Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Spotify with 3.1 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 46% positive. To compare, the company-average is 47.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 29 days to get hired, when considering 72 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Spotify overall takes an average of 39 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Spotify as a Software Engineer according to 72 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 34%
One on one interview: 21%
Skills test: 13%
Presentation: 10%
Group panel interview: 9%
Other: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 2%
Background check: 2%
Drug test: 2%
Personality test: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Spotify (Stockholm, Stockholm) in Jun 2019
Interview
I got an email from one of the Spotify head hunter. They invited me a phone interview. In phone interview they asked me some questions about soft skills and what kind of tech stack that I used. After that they sent an technical interview request. I interviewed two spotify engineer in a video call. At first you introduce yourself and what are you doing in your current job? Then you need to explain one of the project that you worked recently. They asked both product and technical questions about that project. Then they asked some data structure and a bit Java specific questions. At the end of the call they give you a problem and you are writing code in a shared IDE where they can make comment or ask some more question about your solution.
I passed that step too and they invited me to Stockholm for side by side interview. There were 4 sessions as;
1) Coding interview similar what I did in previous step .
2) Culture interview they asked mostly case studies and expect what kind of a soft skills you have to solve these issues.
3) Simulate a production environment case, where you try to debug the issue to get some help from site reliability engineer
4) System design interview; where they give you task that basically design a system(a web application from scratch) to understand how do you select the proper tech stack. How to measure system requirements etc.
So at the end I couldn't get an offer but it was nice experience for me. In each steps engineers and HR are really helpful.
One of the most disrespectful interview processes I've ever been a part of. First stage was a call with a recruiter, which went fine although there was more than a whiff of wannabe silicon valley waffle from his end.
I progressed and was booked in for a 2nd stage with an engineer. However on the day of the interview it was cancelled as I was told there were scheduling conflicts. Ok fine, it happens. The interview was rearranged for the following week - when the same thing happened again! Interview cancelled on the day due to scheduling conflicts. Booked in again for the following week (third time lucky?) and this time it wasn't cancelled on the day. BUT I joined the call and no-one showed up! After 10-15 minutes I emailed the recruiter who told me the interviewer was off sick but apparently hadn't told anyone?
Finally at the fourth attempt I had my interview with an engineer. It was 75 minutes and consisted of a discussion about a recent project as well as some technical questions and a leetcode task (2 largest elements). It seemed to go ok and I was told I would hear back soon. However after 2 weeks I hadn't heard anything so I decided to email the recruiter asking for an update. That was almost a month ago and as of yet I've still heard nothing back. I'm fine with not passing an interview but I expect at least a cursory "thanks but no thanks" but apparently even that is asking too much.
This whole experience has left me almost glad I wasn't progressed - if this is an insight into life at Spotify I'm happy to not work there. This kind of behaviour shows a complete lack of respect for candidates and their time, so I dread to think how they treat their employees.
I applied online. I interviewed at Spotify (New York, NY) in May 2026
Interview
Spoke with a recruiter, was ghosted after the interview. He asked all the standard questions - why Spotify, expected level, salary expectation, what are the priorities, why left previous company, etc.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What was the most complicated project you were working on in your previous company?
Initial HR Call and screening, then arround two weeks later leet code task, followed by on-site architectural/design test and the final culture fit check with HR/Managers. Overall the process was 3-4 weeks.