Bending Spoons interview, decoded.

Bending Spoons publishes its process in a five-page guide for candidates, now called The Bending Spoons Selection Process, and its FAQ says the whole thing takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months and happens entirely online. The shape is a CV screen, a set of tasks (the company's word for its tests) taking one to six hours in total over several rounds, two or three interviews, a reference check and a committee decision. The company's own caveat is that the exact steps vary by job. The candidate details below come from Glassdoor accounts and are marked as such.

The tests are the real filter. Bending Spoons says it uses them instead of a phone screen because a call rewards people who are good at selling themselves, and that tests are a better first filter. Fortune reported that 60,000 of last year's 800,000 applicants reached the tests. In total the tasks take one to six hours, usually spread over several rounds that go deeper each time. The instructions say exactly what will be scored, which outside tools you may use and whether the task is proctored, and the company's earlier guide says it scores nothing else, so read them twice before you start.

• Problem-solving tests that look unrelated to the job: Treat them as a measure of learning speed, which is what the company says they are. Practise timed logic and numerical reasoning until the format stops being new, then go in fresh: the aim is to understand each problem fast, and a problem you have already memorised does not help.
• The job-skill tests: For engineers, write working code first and polish second. These tests place your current level, and the company says it wants to see whether you can make a real impact within a reasonable time, so show what you can do today, cleanly.
• Behavioural questions in writing: Answer each with one specific example: the situation, what you did, and the result, with a number where you have one. Keep your own part exact, because the company says inflated contributions end an application.
• Proctored tasks: Some tasks are proctored, which means the company may record your screen and your webcam while you work. It says it always tells you beforehand. Set up a quiet room, a working camera and only the tools the instructions allow.
• Reading the instructions: The company says it describes in detail what it will evaluate and evaluates nothing else. Note the criteria before you begin, answer those, and ask your recruiter if anything is unclear; the company invites that.

The tests arrive by email after the CV screen. If you need an accommodation for a disability or neurodivergence, the company offers them at every stage and says asking does not affect your chances.

The process document and the FAQ say plainly what the company looks for, and one point in it decides offers on its own.

• Learning speed: how fast you get to grips with a problem you have not seen, weighed at least as much as current skill
• Candour: the company says no offer goes to anyone it finds inventing accomplishments or inflating their part in them
• Specific examples in every answer, which the company recommends in its own guide
• Ownership, commitment, ambition and the drive to get exceptional results as part of a team, the qualities its behavioural tasks look for
• Appetite for a demanding workplace: asked in its FAQ whether it is one, the company answers "Yes"

No verified candidate account lists Bending Spoons' actual questions, and the tests change by job. What follows is built from what the company says it tests and, for product managers, from the job ad, so what you practise matches what it scores.

Bending Spoons publishes indicative salaries in its own pay document (last updated March 2026) and says it aims to pay at the high end of the market. It sets pay by role and what it calls impactfulness, with no strict upper limit, and two people in the same role at the same level are paid the same. Permanent staff can take their pay in cash, in share options at a discount, or a mix. A sign-on bonus, when there is one, vests monthly over four years after a one-year lock-up. The Levels.fyi sample is small and skews early-career: the median submission is a Milan engineer with one year of experience (26 September 2026). The product manager and software engineer job ads post the same ranges, with the low end for people with little or no relevant experience and the top offer for the exceptionally experienced. Levels.fyi has too few product manager submissions at Bending Spoons to show a figure (6 October 2026). Calibrd benchmarks the offer against your level and location in the report.

1. Plan for weeks to months. The company's FAQ gives a few weeks to a few months, entirely online, so keep other processes going alongside it.
2. Practise timed logic and numerical reasoning before the tests arrive, until the format is familiar. The tests measure how fast you learn, so take them rested and without a deadline hanging over you.
3. Read every test's instructions twice: the tests section above explains why.
4. Put numbers on your CV. The company asks for GPA, graduation grade, GMAT or SAT scores and other figures where you have them.
5. Prepare four or five true stories with your exact part and a result in each. Inflating a contribution is the one mistake the company names as disqualifying.
6. Line up references early: senior colleagues, managers, professors or thesis supervisors who can talk about your work in detail.
7. Expect little feedback if you stop early. The company gives detailed feedback only to candidates in the latter stages, and asks you to wait a year before applying again for a similar job.
8. Decide about Milan early. The company recommends new hires spend at least a few months at the Milan office at the start, even if they will work remotely.
9. For a product role, pick a product you use and write one page on it: how it makes money, what drives its growth, and the first experiment you would run. That is the work the job ad describes.

This guide covers Bending Spoons' software engineer and product manager hiring. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.

Also interviewing at Linear, Elastic or Toptal? Their guides follow the same format, from the first screen to the offer.

• 01Bending Spoons, The Bending Spoons Selection Processthe company's current guide for candidates: numbers on the CV, problem-solving, behavioural and role-specific tasks taking one to six hours in total over several rounds, proctoring with screen and webcam recording, two or three interviews announced in advance, references, the hiring committee, the candidate support manager, and feedback only at the final stages
• 02Bending Spoons, The Bending Spoons Application Processthe company's earlier guide (updated 25 February 2025): the CV screen, tests before any call and why, problem-solving, job-skill and behavioural tests, scripted interviews to limit bias, the embellishment rule, the hiring committee, accommodations, and feedback only at the latter stages
• 03Bending Spoons, jobs FAQa few weeks to a few months, entirely online; the one-year wait before reapplying; feedback only to candidates in the latter stages; the countries you can work remotely from and the visas it sponsors; the answer "Yes" to whether it is a demanding workplace
• 04Bending Spoons, Pay & Benefitsthe published salaries (€63,965 junior, €143,330 or more senior software engineer), pay at the high end of the market, equal pay for equal role and impactfulness, cash or share options, and the sign-on bonus vesting (updated 13 March 2026)
• 05Bending Spoons, On-Site & Remote Workthe recommendation that new hires spend at least a few months at the Milan office early on
• 06Bending Spoons, careersthe offices in Milan and London, Madrid and Warsaw coming soon, and the products the team works on
• 07Fortune, Bending Spoons hired 0.04% of 800,000 applicants286 hires from 800,000 applications, 60,000 reaching the tests, tests of reasoning, judgement and learning speed, fewer than 9% of those interviewed getting an offer, reference checks, the $21 billion valuation and fewer than 1,000 employees (15 July 2026)
• 08Glassdoor, Bending Spoons software engineer interviewssingle candidate accounts: four online tasks and three interviews (problem solving, behavioural, system design), and logic tasks with behavioural essays of about three to four hours
• 09Levels.fyi, Bending Spoons software engineer salaries in Italythe €52K to €73K+ range across 42 submissions and the median submission (26 September 2026)
• 10Bending Spoons, Product manager job adthe product manager's work (investigate, innovate, execute, iterate), prioritising with data, experiments and product metrics, the one selection process for every candidate, and the posted salary ranges (read 6 October 2026)
• 11Bending Spoons, Graduate product manager job adthe graduate product manager role, with the same duties and posted ranges as the product manager ad (read 6 October 2026)
• 12Bending Spoons, Product manager summer intern job adthe product internship from June to September 2027 in Milan, London, Madrid or Warsaw (read 6 October 2026)
• 13Bending Spoons, Software engineer job adthe same posted salary ranges as the product manager ad (read 6 October 2026)
• 14Bending Spoons, Graduate software engineer job adthe graduate software engineer role (read 6 October 2026)
• 15Bending Spoons, Software engineer summer intern job adthe engineering internship from June to September 2027 (read 6 October 2026)
• 16Levels.fyi, Bending Spoons product manager salariestoo few product manager submissions to show a figure (read 6 October 2026)

Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.