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

1. What tech roles pay in Poland (PLN)

Pay is in złoty and, for senior engineers, often invoiced B2B rather than salaried. A senior software engineer:

• B2B contracting (most senior devs): roughly PLN 22,000 to PLN 30,000 a month (about PLN 260,000–360,000 a year), invoiced rather than salaried.
• Employment contract (UoP): a lower headline, but with full benefits and protection.

Most senior Polish engineers go B2B because it nets 15–25% more than a regular employment contract, in exchange for handling your own taxes and giving up protection. Warsaw pays roughly 25–30% above Kraków, though Kraków costs less to live in.

2. Job security and notice periods in Poland

It depends on your contract. A regular employment contract (UoP) comes with EU-style protection; a B2B contract gives you none, since you're a contractor. That's the trade most seniors make for higher net pay.

On an employment contract, notice rises with tenure up to three months. On a B2B contract, notice is whatever you negotiated, often much shorter.

• Employment-contract notice can reach three months for longer-tenured staff.
• B2B notice is set by the contract and usually shorter.
• Check which contract type you're on, since it changes both your notice and your protection.

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 Poland

A strong work ethic with improving work-life balance. Many teams work to the rhythms of their US or Western-European clients, and the style is direct and pragmatic.

Moderate, and higher among B2B contractors, who move between projects more freely than salaried staff.

4. What's different about interviewing in Poland

Interviews are practical and technically solid, often shaped by the foreign clients the team works with. Expect real coding and system design.

• Strong technical rounds, frequently aligned to a US or Western-European client's bar.
• Take-home or live coding plus system design at the senior level.
• English is used heavily because so much work is for clients abroad.

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

• Nearshore & foreign offices: dev centres for US and Western-European companies, plus Google, Microsoft and others in Warsaw and Kraków.
• Polish tech: Allegro, CD Projekt, and a large software-house sector.
• Startups: a growing local startup base.

6. AI and the 2026 market in Poland

Poland's AI strength is its talent: a deep bench of strong mathematicians and engineers that nearshore and foreign firms tap for ML and AI work. It's less about home-grown AI labs and more about being where a lot of the world's AI engineering actually gets built.

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

7. Language and the international scene in Poland

English is used heavily in Polish tech because so much of the work is for clients abroad, so you can work without Polish. Polish helps for daily life and local-only firms.

International in its outlook even though the workforce is largely Polish, teams routinely operate in English for foreign clients. EU citizens work freely; non-EU engineers need a work permit, which employers handle.

8. Working in Poland: visas and right to work

EU and EEA citizens work freely. Non-EU engineers need a work permit and residence permit, usually arranged by the employer; it's a standard, well-trodden process given how much international hiring Poland does.

9. How to prepare for a Poland interview

Poland's tech scene runs on nearshore and outsourcing work, so loops in Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw are heavily English and often blend Polish and English in the same round. Communication is direct and punctual, and interviewers lean toward friendly code-review style live coding over whiteboard puzzles. The big local difference is contract framing: many experienced engineers work B2B as sole proprietors invoicing monthly rather than on a standard employment contract, so recruiters expect you to state a specific net or gross rate and know which model you want. Come with a concrete salary number.

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

• Allegro: Three stages. First a timed DevSkiller take-home with multiple-choice questions on the JVM plus open coding, code review and test-writing tasks, sent as a three-day link. Then technical talks in two parts: a discussion of language internals, threading, HTTP and JVM mechanics, followed by a distributed system design conversation on scalability, monitoring and security. Last an hour with HR and a team leader using STAR-style behavioural questions.
• DocPlanner (ZnanyLekarz): One recruiter guides you through the whole process. It starts with an HR call, then a technical interview with a team manager where you solve a practical problem rather than trivia. A hands-on stage puts you in a production-like codebase and asks how you would improve it, and a trial day mirrors the actual day-to-day work. Candidates describe being treated as peers throughout.
• CD Projekt Red: Games roles start with a CV review, then a test assignment matched to the discipline, such as gameplay or engine programming. If the role needs a specific language you get questions in it during that step, followed by interviews with the team. Timelines run long, with programmer loops often stretching several weeks or more.

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 Poland:

• Do you want to work on a B2B contract or a standard employment contract, and what net rate are you targeting?
• Walk us through this piece of code and tell us what you would change in review.
• Explain how the JVM handles threading and memory, with examples from your own work.
• Design a scalable distributed system for this business case, covering monitoring and security.
• Here is a production-like service. What would you do first to improve it?

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 PLN, 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

• Software Engineer Salary in Poland 2026 — Warsaw vs Kraków bands and B2B rates.
• Levels.fyi, Senior Software Engineer, Poland — total-compensation data.
• Allegro tech and data recruitment process — official stage-by-stage engineering loop.
• DocPlanner ZnanyLekarz developer interview writeup — the trial day and hands-on stages.
• 2026 guide to IT recruitment in Poland — the B2B vs employment split and city hubs.
• CD Projekt Red recruitment overview — the CV, test assignment and interviews.

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.