Roofline Model Analysis

Problem Overview

A dedicated 'Performance Round' at Anthropic onsite (observed for ML infra and backend infra roles). The round is neither traditional coding nor standard system design — recruiters typically give little advance detail beyond the label 'performance modeling.' Candidates must reason quantitatively about hardware performance using the Roofline Model framework. Specific…

• 5 candidate-reported follow-ups — the exact probes interviewers asked, with the trigger for each
• The rest of the problem statement — full requirements, constraints, and edge cases
• Approach and trade-offs — what passing candidates did, and the mistakes that sink people