IKEA software engineer candidates report behavioral conversations with managers, an offline take-home assignment, and a follow-up technical discussion centered on design decisions and trade-offs.
$90K
Avg. Base Comp
$107K
Avg. Total Comp
3-5 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Candidates describing IKEA software engineer interviews put as much weight on values and culture fit as on coding. One candidate said the first hiring manager call was entirely behavioral. Another described a character assessment and a logic test before any technical work. Prepare a considered answer for why you want to work at IKEA, and examples of how you handle people, tasks and workload.
The take-home assignment is the centerpiece in all three reports. One candidate built a warehouse application for product management and found it more involved than expected. Another spent several days on an assignment and called it a real problem rather than a toy exercise. A third, who interviewed for a senior role, had a couple of days to push work to GitHub and found that window very hard. Plan your time and document your reasoning in the repo.
The technical discussion is where reports differ. Two candidates were asked to explain their approach, decisions, trade-offs and edge cases. The third described vague, exploratory questions that felt like a stress test of general technical understanding. The senior-role candidate also reported conceptual questions on Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, multi-cloud, latency and concurrency.
Outcomes in these three reports were mixed: one offer and two rejections. The offer report described the process as about two weeks, while another candidate called it lengthy. Practice defending your design choices aloud rather than only memorizing algorithms.
Synthesized from 3 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Ikea Group process.
I started with a behavioral interview with the hiring manager, which felt like the gate to everything else. They were curious about my soft skills and how I approach people, tasks, and workload — the usual culture-fit questions. After that passed, they sent over a logic test and a character assessment to complete, which added another layer of evaluation before things got technical.
Once I cleared those, I got an assignment to work on. It wasn't a quick coding challenge; it took me several days to complete properly. The assignment felt like a real problem rather than a toy exercise, which was actually helpful because it gave me something concrete to discuss later.
The final round was a technical interview with a developer and a manager together. They dug into my assignment — asking me to explain my approach, the decisions I made, and how I'd handle edge cases. Beyond that, they asked broader technical questions not directly tied to the work I'd submitted. It was a solid technical conversation, though the process as a whole was definitely lengthy. I didn't receive an offer at the end, but I got a clear sense of what they were looking for and where I fell short.
Prep tip from this candidate
Go deep on your assignment submission — be ready to defend every technical choice and explain trade-offs. The final round will probe both your code and your reasoning, so focus less on memorizing algorithms and more on being able to articulate your design decisions under scrutiny.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Ikea Group
How would you approach limited testing time before a major app release?
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| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Over-Budget Projects | |
| Retailer Data Warehouse | |
| Total Spent on Products | |
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| Average Order Value | |
| Normalize Grades | |
| Cumulative Sales Since Last Restocking | |
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| Monthly Product Sales | |
| Black Friday Shopping Spree | |
| Max Quantity | |
| Total Transactions | |
| Common Prefix | |
| ATM Robbery | |
| Seller Type Modeling | |
| String Palindromes | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Sales Leaderboard | |
| Find Mismatched Words | |
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report the process opening with a hiring manager conversation. One described it as entirely behavioral, centered on IKEA's values and culture fit. Another was asked about core technical competencies and why they wanted to work at IKEA. Prepare specific examples about collaboration and workload.
One candidate reported a 45-minute call with an engineering manager covering skills, interests and more behavioral questions, with no technical content. Another described a lighter second-stage screening about general experience. Expect further culture-focused discussion, though the exact sequence may vary.
One candidate reported being sent a logic test and a character assessment after the first behavioral interview and before the technical assignment. Other candidates did not mention these, so they may not apply to every role or team. Ask your recruiter whether they are part of your process.
Candidates report an offline assignment, such as a warehouse application for product management or a repository pushed to GitHub. Reports describe it as more involved than expected, taking a couple of days to several days. Write clear code and notes on your decisions, since they typically become the basis for later discussion.
Candidates report discussions with developers and managers on their approach, trade-offs and edge cases. One described vague, general technical questions instead of a code walkthrough. A senior-role candidate reported Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, latency and concurrency questions. One candidate also had a brief senior manager interview with mostly behavioral questions.
