rounds, because they vary by team.
Your background, the team, and the office days. Candidates report being asked why Notion and what they want next.
A practical problem built around Notion's product. A September 2026 engineer was asked to implement list functionality; a 2024 screen asked for a text document with undo and redo. The section below goes through them.
More object modelling: a todo list model, aggregating a table's columns, finding the top errors in a time window. Frontend candidates report a recursive JSON viewer in React with collapsing nodes.
Reported prompts include a shared calendar service, and an event analytics platform for data engineers.
How you think about the product you would build, reported by candidates as a product vision round. Solutions roles are asked how they would use Notion's AI agents in a customer's workflow.
Ownership and working with customers, against the four values on Notion's careers page.
Notion coding interview: the problems candidates report and how to solve them
Reported problems and how to solve themThese come from LeetCode Discuss (June 2024), Glassdoor (September 2026) and PracHub's list of Notion questions (July 2025 to June 2026). They are object models shaped like Notion's product more than algorithm puzzles, so what matters is a clean class design, operations that compose, and code that runs.
- A text document with apply, undo and redo: Reported as a phone screen in June 2024: operations append text to the end or delete n characters from the end, then undo the latest and redo. Represent each operation as an object that can apply itself and produce its inverse, keep one stack for undo and one for redo, and clear the redo stack when a new operation arrives. For the delete, store the characters you removed so undo can put them back.
- Implement list functionality: Asked in a technical phone screen in September 2026, with no more detail in the report. In Notion a list is a block that holds child blocks, so prepare to add, remove, move and nest items, and to say how you would keep order stable when items move.
- Design a todo list object model: Items with state, due dates and ordering inside lists. Decide what belongs on the item and what on the list, and keep the operations small enough to test one at a time.
- Implement table aggregation: Rows with typed columns, then aggregates per column: count, sum, average, grouped by another column. This is Notion's database view in miniature. Handle empty cells and mixed types explicitly.
- Find the top errors in a time window: Count errors by type over a sliding window of timestamps. Keep a queue of events in the window and a count per type, evict from the front as time moves, and use a heap when you need the top k.
- A recursive JSON viewer in React, with collapse: A component that renders a value and calls itself for each child of an object or array, with collapsed state per node. Key nodes by their path so state survives re-renders, and handle deep nesting and empty containers.
- Implement a DAG task graph: Reported for data engineers in April 2026. Store tasks and dependencies, detect cycles, and produce a run order with a topological sort; be ready to run independent tasks in parallel.
One candidate's advice from the undo and redo screen: don't expect any hints during the interview. Get a working version first, then extend it.
The rest of the loop depends on your role. Pick it, or paste the posting, and Calibrd predicts the rounds and questions you are likely to get at Notion.
Predict my Notion questions →What Notion screens for
Notion publishes four values on its careers page, and its job ads add one line about craft: building things that last.
- Customer in every room
- Own the outcome
- Why not today
- Direct and kind
- Craft, building things that last
Notion interview questions
Candidate-reported themesThe coding problems recur and have their own section below. The behavioural questions follow Notion's values and what candidates report being asked.
Behavioural & motivation
- Why Notion, and what do you want to do next?Listening for: Specificity · Connection · Research
- Tell me about something you owned end to end because nobody else was going to.Listening for: Why it was yours · What you did end to end · The outcome
- Describe a time you shipped something today that others wanted to leave for next quarter.Listening for: The case for now · How you made it safe · What happened
- Tell me about a time you gave hard feedback directly and kindly.Listening for: The feedback itself · Direct and kind delivery · What changed
- How do you use AI in your own work?Listening for: A specific workflow · Where you check it · What it changed
Technical
- Implement list functionality like a Notion list block: add, remove, move and nest items. How would you model it?Object modelling: Documents, lists, todos and tables as classes with clear operationsListening for: Clear class design · Stable order on moves · Edge cases
- Implement a text document that supports appending text, deleting n characters from the end, undo and redo.Undo and redo: Operations you can apply, reverse and replayListening for: Operations as objects · Two stacks, redo cleared · Undo of a delete
- Implement table aggregation: rows with typed columns, then count, sum and average per column, grouped by another column.Data aggregation: Grouping and summing the columns of a table, top-k over a time windowListening for: Typed rows and columns · Grouping done right · Empty and mixed values
- Design a shared calendar service.System design: A shared calendar service; an event analytics platform for data rolesListening for: Requirements first · Data model · Conflicts and sync
- Build a recursive JSON viewer in React where each node can collapse. How would you structure it?React: A recursive JSON viewer with collapsing nodes for frontend rolesListening for: Recursive component · Collapse state per node · Deep and empty values
These are the reported themes, and your loop is role-specific. Paste the actual posting and Calibrd predicts the questions for that exact role and level. How the questions are predicted →
Predict my Notion questions →Pay
Levels.fyi figures for Notion software engineers in the US, from a snapshot dated August 2025 and read on 25 September 2026: a median package of $242K, rising from $196K at L1 to $910K at L5, with stock making up much of the difference at senior levels. Notion posts base ranges on its ads, for example $150K to $200K for a software engineer on product infrastructure in San Francisco or New York, and $135K to $155K for new graduates. Calibrd benchmarks the pay on any posting you scan against its level and location.
How to prepare for a Notion interview
- Write an undo and redo system from scratch once: operations as objects, two stacks, inverses stored at apply time.
- Practise modelling a small piece of Notion in classes: a list with nested items, a todo list, a table you can aggregate.
- Prepare one system design close to the product, such as a shared calendar or a collaborative document service.
- Use Notion properly before the loop, including its AI agents. Candidates in non-technical roles report a strong emphasis on AI fluency.
- Plan for three office days a week: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
This guide covers Notion's software, data and early-career engineering loops. Sales and solutions roles run a different process that includes a demo. 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 Datadog, Linear or Canva? 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 Notion mock: spoken answers, coached on the spot. Your first mock is free.
Run a Notion mock →FAQ & sources
What is Notion's interview process?
Glassdoor averages about 27 days across 221 reports and puts engineering manager loops near 90. The stages, in order: Recruiter call; Technical phone screen; Onsite coding; System design; Product discussion; Values and leadership.
What does Notion look for in candidates?
Notion publishes four values on its careers page, and its job ads add one line about craft: building things that last. Customer in every room; Own the outcome; Why not today; Direct and kind.
What questions does Notion ask in interviews?
The coding problems recur and have their own section below. Technical themes: Object modelling; Undo and redo; Data aggregation; System design; React.
What coding questions does Notion ask?
These come from LeetCode Discuss (June 2024), Glassdoor (September 2026) and PracHub's list of Notion questions (July 2025 to June 2026). They are object models shaped like Notion's product more than algorithm puzzles, so what matters is a clean class design, operations that compose, and code that runs. Covered on this page: A text document with apply, undo and redo; Implement list functionality; Design a todo list object model; Implement table aggregation; Find the top errors in a time window; A recursive JSON viewer in React, with collapse; Implement a DAG task graph.
How do I prepare for a Notion interview?
Write an undo and redo system from scratch once: operations as objects, two stacks, inverses stored at apply time. Practise modelling a small piece of Notion in classes: a list with nested items, a todo list, a table you can aggregate.
- 01LeetCode Discuss, Notion tech screena text document class that applies operations (append, delete n characters from the end), undoes and redoes them, and 'don't expect any hints'; June 2024
- 02Glassdoor, Notion Labs interview questions (archived September 2026)221 interviews, an average of 27 days and about 90 for engineering managers, a September 2026 phone screen on implementing list functionality, and a solutions architect asked how they would use Notion Agents
- 03PracHub, Notion interview questionsundo and redo text editor (August 2025), a recursive React JSON viewer (July 2025), table aggregation (February 2026), a todo list object model, top errors in a time window and a shared calendar service (June 2026), and a DAG task graph for data engineers (April 2026); an aggregator, so treat the round names in its guide as reported, not published
- 04Notion job board (Ashby)129 open roles on 25 September 2026, 17 in engineering, with posted base ranges
- 05Notion careersthe four values and the three office days: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
- 06Levels.fyi, Notion software engineer (archived August 2025)the $242K US median and the L1 to L4 figures
- 07CNBC, Notion crosses $500 million in annual revenuefounded in 2013, about 1,000 employees and over 100 million users; 18 September 2025
- 08TechCrunch, Notion turns its workspace into a hub for AI agentsthe developer platform and more than a million agents built by customers; 13 May 2026
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 Notion role
Practise your Notion interview, out loud.
Paste a real Notion 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