Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Milan, Italy
Process
HR contacted me after seeing my LinkedIn profile.
- Brief interview with the recruiter. He was a nice and helpful guy. (Passed)
- Offline coding challenge (Passed)
- Live coding session (Passed?)
There were 2 questions in almost 1 hour.
Face-to-face interview with the Engineering Manager and a Senior Dev. They asked me to explain in detail a project I recently did, pretending I had to onboard a new colleague.
The second part was a live coding session where I had to find an algorithm to solve a specific problem (this took around 30 minutes). The question was related to a chessboard game.
Honestly, I had only 30-35 minutes to do that. I honestly could not understand what the question was asking at first, as the interviewer only showed a block of text and asked me to read it. After asking him to scroll up and down, I finally understood the question. I struggled to come up with a suitable algorithm in the first 20 minutes until I set the pieces together. In the end, I came up with a solution that works best. A binary tree algorithm was ideal, and I shared my thought process on how it could be solved. I know it works perfectly, but there was no time. They stopped me, saying, "We don't have time and we should stop it here." (I honestly have no idea how they expect one to solve such a difficult problem instantly. I also don't know what they were looking for).
- Behavioral interview. (???)
This was a face-to-face interview with two Engineering Managers. They asked me about my background and leadership experience. "Which of our leadership principles best describes you?" "Who do you admire (it could be a public figure)?" "Which project are you proud of that you did in the past?"
After some chat, I felt a little uncomfortable with all the repeated questions and the number of questions.
The entire process was smooth and well handled by the recruiter. I appreciate the recruiter's work.
Questions
-
Which of our leadership principles describes you?
-
Who do you admire?
-
Have you ever delayed a task? If so, why?
-
Which project are you proud of that you completed in the past?
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 7 interview experiences for the Klarna Senior Software Engineer role in Milan, Italy.
Success Rate
Klarna's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Milan, Italy is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Klarna's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Milan, Italy.
Klarna Work Experiences
- 1.0Easily the worst company I've worked forSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeStockholm, StockholmMarch 23, 2025Pros: - Everyone is very good, technically and as people, and the peasants like us support each other. - The office is quite nice. - Benefits are not bad.Cons: - All the upper management seems lost. They say things, and then roll back, with no time to develop stuff, and super tight deadlines. - There's a clear discrepancy of "us vs them" and an almost cult-like culture to the CEO. - Since the union and CBA agreements, the company looks like it's driven by an evil mastermind that is plotting against all the employees just like in dystopic movies. - All the things that are done "for the employees" are just a facade for more work. - You can't trust any of the words from upper management because whatever they say, it will almost always be reverted and go back to haunt everyone. - They are slowly making the place impossible to work so people quit since they've been on the AI tour for no reason at all. - The core principles are amazing on paper, but don't translate in reality. - Salary is VERY low. A quick market search will show Klarna pays at least 20% less than everyone else and covers it up in "on calls". - RSUs and stock options are monopoly money.
- 3.0Poor management - micro managed by C LevelsSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeBerlinNovember 28, 2024Pros: Good stack is the only benefit.Cons: Everyone is trying to make anything with AI, even if it is useless, to make the CEO happy.
- 2.0Low salaries and no promotionsSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeBarcelonaApril 30, 2024Pros: It is a good company if you are just starting out (1-2 YoE). Used it as a stepping stone to gain some experience and leave the moment you get the salary that you deserve.Cons: I had a 5-star review initially that I deleted to replace with this one. I believed this company was right for me, and it did seem like it in the beginning. But after one year, I found out that we are just numbers. From time to time, the CEO wakes up in the morning and shuts down projects, putting people in the "Competency pool," or simply laying them off. During this one year, there were three rounds of layoffs. You are always anxious about losing your job, regardless of your level. The final straw was their new promotion process, which essentially offers no salary increases except when you get a level promotion (from regular to senior, or from senior to staff). This means that if you are already a senior, you have to be promoted to L4 (staff), a decision approved by the CTO, which is quite difficult to achieve. On top of that, they decided to unify salaries by location, meaning all L2 engineers in Barcelona should have the same salary. It feels like communism. Additionally, salaries are average at best, so if you are experienced, I would recommend avoiding this company.
