Palantir Dress Code: What People Actually Wear
Palantir has no formal dress code. Employees report that jeans, a t-shirt or hoodie, and sneakers are normal on a working day.
There are two exceptions. The first is a customer site, especially a government office or a bank. The second is your interview.
Here is the short version for each situation.
| Situation | What people wear |
|---|---|
| Normal office day | Jeans, t-shirt or hoodie, sneakers |
| Video interview | Plain collared shirt, plain top or simple sweater |
| Onsite interview | Dark jeans or chinos with a collared shirt or blouse |
| Customer site visit | Business casual, sometimes a suit at a government office |
| Conference or public demo | Business casual |
The Office Is Casual
Palantir is a software company and dresses like one. Candidates who visit an office report t-shirts, hoodies, jeans and company swag.
Nobody is tracking what you wear at a desk. The work is judged, not the clothes.
The headquarters is in Denver, Colorado, and the company runs offices in several other cities. Employees report the same casual standard across them. A New York or Seattle office is not more formal than the rest.
Customer Sites Are Different
Forward deployed engineers and deployment strategists spend real time inside customer buildings. A forward deployed engineer is an engineer who works on site with the customer.
Those customers include defense agencies, hospitals and large manufacturers. Their own dress standard applies while you are there.
Candidates report that people going to a government or financial customer dress business casual. That means trousers or a skirt, a collared shirt or blouse, and closed shoes. A few meetings call for a suit.
Your manager will tell you which kind of day it is. You do not have to guess.
What to Wear to the Interview
The office is casual, but an interview is not a normal office day. Dress one level above the office and you will never be wrong.
For a video round, wear a plain collared shirt, a plain blouse or a simple sweater. Only your top half is visible, so keep the pattern quiet and the colour solid. Loud stripes and tight patterns flicker on camera.
For an onsite round, dark jeans or chinos with a collared shirt work well. A blazer is optional and never a mistake. Closed shoes, clean and plain.
You do not need a suit for a software role. Candidates report that a full suit reads as slightly out of step at Palantir, though it costs you nothing.
What to Skip
- Shorts, flip flops and gym clothes.
- Anything with a slogan, a logo of another tech company, or a political message.
- Strong scent. Interview rooms are small.
- A brand new outfit you have not sat down in. Comfort matters over four hours of rounds.
Does It Affect the Decision?
No. Palantir decides on the technical rounds and the customer-facing rounds, not on clothing.
Clothing only matters when it distracts. Turning up in gym clothes to a customer-facing role interview raises a fair question about client sites. Anything neat removes the question and lets the interviewer focus on your answers.
Spend ten minutes on the outfit and the rest of the week on the actual rounds.
How to Prepare
- Sort the clothes the night before. Lay out one neat outfit so the morning has one less decision.
- Test your camera. Sit where you will sit, check the light on your face, and check what is behind you.
- Know which rounds you have. Read what the Palantir interview process looks like round by round so nothing in the loop is a surprise.
- Prepare the motivation answer. Every loop asks why you want to work at Palantir, and a vague answer costs more than any shirt.
- Practise the coding rounds. Grokking the Coding Interview covers the patterns that come up most often.
- Prepare the design round. Read what to expect in the Palantir system design interview, then work through Grokking the System Design Interview.
- Have your stories ready. Top Palantir behavioral interview questions lists what gets asked and how to structure each answer.
GET YOUR FREE
Coding Questions Catalog
$99
$197
$72
