Tech interviews in Italy: pay, notice periods, and what's different

1. What tech roles pay in Italy (€)

Pay is in euros and on the lower side for Western Europe. A senior software engineer:

• Italian companies: roughly €40,000 to €70,000, with Milan at the top of that range.
• Multinationals and US offices: €70,000 to €120,000 for specialised or remote-leaning roles.

The base numbers are modest, but the impatriati tax regime (a 50% income-tax exemption for five years for qualifying new arrivals) plus Italy's lower costs change the real picture. Compare net pay, not gross.

2. Job security and notice periods in Italy

Strong and protective. Nearly all workers are covered by sector collective agreements (CCNL), and dismissal is governed by them, a stable, formal, well-protected market.

Notice is set by your CCNL and seniority. As a rough guide, it's around one month under five years of service and two months beyond, with longer terms for executives.

• Check your CCNL, it sets your exact notice by level and tenure.
• Senior and executive roles carry longer notice.
• Italy also accrues severance (TFR), paid out when you leave.

If you're looking while still employed, this matters even more. See how to interview while you're still employed.

3. Working culture and turnover in Italy

More relaxed in pace than the north, relationship-driven, with a later daily schedule and a strong life-outside-work culture. Local firms can be traditional and hierarchical.

Lower. Protective contracts and a more traditional employment culture mean longer tenures, especially outside the international firms.

4. What's different about interviewing in Italy

Interviews at international firms run the standard global loop; many Italian firms weight practical experience and fit, with a more formal feel.

• International firms and US offices run standard coding and system-design rounds.
• Local firms lean on practical experience and a more formal process.
• International firms work in English; many Italian firms expect Italian.

5. Who's hiring in Italy, and what they pay

• Italian tech: Bending Spoons (Milan, known for acquiring and scaling apps) and a growing startup scene.
• Multinational offices: Amazon, Google and others with Milan engineering teams.
• Enterprise & finance: banks and large firms building digital teams, mostly in Milan.

6. AI and the 2026 market in Italy

Italy's AI scene is smaller but growing, centred on Milan and Turin and the strong engineering schools (Politecnico). It's more an applied and startup market than a research hub, with multinationals adding ML roles in Milan.

For the shifts hitting every market this year, see what changed in tech interviews in 2026.

7. Language and the international scene in Italy

Italian matters more here than in the Nordics or the Netherlands. International firms and US offices run in English, but many Italian companies expect working Italian, and daily life is much easier with it.

Less English-default than northern Europe. The international scene is real but Italian-leaning, and the impatriati tax break is aimed squarely at pulling skilled people in.

8. Working in Italy: visas and right to work

EU and EEA citizens work freely. Non-EU engineers need a work permit (issued under annual quotas) or an EU Blue Card, and most are compatible with the impatriati tax regime, a major draw for people relocating to Italy.

9. How to prepare for a Italy interview

Milan is the centre of gravity for Italian tech, from fintech and scale-ups to the local offices of Amazon and Google, and most loops there now run in English while smaller or client-facing firms still expect Italian. Rapport matters and early rounds can feel warm and conversational before the technical bar rises. Offers are quoted as RAL, the gross annual salary, and often paid across 13 or 14 monthly instalments, so ask about the CCNL contract level, net monthly pay, and probation. State a salary range early, since Italian recruiters expect it and negotiate on RAL.

How the loop actually runs shifts by employer. A few of Italy's best-known names:

• Bending Spoons: One of the most demanding loops in Italy and run entirely online. It starts with a resume screening, then invited candidates complete problem-solving tests built to measure how fast you make sense of unfamiliar problems. A software-engineer onsite loop is typically five rounds mixing technical, problem-solving, and behavioural interviews. The full process averages around a month and can stretch longer.
• Satispay: A roughly four-week process starting with an HR call, then a live online coding round with a medium LeetCode-style problem followed by a code-optimization phase. Strong candidates are flown to the Milan office for a three-hour onsite covering about one hour more live coding and two hours of behavioural questions on past experience and how you handled specific situations.
• ION Group: The loop opens with a timed online assessment on a platform like HackerRank, around 90 minutes of coding questions plus multiple-choice on computer science fundamentals. That is followed by about two technical interviews covering resume-based questions, object-oriented programming concepts such as polymorphism and is-a versus has-a relationships, and problem-solving puzzles.

These loops describe engineering hiring. Management and leadership candidates (Engineering Manager, Director, VP) meet a similar local process but a different bar, so pair this page with the leadership interview prep hub and your role guide.

Questions worth preparing for an interview in Italy:

• What total RAL are you targeting, and are you comfortable with our CCNL contract level and probation period?
• Solve this medium LeetCode-style problem live, then walk me through how you would optimize it further.
• Explain runtime polymorphism and the difference between an is-a and a has-a relationship with an example.
• Are you already based in Italy or would you need relocation, and are you open to working onsite in Milan?
• Tell me about a time you had to make sense of an unfamiliar problem quickly and what you did.

The role itself doesn't change at the border. A senior engineer is held to a senior engineer's bar wherever you are, so the substance of your prep comes from the role-by-role guides and the 2026 Tech Interview Report: the questions, the level, and the common mistakes for your exact role. This page is the local layer on top: pay in €, the right timeline, and a process that shifts with the company. It's also worth reading why strong candidates get rejected, since those mistakes travel everywhere. And wherever you interview, the prep that actually transfers is rehearsing out loud — run a mock interview before the real one.

Sources

• Levels.fyi, Senior Software Engineer, Milan — total-compensation data.
• Notice periods in Italy — CCNL-based notice by level and tenure.
• Italy's impatriati tax regime — the 50% income-tax exemption for new arrivals.
• Bending Spoons careers FAQ — official resume screening, tests, then interviews.
• Glassdoor, Bending Spoons interview questions — five-round onsite, problem-solving tests, roughly month-long process.
• Glassdoor, Satispay Software Engineer interview — HR call, live coding, Milan onsite with behavioural.
• Glassdoor, ION Group Software Engineer interview — HackerRank online assessment plus technical rounds.

Pay, notice, protection and visa details are sourced above. The notes on working culture, turnover and market trends reflect widely-reported conditions as of 2026, and are meant as a general read rather than precise figures.