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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Sweden

March 1, 2023
Negative ExperienceGot Offer

Process

The interview process at Klarna was incredibly frustrating. It involved several seemingly random steps that felt more like hoops to jump through than a well-planned hiring process. Here are the steps I went through:

  • An IQ test: This was a mandatory step for all applicants, but it felt like a useless exercise that didn't add any value to the process.
  • A coding test: This step involved solving two katas, either on the front-end or back-end. I spent hours on it and never heard back from Klarna except to tell me that I had passed.
  • A coding interview and architecture challenge: This interview was conducted by a back-end engineer for a front-end position, and the questions were heavily focused on back-end architecture, which felt confusing and unhelpful.
  • A personality interview: The interviewer had a very specific idea of what they wanted as an answer, which made the questions feel blurry and difficult to navigate.
  • Another architecture interview: Once again, the interview was conducted by a back-end developer with a very narrow view of what they were looking for. The questions were mostly focused on back-end topics and felt confusing.
  • Meeting with the team: After all these interviews, you still haven't met your potential team members or know which part of the company you will be working on. This felt like a major oversight in the process.

The recruitment process was equally frustrating. I was given five different salary ranges from when I started to when I kept interviewing, which made me feel like the company didn't have a clear understanding of what they were looking for.

The recruiter I talked to was the worst I've ever encountered. They kept scheduling interviews without telling me what they were about and promised me several different salaries that they later walked back on. They were extremely unprofessional and kept talking about themselves.

The final salary they offered was a joke, and I ended up refusing the job.

As a woman, I felt extremely uncomfortable with the recruiter's comments about how I would be trained to participate in recruitment processes myself and that being a woman was a good asset. It felt like he was using my gender as a selling point, which was inappropriate and unprofessional.

Overall, I would not recommend applying to Klarna based on my experience with the interview and recruitment process. It felt like a farce, and I was left with a poor impression of the company.

Questions

Coding test: You receive a codebase 24 hours before and have to fix the errors in the code.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 29 interview experiences for the Klarna Software Engineer role in Sweden.

Success Rate

31%
Pass Rate

Klarna's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Sweden is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive52%
Neutral14%
Negative34%

Candidates reported having good feelings for Klarna's Software Engineer interview process in Sweden.