Klarna

Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Madrid, Spain

June 1, 2021

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I would definitely NOT recommend starting a process with them.

I was contacted by a recruiter. The process is extremely long, as others have already stated, which does not make sense.

I completed 5/6 rounds of interviews, some of them asking very similar questions to previous ones, so the process could easily be shortened and simplified. These included:

A first contact call with the recruiter about my experience/career
An online assessment to do on your own time
An online IQ test (this done with someone watching you in a call)
A pair programming/skills technical interview
A system design/API design technical interview
A behavioral/cultural fit interview with engineering managers
Another behavioral/cultural fit interview

The engineering people seemed nice, and those interviews were quite fun, spending some time discussing the problems.

Unfortunately, the feeling I got from HR and engineering managers was quite different. They seemed arrogant and extremely pompous about working in the company, as if they were curing cancer with an app.

After two weeks of no response, I was told my application was going to be "held off" for some months. I asked for more feedback about my performance in the process but received no response from them.

Questions

Could you tell me one time you proposed a change based on user feedback?
Design an API service where you get a POST with some user payment data (amount, etc.), and you have to design the system and the request/response structure.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Klarna Senior Software Engineer role in Madrid, Spain.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Klarna's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Madrid, Spain is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive50%

Neutral0%

Negative50%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Klarna's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Madrid, Spain.

Klarna Work Experiences

Former employee for half year

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Break Fast: between 8 and 9, bread cheese and some other regular things for breakfast Fruit: Banana and Orange Good Office in Sweden

Cons: Low salary and not stimulating; Poor management and even worse mentoring; Constant reorgs and layoffs meaning no one is safe, which is a hard hire and easy fire; Inexperienced managers with no clear goals for the teams; Low pay for entry positions; Nonsense leadership principle that you can't see anywhere in the company.

Former employee for half year

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Break Fast: between 8 and 9, bread cheese and some other regular things for breakfast Fruit: Banana and Orange Good Office in Sweden

Cons: Low salary and not stimulating; Poor management and even worse mentoring; Constant reorgs and layoffs meaning no one is safe, which is a hard hire and easy fire; Inexperienced managers with no clear goals for the teams; Low pay for entry positions; Nonsense leadership principle that you can't see anywhere in the company.

Every day at Klarna is the worst one so far

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

December 18, 2024

Pros: 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.

Every day at Klarna is the worst one so far

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

December 18, 2024

Pros: 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.

Overall positive

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Lots of knowledgeable people • Easy to shift teams and domains internally • Lot of space to grow (from a product/tech perspective)

Cons: Over the years, Klarna is less generous in pay, according to market.

Overall positive

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Lots of knowledgeable people • Easy to shift teams and domains internally • Lot of space to grow (from a product/tech perspective)

Cons: Over the years, Klarna is less generous in pay, according to market.

Former employee for half year

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Break Fast: between 8 and 9, bread cheese and some other regular things for breakfast Fruit: Banana and Orange Good Office in Sweden

Cons: Low salary and not stimulating; Poor management and even worse mentoring; Constant reorgs and layoffs meaning no one is safe, which is a hard hire and easy fire; Inexperienced managers with no clear goals for the teams; Low pay for entry positions; Nonsense leadership principle that you can't see anywhere in the company.

1.0
Former employee for half year
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Stockholm, Stockholm
April 29, 2025
Pros: Break Fast: between 8 and 9, bread cheese and some other regular things for breakfast Fruit: Banana and Orange Good Office in Sweden
Cons: Low salary and not stimulating; Poor management and even worse mentoring; Constant reorgs and layoffs meaning no one is safe, which is a hard hire and easy fire; Inexperienced managers with no clear goals for the teams; Low pay for entry positions; Nonsense leadership principle that you can't see anywhere in the company.

Every day at Klarna is the worst one so far

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

December 18, 2024

Pros: 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.

1.0
Every day at Klarna is the worst one so far
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Stockholm, Stockholm
December 18, 2024
Pros: 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.

Overall positive

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Stockholm, Stockholm

Pros: Lots of knowledgeable people • Easy to shift teams and domains internally • Lot of space to grow (from a product/tech perspective)

Cons: Over the years, Klarna is less generous in pay, according to market.

3.0
Overall positive
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Stockholm, Stockholm
August 6, 2024
Pros: Lots of knowledgeable people • Easy to shift teams and domains internally • Lot of space to grow (from a product/tech perspective)
Cons: Over the years, Klarna is less generous in pay, according to market.

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