Software Engineer Interview Experience - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Process
The weirdest interview experience I've ever had.
The first interview was over Skype with two developers. It was mostly about my experience and expectations.
Then came a coding assignment and a following short (30 min) technical discussion of the assignment with two other developers. The technical questions were quite easy. Everything went well and positively, and I received an invitation for the final on-site interview.
It was supposed to consist of three on-site interviews with managers and be focused on a cultural fit.
I had the first interview with the project manager. During the interview, he asked me quite common questions and warned me a few times about the WFH policy and the necessity of business trips. The interview seemed to be positive, but after the interviewer left, the recruiter came in and said that it didn't make sense to continue since the project manager thought that I didn't fit his team, although my technical skills were very good.
I asked about the details and got a very strange answer that was hard to connect with the conversation we had, and it remains absolutely unclear to me how that conclusion was made.
I appreciate directness, and I also interviewed a lot of candidates myself. However, making a decision based on the first impression (and, in my opinion, a wrong impression) of one particular person is not fair.
Stopping an interview when there were two more planned is very impolite, especially at the final stage when the candidate has already invested a lot of time and effort into that interview process.
Questions
What do you know about Adyen?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 20 interview experiences for the Adyen Software Engineer role in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Success Rate
Adyen's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Amsterdam, Netherlands is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having negative feelings for Adyen's Software Engineer interview process in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Adyen Work Experiences
- 4.0A great place to work, but there are signs of it becoming just another greedy, low-morale, poor-culture bankSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeAmsterdam, NetherlandsNovember 13, 2025Pros: Initially, an innovative, fast-paced company driven by incredible people. Generally, a great atmosphere to work in. Offers many opportunities to learn and grow.Cons: In the last year or two, the company started really shifting the focus away from the people, the culture, and the greater impact, to pure financial results and investor satisfaction. The little perks that were available for employees, such as nice breakfast snacks, free soda fridges, and in some cases, simple respect, are vanishing. The high leadership became arrogant. A few times, they publicly implied that the employees are somehow "free riding" and that we should be very grateful to them for the amazing conditions they are giving us. In some teams, we're working severely understaffed, but the expectation is to deliver massive results. This has been emphasized in almost every internal event.
- 2.0Going through changesSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesOctober 20, 2025Pros: Beautiful office. Smart people. Daily lunches.Cons: Management Lack of career growth Dated technologies Compensation
- 1.0Not the place for real engineeringSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeAmsterdam, NetherlandsAugust 27, 2025Pros: Strong business position in the payments industry.Cons: Code quality is chronically poor. The “design pattern of choice” is an ever-growing chain of if/else statements, where adding new functionality usually means bolting on yet another else rather than designing a clean, maintainable solution. Testability is nearly absent. Many components can only be verified manually, or through convoluted setups that make proper automated testing impractical. A culture that resists engineering best practices. Attempts to introduce abstraction, maintainability, or extensibility are routinely dismissed as “too complex.” Outwardly, the company claims to be about empowering people, but internally personal initiatives are often discouraged. Product-driven initiatives dominate, while genuine engineering-driven initiatives simply do not exist. Engineers are seen as executors rather than partners, with little influence or visibility into the actual banking and payments domain they are supposed to be building for. The company’s “values” are little more than a façade. Outwardly they speak of being candid and humble, empowering people, and putting ego aside. In reality, candid feedback is discouraged, empowerment stops at Product, and ego is very much alive — just not on the engineering side. The mantra “Winning takes care of itself” translates into “we’re winning, therefore we must be right,” and “We make good decisions quickly” really means “decisions are always assumed to be good — as long as they come from the top.”
