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Why do you want to work at Snowflake
Asked at:
Snowflake
glovo
What is this question about
Interviewers are testing whether your motivation is specific, informed, and aligned with Snowflake’s mission and the role. They want to see you’ve done the work to understand what Snowflake builds, who it serves, and how your skills map to meaningful problems here. It also screens for long‑term fit, values alignment, and whether you’ll create outsized impact relative to your level.
Key Insights
- Specificity beats flattery: name 2–3 Snowflake‑relevant problems and connect them to concrete things you’ve done and want to do next.
- Tie your story arc together: link your past experiences to this role’s challenges and to what you aim to learn/impact in 12–24 months.
- Credibility comes from curiosity: include informed open questions or risks you’re still validating instead of over‑selling certainty.
What interviewers probe atlevel
Top Priority
Map a couple of your hands‑on experiences to problems Snowflake teams actually face.
Good examples
🟢In school I optimized SQL queries for a dataset and learned to profile bottlenecks; I’m excited to sharpen those skills on production‑grade query paths.
🟢I built a small ETL with retries and idempotency; that sparked my interest in reliable data movement, which I know is core at Snowflake.
Bad examples
🔴I haven’t really worked on data systems, but I’m a quick learner and can do anything needed.
🔴I just want a place to code more in Python; the domain doesn’t matter much to me.
Generic ‘I can learn’ vs. targeted, relevant experiences that translate to Snowflake’s work.
Show you did real homework and, ideally, touched the product—concrete features beat generic praise.
Good examples
🟢I spun up the free trial and built a small pipeline with Snowpark for Python, using zero‑copy cloning to test safely. The developer experience and governance features make me excited to build core data workflows.
🟢Time Travel and data sharing clicked for me in a side project where I needed reproducible analytics. I want to learn how those are implemented and contribute to features that keep that simplicity at scale.
Bad examples
🔴I’ve heard Snowflake is a top data company and seems cool for starting my career. I like big data and learning new things.
🔴I want to work on AI, and Snowflake is doing AI, so it feels like a great place to be part of that trend.
Vague enthusiasm vs. specific, firsthand product engagement and accurate feature references tied to the role.
Valuable
Show how you’ll ramp quickly and deliver steady, compounding contributions.
Good examples
🟢First I’d learn the on‑call and dev workflows, fix small bugs to build context, then take on a scoped feature in the team’s area.
🟢I’ll pair with senior engineers, document what I learn, and contribute to tests and docs to accelerate my ramp.
Bad examples
🔴I’ll wait for tasks from my manager and see what comes up.
🔴I plan to rewrite parts of the system early to learn faster.
Passive or risky vs. structured, low‑risk ramp with visible value.
Show you know Snowflake serves mission‑critical customers with high expectations.
Good examples
🟢I understand Snowflake powers critical analytics; small regressions can have big customer impact. I care about testing and observability.
🟢I read customer stories about data sharing use cases; that makes me want to build reliable features they can trust.
Bad examples
🔴I don’t really think about customers; I just want to focus on code.
🔴If customers hit issues, Support can handle it—engineering should move on.
Code‑only mindset vs. awareness of customer stakes and responsibilities.
Name the values that resonate and back them with a small proof from your experience.
Good examples
🟢I’m drawn to teams that prioritize correctness and reliability; on a class project I built tests around edge cases and found I enjoy that rigor.
🟢Customer trust matters to me; I volunteered to improve our student project’s data handling and access controls.
Bad examples
🔴The salary and brand are great, and I want a well‑known name on my resume.
🔴I just want to work remote with good work‑life balance.
Self‑oriented perks vs. values linked to behaviors relevant to the role.
Extra
Be honest about what you don’t know and how you’ll learn it.
Good examples
🟢I want to understand the team’s on‑call expectations and how incidents are handled so I can prepare well.
🟢I’m eager to learn Snowflake’s internal dev workflow and testing stack to be effective quickly.
Bad examples
🔴I don’t see any gaps; I can handle anything thrown at me.
🔴I’ll avoid asking questions until I’ve tried everything myself.
Overconfidence or opacity vs. transparent curiosity with a plan.
Question Timeline
See when this question was last asked and where, including any notes left by other candidates.
Late July, 2025
glovo
Mid-level
Mid July, 2025
Snowflake
Mid-level
Mid June, 2025
Snowflake
Junior
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