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PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES (USA) INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING

PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES (USA) INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING. Mat Phillips mp2509@ic.ac.uk. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING. PALANTIR: The Company. Data a nalysis software Government, banking, healthcare ~1000 employees Informal ‘start-up’ culture. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING.

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PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES (USA) INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING

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  1. PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES (USA)INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Mat Phillips mp2509@ic.ac.uk

  2. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING PALANTIR: The Company • Data analysis software • Government, banking, healthcare • ~1000 employees • Informal ‘start-up’ culture

  3. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING PALANTIR: The Product • Human-driven • Very general-purpose

  4. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING PALANTIR: My Team Doug, Team Lead • Infrastructure Quality Engineering • Maintain and improve server-side architecture+ projects that don’t fit elsewhere • ~12 full-time employees, ~8 interns Phil, Project Lead Spencer, Mentor

  5. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Work Overview Three Software Engineering projects: • Automation framework • Audit logging • Server game (for recruitment) Privacy & Civil Liberties Team Software Simulation Engineering Team Infrastructure Branch Quality Engineering Team Recruiting

  6. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Existing Server Game • “Server Debug Challenge” http://serverdebug.palantir.com/ • Combined previous intern projects • Given a server: why does this happen; how do you fix it? [candidate@vm ~]$ time java GenerateRandomNumbers1 > /dev/nullreal 0m33.925s user 0m21.879s sys 0m11.246s [candidate@vm ~]$ time java GenerateRandomNumbers2 > /dev/nullreal 0m3.559s user 0m2.394s sys 0m1.086s [candidate@vm ~]$

  7. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Existing Game: Issues • Linux knowledge is a prerequisite • Doesn’t really test generalsystemizing skills • Doesn’t test programming ability nor creative problem solving • Server diagnosis is an infrequent part of the job for most IQEs • More suited to IT / site reliability engineer hiring

  8. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING New Game: Omni Converter • Mock web application • HTML5 + JS client • REST API • Java source code included

  9. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING New Game: Omni Converter • The task: figure out what is wrong with the system and make improvements • Problems are hidden throughout • Front end UI • Back end API • Source code • “Choose your own adventure”-style game

  10. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Implementation • Java • Embedded database + web server • REST API • Amazon EC2 for VM deployment

  11. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING New Game: Improvements • DC focuses too much on Linux knowledge • No specialized knowledge required at all • DC doesn’t really test general systemizing skills • Open ended nature gives the best opportunity to show off skills • Server diagnosis is an infrequent part of the job for most QEs • Omni Converter more realistically represents QE work • Includes some very subtle bugs • Provides opportunity to test real-world programming ability

  12. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Lessons Learnt • Automate judiciously • Peer review is very important • The ‘correct’ solution isn’t always the right solution • Document then code • Fail quickly • Technology rarely exists in isolation

  13. INFRASTRUCTURE QUALITY ENGINEERING Insight Gained • The workplace is far more pragmatic than university • Results drive everything • It’s easier than it might seem to get a job in Silicon Valley • If you’re a third year student, definitely consider placements abroad

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