I was being recruit for Senior Software Engineer Role. Over all process consist of Recruiter Chat Online Leetcode Task submission Live coding round Technical discussion + System design round Cultural fit round I went upto the System design round

a call with HR for a whole 45 minutes. Everything was ok until she asked the question "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Seriously?! Are you still asking this? Normal HR stopped asking this question 10 years ago, but apparently N26 conducts interviews using 15-year-old scripts. It is impossible to answer this question with the truth, it provokes lies. They probably expected me to answer that I see myself as at least a director and am ready to weave intrigues, manipulate, and put everything on the altar of this goal. The question shows ignorance of the specifics of IT - a company asking such questions demonstrates a lack of understanding of modern technical culture. By the way, in the story about N26 there was nothing about their career ladders.

The interview process at N26 consists of four stages: An online coding assignment on Codility A coding challenge with two N26 engineers, focused on algorithmic problems A systems design round A behavioral round Feedback usually takes 2–3 days after each stage, but the scheduling is quite disorganized. Instead of letting candidates provide availability, they force you to choose from a limited set of time slots, which can be a week or more out - unlike other companies that schedule interviews ASAP. The Interview Experience The technical questions were surprisingly easy compared to other companies in the same space. Codility: One basic debugging problem and two medium Leetcode-style algorithm problems. Second coding round: Another straightforward Leetcode problem. Systems design: A simple FinOps-related design problem. Behavioral: Standard questions on conflict resolution, mentoring, and working under deadlines. The Major Issues The entire process felt unorganized and incohesive from start to finish. JVM Bias: Despite making it clear multiple times that I don’t work with Java/Kotlin, I was forced to use Java in Codility. Then, in the next round, the interviewers (who were clearly unprepared) gave me another Java problem - this time in a broken coding environment. I solved it anyway (including test coverage), and since they had nothing left to ask, we just wasted the rest of the interview talking. Disjointed Behavioral Round: It was a complete mess. They seem to be mimicking American-style behavioral interviews without actually understanding their purpose. They expect answers to match their internal experience at N26 - deviate even slightly, and they start shaking their heads and taking notes. For example, they asked about my Agile experience, and when my responses didn’t align with their specific Agile implementation, they seemed to take issue with it. Similarly, when I mentioned managing "2 front-end and 1 back-end" developers, they bizarrely concluded that I lacked experience managing backend engineers. The Rejection & Absurd Feedback I was ultimately rejected with feedback that made no sense: “Not from the JVM world” - despite HR explicitly assuring me this wouldn’t be a problem. “Not enough mentoring experience with BEs” - despite having mentored entire teams, SDETs, and interns at past companies. They framed their questions in a way that set up misleading conclusions instead of actually exploring my experience. Final Thoughts Given the chaotic interview process, questionable evaluation criteria, and an underwhelming compensation package, N26 simply isn’t worth the effort.