Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Process
1st - 30min CV/resume walkthrough call with the recruiter. Experiences and expectations.
2nd - Proctored 15 min IQ test (18 exercises).
3rd - Take-home build bottom-up an entire solution using your own stack and writing a concise README.md.
4.1 - 1hr Behavioral interview. What you say, how you react, what you did, and what you would do. .2 - 30min discussing your solution to the 3rd step, implementation details. 30min to implement a method (aka code test). 5.1 - 1hr Organizational interview. Your professional goals, reactions to daily challenges. .2 - 1hr system design interview. Extend the current scenario, explain your choices, and give them names. .3 - 1hr data structure interview. Object implementation, methods.
6.1 - 30min chat with a relocation manager. .2 - 30min chat with the team members you would be working with. .3 - 15min wrap-up chat with the same recruiter of step 1.
The whole process took less than 1 month, which is outrageously unbelievable.
I've seen many complaining about the IQ test. This is the 3rd (as far as I remember...) I made in 19 years of professional experience, and won't be the last. If you don't want to play with the current rules, you need to change the game.
It's easy to say everything is awesome when you get approved, but to be fairly honest, I felt myself always respected in a very friendly and professional way. Every employee I talked to was very polite and tried to give me their own view of the company. No doubts, this process was the best I've ever participated in - in almost 20 years!
I will just leave a little piece of advice here: you can be extremely smart and solve complex stuff with one-liners, build entire systems by yourself, but if you don't have soft skills, you won't get approved. Smile, be friendly, be respectful, be curious, and make your company research before starting the process. This is the minimum standard we should have as human beings.
Questions
Why Sweden?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Klarna Senior Software Engineer role in Buenos Aires, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Success Rate
Klarna's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Buenos Aires, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Klarna's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Buenos Aires, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Klarna Work Experiences
- 1.0Every day at Klarna is the worst one so farSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeStockholm, StockholmDecember 18, 2024Pros: Not many other companies provide the ability to work at this scale. Depending on what you end up working on, your work has the potential to affect millions of people and drive serious revenue. It's a recognizable brand that will look good on your resume. Many people that have had a successful career at Klarna have gone on to leadership positions in other companies afterwards, and building a network while you are here can lead to good opportunities in the future.Cons: Upper management actively despise their employees and do their best to force attrition and burnout by removing perks, enforcing unpopular policies, and applying more and more pressure. There is absolutely no investment into the employees, such as via training, mentoring, or even providing basic resources needed for the job. The result is a cutthroat environment where people compete, rather than collaborate, in fear of losing their jobs. It was not always like this, but it has gotten worse and worse over the years. Because of the immense pressure from above, middle management is rife with politics, and getting anything done requires navigating a sea of toxicity. You would do best to try to stay out of it as much as possible. This is not necessarily a reflection of the individuals, but of the environment they find themselves in and the pressure that is put on them. Where previously teams had a lot of autonomy in driving the direction of the product they work on, there is now much more micromanagement, and the only way to not find yourself on your way out is to be a yes-man. There is an extreme focus on standardization in tech, which has real benefits, but a drawback is that the average engineer will rarely get to do any actual engineering. If you are happy building products by integrating components, then you will likely enjoy this, but if you want to gain a deeper understanding of how technology works, you may find this frustrating.
- 5.0Great workplaceSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeBerlinFebruary 7, 2024Pros: Good work-life balance and open to new technologies.Cons: Salaries on the lower end for a large tech company.
- 4.0In general it's a good company to work there, but with some pointsSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeBerlinMay 11, 2024Pros: • Really nice people to work with • Interesting domain problem space • Technical stack and experienced engineers • Huge impact on real products all over the world • Well known name, which could help jump higher or boost salary joining another companyCons: * Higher management doesn't hear their employees, and there are always some decisions coming from top to bottom without expecting them that mostly make the work culture worse. * Some benefits are cutting off, such as travelling to the headquarters and good office perks. * Reduction of the non-engineering workforce in a not transparent way. * Processes are changing very fast.
